Douala International Airport

IMPACT OF THE EXTENSION: INTEGRATION WITH THE SITE

The MAAC project is clearly positioned around the concept of dialogue and extension between the existing building and the built volumes generated for the extension.

A balanced building:

The extensions on either side of the existing building for Baggage Check-in and Reclaim, the two domestic satellites recovered from the existing one as well as the central jetty in the axis give new stength and hierarchy to the project. The clarity of the proposed organization chart contrasts with the initial airport layout which had deteriorated over time. Without being a simple continuity of the existing Architecture, the project does not want to mark a major break except to breathe new life into the complex, to project it towards a better connected future.

The team's choice fell towards an Architecture linked to elegant, serena, minimal but expressive volumetry. The originality of the project is based on the geometric  composition of simple volumetric elements which are grafted onto an existing one with marked architecture to become a complex and attractive composition

A respected building:

With the aim of gently impacting the existing architecture, certain elements which make the signature of the building, such as recurring elements projecting from the framework of the building, are included in the extension project of the main body; from the Terminal to the Check-in and Baggage reclaim area.

The new jetty takes on a more modern character through a monolith prism clad in a hull composed of light-tone panels that flip up at the end of the jetty to free up the views on the runways and Aircraft. The hitech minimalism of this object combines and dialogues with the marked functionalist architecture of the existing building