Ottawa Macdonald Cartier International Airport Expansion

Location:   Ottawa, Ontario

Client:        Ottawa Macdonald Cartier International Airport Authority

Size:            700,000 sq.ft./65,000sqm

Airports represent a gateway – simultaneously providing travellers with a welcoming first impression and a departing last memory. As one of Ottawa’s primary travel thresholds, this ethos became a core driving principle; focussing on the passenger experience. The result is echoed in both its functionality and it’s architecture. Passengers can instinctively understand their journey through the airport – from check-in to departure gate and vice-versa.

Design features within the terminal serve to enhance these nodes of travel. Alongside the use of an inviting material palette of copper, limestone and wood, are icons of Ottawa’s heritage, culture, climate and innovation are integral spaces throughout the passenger’s voyage. The result is a passenger experience that becomes an intuitive movement through a series of postcard vignettes of Canada’s capital.