First glimpse of terminal building at Sydney's new $5 billion airport

The first design images for the terminal building at Sydney's new A$5.3b airport have been released giving travellers a glimpse of what they can expect when it opens in six years. The concept designs for Western Sydney International Airport's terminal by a team from London's Zaha Hadid Architects and Sydney's Cox Architecture have been credited for focusing on the "customer journey while paying tribute to the Western Sydney region and natural landscape". A team from the two architectural firms has been selected from more than 40 entrants as the winners of the design contract for the terminal, construction of which is due to start in 2022. The winning designs feature landscaped gardens within a giant public plaza, which will offer shopping, dining and entertainment. The terminal's interior will also have timber ceilings and vertical gardens. Architects were required to have experience designing an airport of similar size and complexity to Western Sydney Airport within the last five years in order to be considered for the design project. The release of the design images for the terminal comes ahead of the start of major earthworks early next year at the 1780-hectare airport site at Badgerys Creek, about 50 km west of Sydney's CBD. In all, 23m cubic metres of earth will be moved to construct the airport. PM Scott Morrison said the designs for the terminal showed the once-in-a-generation infrastructure project coming to life. "This is set to be the largest gateway to Australia and these designs are another step to making it a reality," he <br/>