Scheme includes extension to connect buildings by Fernard Pouillon and Richard Rogers

Foster & Partners has won the competition to design a new extension for Marseille Airport in southern France.

The airport was originally designed by Fernard Pouillon in the 1960s and was added to by Richard Rogers in 1992.

RSHP was one of the practices that entered the competition to work on its own building, but was beaten by Foster & Partners.

Foster’s new extension will connect the Pouillon and Rogers buildings together into one single building capable of serving up to 12 million passengers a year.

The 22m high and 33m deep glazed hall extension will feature large indoor trees and a panoramic terrace overlooking the airport. It echoes the Pouillon building with an inverted beam roof and a continuous grid of glass skylights, which act like lanterns, Foster & Partners said.

The firm said the new extension would restore “the clarity of layout and expression” of the original design while also adding the ”missing piece” to Rogers’ 1990s extension.

The expansion project at the airport will also see an additional pier and 12 aerobridges added.