Green Furniture Concept - Terminal seating goes grand

Modular and curved seating concepts are helping airports to create impressive interior designs.

A lot of airports wish they could go grand in passenger terminal architecture. And giant, organic, prestigious – and costly – buildings are a common feature at many top international airports.

But going grand on the inside is within much closer reach, an opportunity available to all. New terminal seating offer possibilities of creating grand interiors with curving seating formations that connect seamlessly and go grand, in scale with the building.

“This is a way to display the essence of the airport and make a lasting impression on travellers. The curved and seamless seating lines are also ideal for naturally directing the flow of passengers. Actually, they often accommodate many more passengers per square metre of floor area,”

says Johan Berhin, designer and founder of Green Furniture Concept, maker of seamless seating series for passenger terminals and other public indoor landscapes.

Principles of grand architecture

A fundamental principle of architecture is that large shapes harmonise with large buildings. General architectural characteristics are in scale with the building.

This is also true of interiors, and large indoor spaces need large characteristics to create identity and communicate a first impression.

The grand architecture of prestigious terminal buildings is often also reflected on the inside. The architect can either go with conventional straight rows of seats that will go more or less unnoticed or to choose to accentuate the lines of the building by letting the seating echo it and take on its shapes.

Most terminal buildings are not built with grand designer budgets and yet are still large indoor open spaces. At these more ordinary airports, rows of individual seats will also pass unremarked, the small furniture like drops in the ocean of space. Switching to large compositions and shapes in the interior will have a huge impact on the room and “Wow!” impressions can be made relatively inexpensively.

The seamlessly curving seating formations can be made in scale with the room and become part of the architecture, noticed and appreciated by the passengers.

Identity through free shapes

Every airport has its own character, goals and visions. Visions of character development can now start to materialise in the interior. Grand, seamless, seating formations express identity, while the variability of configuration can give a shape for each location.

And then there is the choice of colour, or even mixes of colour, that gives life to the room and connects to the colour scheme of the airport brand. It all adds up to freedom of expression, multiplied.

Natural flow control

Seating arranged in long lines, curving where you want them to, naturally directs foot traffic without making passengers feel herded. Ends of seating rows pointing towards the gate, aisle openings facing the current, flows narrowing slightly near shop entrances. And because the seating formations are modular, the flow can be easily adjusted and redirected when changes are made in the airport.

A grand revolution

Passenger terminal seating is evolving and niched challengers like Green Furniture Concept are bringing innovative options to terminals. Airports are strengthening their identities by creatively and effectively using the size of the buildings and the novel potential of grand seating formations.

As the transformation takes place, airports are becoming more of an experience, more a part of the destination – and places where travellers quite like to be.