An account of a successful and exemplary intervention at the "El Embrujo" airport on Providencia Island, which was a real challenge due to its uniqueness, isolation and the risks associated with the climate.
In the early morning hours of 16-17 November 2020, Hurricane Iota, a high-level Category 4 depression with winds in excess of 250 km/h, struck the central Caribbean. One of the places that suffered most from Iota's impact was Providence, a tiny island just 17 km long2The island is located in the Colombian department of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina.
According to the chronicles that were written about the event, "... the small island was virtually wiped off the map98% of the buildings were destroyed or seriously affected, leaving the approximately 5,000 inhabitants of Providencia without a home. Almost miraculously, there was only one fatality and a dozen or so people were injured to varying degrees. However, the landscape of the island, once the hurricane had passed, was one of utter devastation"..
Providencia's main point of entry and exit is its small airport, El Embrujo.The airport was also badly hit by the hurricane. In the hours following the hurricane, the airport's runway, a tarmac surface of only 1,290 metres in length, was cleared. However, the passenger terminal and the control tower were completely destroyed.
Barely 3 months after the tragic event, in January 2021, we received an invitation from the Colombian Civil Aeronautics to apply for the design and reconstruction of the El Embrujo terminal and all its surrounding areas.. In addition, the potential contract included a major expansion of the aircraft parking apron.
In order to carry out the order, our company had to guarantee 3 essential aspects for the Aerocivil:
- Designing the new airport following IATA's usual standards for an optimal level of service to accommodate the island's growing passenger traffic.
- The new infrastructure was to be operational within a year and its design had to take into consideration the remote location of Providencia, taking into account the logistical challenges -The construction and maintenance costs that this entailed.
- Finally, the resulting infrastructure was to be able to withstand the arrival of a new episode of hurricane-force winds.. This circumstance was paramount as, unfortunately, there was no doubt that at some point a "new Iota" would hit the island again.
Once the agreement was closed and from the beginning of the work, it was clear that a new condition had to be added to these initial requirements, which was essential for both the design team and our client: the end result had to be respecting the unique architecture of the island. A very particular way of building and understanding spaces in that place, the result of an extreme climate in terms of rainfall, humidity and exposure to solar radiation.
In order to meet all these conditions, AERTEC added to its own team of experts the experience of in situ from the Cali studio "Espacio Colectivo", a regular collaborator of our company in projects based in Colombia. Together with them, and through decision-making in crucial aspects of design, the final result managed to respond to all of these conditions. Let's see how.
Firstly, once the essential data had been collected, both on the state prior to the hurricane and on the movement of passengers and aircraft, the team calculated and dimensioned all the systems affected by the project: from the vehicle parking area in the land-side development, through all the processes of the passenger terminal to the layout and geometry of the 3 stands on the apron required by the Aerocivil.
Arranged in a simple way, with priority being given to the function of each of them and adapted to certain particular aspects of the island's mode of operation, all processes were arranged in a two-level passenger terminal. In this way, it was possible to link the land side with the air side platform, located approximately 7 metres lower.
This is how the floor plan of the passenger terminal was defined.
Secondly, and by means of various climate models which took into account solar exposure and the direction of the prevailing winds, was devised. a unique geometry which, as well as formalising the external appearance of the terminal, also favoured interior comfort through natural ventilation.
This geometry, furthermore, would be responsible for to help dissipate the effect of possible hurricane winds on the building itself.
For its materialisation, and due to the difficulty of carrying out a "traditional" execution in such a remote location, a system of metal trusses was devised - all of them the same - which could be cut into pieces to facilitate transport by boat to Providencia and subsequent execution in the form of a "Meccano".
On top of this structural system, a vegetation cover whose purpose was twofold:
- On the one hand, to create a heavy element, unalterable to the passage of a new hurricane. This characteristic, together with the particular geometry of the roof, with the presence of a system of skylights that "break" the flatness of the roof, guarantees its good behaviour in this situation.
- On the other hand, the roof of the terminal should have a certain thermal inertia, so that the heat transfer from the outside and the inside of the building would be as much out of phase as possible. A roof with 25 centimetres of vegetation layer is ideal for this.
All this determined the section of the new terminal at El Embrujo.
Thirdly, the design team analysed the most significant elements of the Raizal architecture. Exaggeratedly sloping roofs (to evacuate the rain), lattices and overhangs over the façade openings (to protect from the Caribbean sun) and generous entrance vestibules to the buildings (seeking to acclimatise the interior-exterior transition). And all this with the aim of reinterpret these elements and adapt them to the design of a public building. which should become not only the most important transport terminal on the island, but also a real logistical centre and a refuge in the event of a climatic disaster.
The image of the terminal is defined by this transformation of the root architecture.
Finally, there is, from the very genesis of the project, an intention to minimising as much as possible the "technical" equipment of the terminalThe airport is a key element of the airport's operations, beyond its own processes. In this way the need for equipment maintenance in such a remote area is reduced.
The end result is a modern passenger terminalThe building, open towards the east coast of the island of Providencia, in search of maritime freshness, and integrated into a singular environment, proud of an extreme and unique way of life. A form of relationship between the roots and the airport that led us to design as a priority element of the complex a public space associated with the terminal and a viewpoint from which to contemplate, in addition to the surroundings, the airport's growing operations. The social impact of an intervention of this magnitude is equally decisive.
This defines the philosophy of the whole project.
