Singapore – iGA has chosen an innovative design by AECOM and Pininfarina as the winner of an international design competition for the regional Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower and technical building at the Istanbul New Airport. Unusually, the winning entry marries influences from the aviation and automotive sectors, with strong architectural design. The AECOM and Pininfarina collaboration was chosen from a total of six entries from international architectural teams, including Zaha Hadid, Fuksas, Moshe Safdie, Grimshaw-Nordic and RMJM.

The win marks AECOM’s first collaboration with Pininfarina, the design house renowned for its car designs for Ferrari and Alfa Romeo, among others. The collaboration combines the expertise of AECOM’s architectural and engineering teams with Pininfarina’s distinctive architectural style that epitomises speed and movement, influenced by automotive design.

The ATC will be the landmark for Istanbul New Airport, which is set to be the world’s largest new airport in terms of annual passenger capacity. The competition scope was to deliver the concept designs for the tower, showcasing contemporary sustainable architectural design that reflects the multi-cultural and historical characteristics of Istanbul city.

The AECOM and Pininfarina design evokes the aerodynamic forms used in automotive and aviation design, and includes an elliptical tower that will be visible to all passengers flying in and out of the new airport. The tower shape is inspired by the tulip, which has been the symbol of Istanbul for many centuries and is an important cultural reference in Turkish history.