Lisbon International Airport

Civitas and Fentress Architects were finalists with the finance/development team of Asterion for an international competition for the New Lisbon International Airport across the bay from Lisbon in Alcochete. The government of Portugal called for teams of P3 structure (Public Private Partnership) to finance, design, develop and operate a new international airport to relieve the antiquated Lisbon downtown airport.

The Team developed this scheme to reshape the existing forest and farmlands into a new airport, airport city for business, conference, hotel and entertainment, and major cargo facilities. Lisbon is unique in its location which bridges business and cultural worlds of Europe and North Africa, presenting a common territory for economic and cultural exchange.

The scheme proposed develops a dramatic approach road and rail corridor through a naturalized landscape and stormwater collection system. This pattern creates a sequence of stormwater dams, retention basins and infiltration basins to provide an alternating sequence of irrigated farmland (on-airport) for food production using water harvesting for irrigation, and naturalized cork forests for habitat and cork production.