The octopus shape and conveyor belts in tubes are still there, but Terminal 1 of Paris Charles-de-Gaulle airport at Roissy has been modernized and enlarged to meet the current requirements of air transport, its managers underlined Saturday, December 3, 2022 during a reopening ceremony.
This one symbolically marks the end of the Covid-19 pandemic for Paris airports
, said the Chairman and CEO of Groupe ADP Augustin de Romanet. This circular building flanked by seven star-shaped satellites had been closed since March 2020, at the start of the health crisis.
Since then, ADP and its subcontractors have worked to transform these facilities to adapt them to customers and airlines, whose requirements are very different from those when the T1 entered service in 1974.
“The passenger experience was greatly degraded”
Every satellite had become too narrow
to accommodate the security and boarding functions, and accordingly the passenger experience was severely degraded
explained Edward Arkwright, number two of ADP, which carried this project since its launching.
The solution consisted in integrating the surfaces of three satellites within a new 36,000 m² building, including 5,600 m² for a boarding lounge, and 6,000 m² for retail space.
Departing travellers, after leaving the central ring with its characteristic rough concrete surfaces, will reach this building through an undulating tunnel under one of the airport’s runways, carried over from one of the old satellites.
They will access a large screening room with state-of-the-art electronic equipment, then via an escalator to the boarding lounge itself.
“We touch it with a trembling hand”
Its decor of leather, brass and marble, overlooked by flamboyant lampposts, is inspired, according to ADP, by the Roaring Twenties described by Ernest Hemingway in Paris is a party
.
This transformation was the subject of dialogues between ADP and the architect of the original building Paul Andreu, before his death in 2018, noted Edward Arkwright, the aim being to maintain its continuity: Terminal 1, we touch it with a trembling hand
he summarized.
A tribute to Andreu’s vision, the glazed façade of the new building, bathed in through light, is decorated with an imposing silkscreen reminder of the opaque silhouette of the original building, just opposite.
ADP has invested 250 million euros in this project which brings the capacity of T1 to 10.2 million passengers per year, against 9 previously. It will host flights from 36 airlines, including Lufthansa, Emirates and United.