Keflavik Airport | Margit Moorhouse

Nordic — Office of Architecture has been unanimously proclaimed as winner of the competition for the design of Keflavik Airport in Iceland, having competed against five other highly competent teams.

Keflavik Airport will go through a major expansion, to a capacity of 8 million passengers per year. The airport’s role as a hub between two continents sets standards and requirements to the future development. Increasing traffic, peak demands and future changes needs to be adhered to by a scheme that is open for alternative developments and flexible for unforeseen needs.

Nordic was prequalified for the project along with five other highly acclaimed teams within airport masterplanning, including EC Harris (UK), Ineco (Spain), NACO (Holland), Rambøll (Denmark) and Mott Macdonald and VJI Consulting (UK).

The proposal from Nordic is a very simple, elegant and flexible plan for both master level and terminal design. A robust and flexible framework will ensure a long lasting and meaningful future development of the airport towards 2040. The outline optimizes the use of the existing facilities, runways and building mass.

A key advantage of the proposal is that the development can occur without disturbing the running of the airport, which ensures that the project is in accordance with the goals of Isavia.