The dramatic glass façades of Stansted Airport lend a transparency to the envelope of this structure which makes it unique amongst Britain’s airports. The main glass façades comprise lightweight integral aluminium and steel trusses spanning between ground level and roof structure which support the "landscapeformat" large glazing units. This design philosophy provides maximum visibility of the Airport’s operations for the terminal users.
An unusual aspect of our brief was the requirement to accommodate very large three-dimensional differential deflections between the lightweight roof structure and our façades, which necessitated the development of a complex movement joint between each steel/aluminium truss and the roof steelwork, capable of safely handling roof movements under wind load in excess of 100mm without imposing excessive loads on the glazing units.
The success of Stansted Airport has lead to our continued involvement for the Phase II extension works (due for completion in 2002) which provides a significant increase in passenger capacity.