The Mexico City New International Airport: A Case Study in Environmentally Sensitive Geometries

Abstract

Cities, and the buildings that make them, are undergoing an evolution, in some instances unwittingly, in response to increased societal demands but also in relation to a growing awareness and sensitivity to our environment. Currently, the focus of sustainable practices centers around material sourcing, new means of energy generation, and advanced materials to enhance thermal comfort. The inherent role geometry plays in contributing to sustainable practices is often overlooked in today’s general discourse of the subject. The defining geometry or form of an architectural project can have a profound effect upon the amount of energy consumption of a building. This is true not only for the amount of energy consumed in the construction process, known as embodied energy, but also the amount of energy required for its operation. When geometry is considered in this aspect the form of buildings will change driven in response to minimize the consumption of energy. Two attributes of energy efficient geometries are found in weight reduction, or the so-called tonnage of a building, and the reduction of its surface area. Both of these reduce embodied energy while the latter also impacts operational energy. As these attributes are applied in greater measure building forms will shift away from a dominant orthogonal geometry which characterizes our built environment today. The form of the city will take on a much different shape. The Mexico City New International Airport, a joint venture between Foster Partners and Fernando Romero Enterprise, is a project principled upon energy efficient geometries and offers the perfect case study in which to illustrate these principles. The paper will provide an in-depth review of the project focusing on the geometries, their generating ideas and their benefits for the reduction of energy. It can also provide a hint of methods employed and considerations made for the future development of our built environment.