Aimé Césaire International Airport

BP279, Le Lamentin 97285, Martinique
Client
SAMAC
Program
Restructuration and Extension of the International Airport Aimé Césaire
Surfaces
17.082 m2
Mission
Competition
Schedule
COMPETITION: 07/2017
Lead Architect
MAAC
Associated Architect
_
Interior Designer
MAAC
Project manager
INGEROP
Photographers
_
Year
2017
State

The project for the competition for the restructuration and extension of the Martinique Aimé Cesaire International Airport is clearly positioned around the concept of dialogue between the existing building and the built volumes generated for the extension. 

  • 2 key choices were defined for the design of the project:
  • The extension of the dynamic movement of the building : the project seems to emerge from the existing roof and extend the characteristic curve of the existing terminal. This dynamic geometry is the brand image of the Airport  and should be preserved, even enhanced as a step towards the future Aimé Césaire Airport.
  • The contrast between the proposed architectures: it quickly became clear that the extension project could not be a simple continuation of the existing Architecture, but that this Architecture should breathe new life into the complex.

The team's choice fell towards an Architecture linked to an elegant, serene, minimal but expressive volumetry. The originality of the project is based on the geometric composition of simple volumetric elements which by  successive addition becomes a complex and attractive composition.

The architectural choice chosen is therefore not linked to a dialogue of opposition but to a composition in continuity or how to bring into existence two architectures in the same movement on the airport site. 

The architectural envelope of the project is perfectly linked to the adaptation of a facade:

  • To the specific programme that each built volume contains;
  • To the sophiscated geometric composition obtained from these simple volumes;
  • Under programmatic conditions;
  • Under thermal conditions;

For this, the porject presents a modular architecture envelope  defined  to adapt to the chosen structural framework  of  7mx7m and whose typical module will be declined according to the conditions encountered.

Inspired by the sail of the Yole Ronde,the project is anchored in the subconscious of Martinicans. It's a little bit of François, le Robert, le Vauclin, Grande Rivière and Saint Anne that is found in this inspiration.

Aimé Césaire : "If I was young,I would be yoleur"