A radical turnaround in Brno architecture has arrived in the form of promising young architect Petr Parolek (34). His new departures building at Turany airport opens a new chapter in the history of Czech architecture.
 
Not much happened at this airport until 2004. The airport was built in the 1950s and was also used for military purposes. It was converted to a civil airport in the early 1990s. However, the real boom did not come until 2004, when it changed hands. The new owner was the South Moravian region, which began taking patriotic care of Turany airport. Regular flights to London, Munich and Prague started a year later.
The number of travellers per year soon exceeded 300,000. The capacity of the existing airport building no longer met requirements. Moreover, the Schengen agreement brought fundamental changes to the operations of European airports, requiring a swift response. The Brno airport management decided to build a new departures building and to turn the current building into the arrivals building. The Brno-based engineer and architect Petr Parolek was chosen to be the new terminal’s architect. Parolek has focused on the Brno airport since his student years and designed the present general plan of the airport. This too contributed to the record-breaking speed with which the new departure building project was completed.
 
“ANTIBOX”
All the parties involved tapped on the cornerstone in September 2005. The departure terminal was inaugurated in the presence of the president exactly a year later, on 18 September 2006. The exemplary relationship between the investor, architect and the contractor is unparalleled. The building was designed and constructed exclusively by Brno companies. The awe inspired by the completed work is all the greater because none of those involved had any prior experience with a similar project.
 
The airport management hoped the new building would be unique and easily recognisable for travellers. From the six alternatives presented, they chose the one entitled “antibox”. Parolek describes the terminal’s genesis as an aspiration to reflect the atmosphere of airplanes in a simple shape and he therefore aerodynamically rounded the simple cuboid. The resulting form of the building is reminiscent of the aesthetics of airships, while representing a symbolic gateway to the South Moravian region. Generously glassed-in arches on the facades evoke the themes of arrival and departure. The fascinating night view of the gleaming portal to the interior is magical and visible for hundreds of metres.
Parolek notes the design’s crucial factor – the closeness of the location to the Austerlitz battlefield. The new terminal’s shape completed a symbolic stone monument to Napoleon. The architect actually pushed to have the building called the Brno Napoleon Terminal. He believed such a name could help to increase tourists’ interest in Austerlitz and boost the appeal of Brno’s airport. This proposal has not yet been endorsed and Stansted travellers consequently read only of departures to Brno-Turany on the information displays.
 
UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE
The architecture of the new departure building is groundbreaking. Although similar trends have been seen elsewhere and the organic architecture with high-tech aesthetics is being designed by the British resident of Czech extraction Jan Kaplický, for instance, and other British architects like Peter Cook and Nicholas Grimshaw, the new Brno airport terminal has no peer within the Czech Republic. Its technical daring ranks it alongside the excellent constructions of the Brno Exhibition Centre and pays distant tribute to Liberec’s Ještěd. It is remarkable that the structural analysis of Brno airport was calculated by two recent Civil Engineering graduates – Petr Mazánek and Lukáš Pelánek – both under 30. Steel construction forms a dominant expression element of an interior. Skylights open like the gills of a giant creature, letting glorious daylight into the interior. Time spent inside the new departure building is an unforgettable experience for travellers.
 
LARGE PILLOW
The skylight glazing went through an interesting development between the design and implementation phases. As with the façades, the architect planned a steel structure to support the skylights. However, consultations with the glazing contractor revealed that this structure was not necessary. The Reynaers curtain wall CW 50 aluminium profiles could cope with the whole facade height. Reynaers CS 68 system has been used for the opening parts of the glazing. The window glazing has a very low visible light reflection to protect landing pilots from being dazzled.
Dosting, a Brno-based glazing contractor has shown real mastery in installing the skylight glazing. While the façade glazing construction is relatively straightforward, each of the skylights is different. Each window is of a different length, a different shape, or in a different position. The Reynaers system simplified the glazed structures and consequently reduced the installation time. The architect respected the contractor’s proposals and acknowledged that they had led to a better visual expression than the solution proposed in the study.
The financial aspect of future operation was an important part in the investor’s specification. The Reynaers system met their expectations. The frames have the thermal transmission coefficient Uf ≤ 2.47 W/m2K and the double-glazing units Ug = 1.1 W/m2K.
 
The construction’s façade flows seamlessly into the roof. The scaly character of the sheet metal shell most resembles a crouching reptile. The rounded shape softly reflects light and soothes the eye from a distance. From afar, the new terminal looks like a large pillow resting on a meadow outside Brno. The eye-catching shape attracts not only travellers and holidaymakers but also residents of Brno and the surrounding area, who come “merely” to see this remarkable building. Brno is heading boldly into Europe.