Western Sydney International Airport

Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport is the first major greenfield airport built in Australia in more than fifty years, rising on the Cumberland Plain at Badgerys Creek in Sydney's outer west. Its four-level passenger terminal, a joint design by Cox Architecture, Zaha Hadid Architects and Woods Bagot built by Multiplex, is sized to handle roughly ten million passengers a year at opening, with a modular structure planned to expand in stages as demand grows toward a projected twenty million. The architecture is deliberately human-scaled and rooted in its landscape: a broad glazed entrance facade draws daylight deep into the halls, an undulating ceiling references the shedding bark of eucalypts, and the low horizontal massing echoes the savannah country around it. Natural materials, passive ventilation, water recycling and energy-efficient systems earned the building a five-star Green Star rating, and consultation with Dharug custodians shaped the design throughout. Unlike Sydney's existing airport it is built to operate around the clock without a curfew, and it is tied to the city by a dedicated metro line and its own station, anchoring the emerging Western Parkland City around it.