Airports must be designed to enable large numbers of people to move through them as quickly as possible. It's almost like a production line. Architectural, spatial, plastic talents are almost secondary. The threat of terrorism is having obvious effects on planning. The U.K. Department of Transport, for example, wants no new terminals built that do not separate incoming and outgoing passengers.
Security is now ever-present in the minds of airport planners.
At the time, Blow recalled, the issue of security was just beginning to emerge. It was the first time such a design had been constructed to such a stringent requirement, Blow said. Thoughts of security lead, curiously enough, directly to retail. And that is partly related to the changes in security because people have to, in theory, be at airports for a longer time. They have more time to spend money.