THE BRIEF

The project was a refreshing of the food retail offers at the southern end of the terminal, adding a large restaurant at the satellite, a restaurant and new café which both overlook the tarmac, and 7 new tenants within the food hall environment. The areas surrounding these tenancies needed to be re-lifed and new seating choices offered to passengers. 

Airports are about more than boarding and disembarking from planes. They used to be designed for only that purpose, but now passengers expect more from their travel experience. We want to wait comfortably and relax, but we also want to eat, dine, shop, socialise, or work. The challenge that studiospillane were set for this project was to blend the dining precinct and the gate lounges to give passengers more seating types and options, while improving queuing and circulation generally.   

OUR APPROACH

Whilst traditional linear style public transport seating appears more efficient based on numbers of seats, the efficiency of actual used seating is relatively low. People tend to put their belongings on adjacent seats, and since covid many people avoid sitting next to strangers – creating a situation where the perception of available places to sit doesn’t match the reality.  

Studiospillane wanted to create several modes of seating, that responded to the adjacent activities, and zone where people could sit in almost every available location. Our theory was that individual loose seats and giving passengers flexibility would allow more options. We located work benches with power charges next to the windows and extended the food hall and café zone by locating dining tables and chairs nearby. Any loose furniture needed to be “contained” withing fixed banquette seating surrounds, which we used to create queue zones off the concourse to the boarding gates.  

We also aimed to blur the boundaries between tenancies and gates and create a more convivial café environment overall.   

THE RESULTS

The result is a comfortable relaxed lounge type area with comfortable yet hard wearing furniture, adding warmth and character to a particularly busy area of the airport. Changes to the food hall blend seamlessly with what was there before, making it difficult to see where the refurbishment started and the existing was reused.  

By making everything designed to a standardised table height, with loose furniture adjacent larger circulation spaces, the area is inherently designed to be accessible for everyone – people in wheelchairs can sit with their friends and families within the café zones.  

SUSTAINABILITY

We adopted a number of core principles while specifying every item for this project –  

• The joinery is modularised, so that it can be easily repaired, altered, or replicated  

• The materials are robust for durability, reducing the likelihood of fast turnover and replacements. 

• We reduced the area of required refurbishment by re-using existing areas of furniture in the food hall and designing the new zones as as an extension of the existing, by working with existing design aesthetic and the existing the design language and materials.  

• Plants are included to promote biophilia.  

• All loose furniture is Australian designed and made, supporting our local manufacturing industry and reducing shipping. Armchairs are from carbon neutral company Jardan, and timber and metal chairs are from Diddier, both manufactured in Melbourne. Tables are from Australian makers Botton and Gardener, and Stylecraft.  

• The carpet contains an overall 74% recycled content in the product.  

• Timber is sustainably grown and harvested QLD spotted gum.  

• And all tabletops, dining and coffee, are topped with Betta Stone, a Green Start Supplier, which is a great alternative to engineered reconstituted stone. Betta stone is crystalline silica free and is made from 100% post-industrial recycled glass, manufactured in Victoria.