Ambitious new plans unveiled for a futuristic, floating Thames Estuary airport
More proposals for a new London airport continue to surface, with the latest looking like it's emerged from the ocean itself.
This isn’t a peak at what NASA found on Mars, no… it’s one of the latest futuristic ideas for a new airport in the Thames Estuary that could replace Heathrow, says the architectural firm behind it.
‘London Britannia Airport’ as it’s being called would have four floating runways anchored to the seabed, with room for a further two runways when needed, architects Gensler said.
The ambitious proposal for a floating airport follows last year’s pitch by Foster + Partners to build a replacement to Heathow on an artificial island in the Estuary.
Under Gensler’s plans the runways would be floated on giant platforms – enabling them to be moved around for maintenance and expansion – and the check in terminals would be based on land.
Gensler envisions building three terminals: two built north and south of the estuary and a third terminal proposed in the capital between Canary Wharf and the Olympic park.
Passengers would access the airport terminals by a high-speed underground railway that would connect to the capital and other European destinations.
The government recently announced that a final decision on UK airport expansion in the South East will be made in 2015, after the next general election.
