The aviation debate waging in London is whether to expand Heathrow or build a new airport. Gensler offers this rendering of a proposed structure in the middle of the Thames estuary, with four runways anchored to the riverbed and terminals floating in between. The project would cost an estimated £50 billion. And what would happen to Heathrow? Converted into an eco-city for 300,000 residents.
In other news, a sneak peak at Apple's Campus II, and Google Glass walks the runway. See the headlines after the jump.
• New Design For Floating Thames Airport | Londonist
• Leaked Renderings of Apple's Campus II Peer Inside The Spaceship | Architizer
• Google Glass Hits The Runway At Fashion Week | Fast Company
(Image: via Londonist)
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That's an ecological nightmare waiting to happen. Estuaries are fragile ecosystems, and also the hatcheries for many ocean-going fish. Toxic run-off from jet fuel spills, etc. could be devastating.
Aside from the issues LHSIMM mentioned above, I would think the risk of bird strikes would grow significantly locating an airport in or near an estuary.
Ditto the issues identified above.
As well -- here in Canada, we've had several incidents where planes ran off the runway. No deaths resulted. What would happen with such incidents in the case offloading runways? Planes in the water would pose a much higher degree of problems, both to passenger safety, damage to the aircrafts, and more.
Looks like a bad idea to me...
I agree that this airport design doesn't seem like the best option. What about the potential for sea level rise?
damn autocorrect!
offloading was originally typed as "of floating"
I wonder what they mean by "anchored". This is a tidal system and unless you drive pilings or piers down to bedrock, your airport is going to move a bit. Something anchored to the bottom would shift position back and forth with the tides or with storm driven water level changes. Do you really want heavy commercial traffic on runways that could shift to varying degrees away from their expected positions?