UAE's Modon Unveils an Ancient Egypt-Inspired Ras El Hekma Airport
The UAE developer just revealed a first look at its North Coast terminal, unveiling the design as construction nears its final stretch, with Orascom building and Abu Dhabi Airports set to run it.
UAE's Modon Holding pulled the covers off its architectural design for Ras El Hekma International Airport for the first time, and it looks nothing like the glass box most travellers picture. The terminal is an equilateral triangle built around an open-air courtyard, a layout chosen to pull daylight and moving air deep into the building. Stone colonnades lifted from ancient Egyptian architecture wrap the exterior. Triangular openings cut into the roof are there to keep the sun's heat from building up inside. Meanwhile, aircraft aprons sit along all three edges so planes taxi shorter distances to the gate.
The reveal comes as construction moves into its later stages, with the triangular terminal largely finished and most of the steel roof framework already in place. Orascom Construction is handling the build as one of the main contractors on the first phase, a job it took on after signing a framework agreement with the UAE-based holding company. Abu Dhabi Airports, the operator behind Zayed International and several others across the Emirates, has signed a memorandum of understanding to guide the planning, development, operational readiness, and eventual running of the site, which sits on roughly 1,785 feddans handed to Egypt's Ministry of Civil Aviation under the Egypt-UAE development agreement.
Once it opens, the airport is meant to put close to half the world's population within a four-hour flight, tied into a wider network of highways, high-speed rail, a seaport, and a marina still being built around it.
