We hoped to make the airport a place to remember. All world-class cities have had outstanding train stations as the dominant entry point into the city. In many airports, the excitement of arrival is missing, and the city misses a good opportunity to make a good first impression. Although it's important to create a warm, welcoming ambience in every public terminus, lighting today must also contribute to the building's effectiveness in other ways. There's clearly a tension in terminal lighting design between creating an inspiring atmosphere that will excite travelers about visiting a city, encouraging them to take time to stop at airport retail shops, and helping them see their way through unfamiliar surroundings-and all this must be done while saving money on the airport's lighting energy bill.
Airports present a unique lighting design challenge.
Over the past 10 years, this area of facility development has evolved into a specialized niche of design expertise and product solutions. The following are some of the lighting trends that will greatly affect airport facility management and design into the next century. The demand for energy-efficient lighting will surge. Budget constraints demand cost reductions. Not only do they save energy, but also they deliver aesthetic benefits for new and retrofitted terminal buildings that were inconceivable just 10 or 15 years ago.