Cabinda International Airport

Bold and emblematic architecture, inspired by the local landscape.
  • Description
  • Angola’s socio-economic development has laid bare the meagre existing equipment and infrastructures, many of which obsolete and/or damaged during the years of armed conflict, as was the case of the preexisting Cabinda airport. The airport was equipped with unwholesome prefabricated facilities that did not meet the minimum requirements imposed by the international aeronautical standards in force. Every structure integrating this new project (air terminal, hangars, cargo terminal, fire station and areas dedicated to the ground crew, fuel farms, aprons, runways, taxiways, etc.) had to be redesigned in accordance with international standards, maintaining both original civilian and military capacities.
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  • Of these infrastructures, the airside terminal with four boarding gates is particularly noteworthy for its bold and emblematic architecture inspired by the local landscape. The characteristic design of the wooden façade reinterprets the image of palm groves with misaligned trunks through which light can flow. The original Cabinda airport had a single runway that worked simultaneously as a taxiway, a situation that did not comply with the security and aeronautical ground circulation regulations in force.
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  • The construction of an entirely new runway was proposed for a first phase of the project, converting the existing one into a taxiway and therefore ensuring the minimal airworthiness requirements. Further expansion plans were scheduled for later phases (phases 2, 3 and 4), based on the local data and indexes on the increase of air traffic. Phase 4 was intended to meet the maximum long-term needs of the territory, considering its present development rate. In a project strongly conditioned by technical and operational requirements, A1V2 combined full functionality to unique aesthetics that reference elements of the landscape and local flora.