Kuwait International Airport Terminal 2

Terminal 2 is the centrepiece of Kuwait's roughly $5.8 billion airport modernisation programme and one of the largest single terminal buildings in the Gulf, a 700,000-square-metre structure designed by Foster + Partners on the southern side of Kuwait International Airport. Its plan is a symmetrical trefoil: three wings of equal length fan out from a central check-in hall so that no gate sits far from the middle, a layout meant to keep walking distances short as the building scales to 28 gates. The roof is the defining move, a sequence of shallow concrete vaults that span the concourses without a forest of columns and are punctured by triangular rooflights, so the interior is lit largely from above and the structure itself becomes the finish. Glazing at the wing tips opens the halls to the airfield, while the facade's projecting fins temper the desert sun. Beyond the gates, the terminal carries duty-free and retail arcades, lounges and a 400-bed airside hotel, and is engineered to a high environmental standard with photovoltaics integrated into the roof. Together with the airport's new runway and control tower, the terminal is intended to lift Kuwait's overall capacity into the tens of millions of passengers a year and reposition the country as a regional transfer hub.