Planning an airport terminal drives extraordinarily large investment decisions. And a new terminal will be the “CPU” of the airport’s hardware for the next 20–30 years. Therefore, a good collaboration between client and design team is central. It’s the “operating system” of a highly complex planning process that will run for several years.
Why Design Team Selection Matters
Some people might think that this is only a „preparation phase“. But choosing the right design team is one of the first challenging moments in a project, because it feels like an arranged marriage. Not only between two people who barely know each other, but between 10–20 key players on each side. Choosing the right design team has a big impact on how successful a project will be. If something goes wrong at this stage, it can take a lot of time, effort, and money to fix later.
That’s why selecting the planners -and deciding the criteria for choosing them- is a strategic task that needs to be handled with great care.
Common Approaches to Design Team Selection
In airport terminal planning, two very different approaches have traditionally been used:
1. Relationship-Based Selection
Senior leadership selects an architect based on reputation or prior relationships, often developing early concepts together.
Drawback:
This approach lacks structure and carries the risk of being overly influenced by a compelling design idea rather than objective criteria.
2. Design Competitions
Multiple architecture teams respond to a detailed brief, often with limited interaction with the client.
Drawback:
These processes frequently assume a level of clarity in project requirements that doesn’t yet exist—and they lack meaningful dialogue between client and designers.
5 Key Factors for Selecting the Right Design Team
From my 30 years of experience in design team selection processes -both as an architect and on the client side- following 5 topics matter most:
- Developing through dialogue: design the selection process in a way that there is dialogue between the designers and the client possible. This needs to be done carefully, in a structured way and giving all competing teams the same chance
- Holistic selection criteria: considering design quality, project and fee cost, organisational capabilities and experience of the design team. It is tempting to use a competition to answer as many project questions as possible and go deep into details. But that often just creates a lot of effort on both sides. More information doesn’t necessarily mean more clarity.
- Balance between selection and level of detail: choosing the right number of competing teams is crucial. 2-3 is minimum. Everything above 5-7 is practically unmanageable. Often a two phased process helps overcome conflicting needs: A larger group of participants in the first phase, followed by preselection and a second phase with the best 2-3 teams.
- Client flexibility at the end of the selection process: Some of the trickiest outcomes I have experienced: Best architect in team A but best baggage handling engineer in team B, or a team with best design results but clearly lacking organisational capabilities. You need a legal framework for the competition, which leaves room for changes and fair conditions for all involved parties. The basis is to financially compensate the competition work of all competing teams.
- Tailored strategy for each project: It is important to understand that each terminal project is unique and needs its own strategy for choosing a design team. Analyse your situation and framework conditions carefully.
Conclusion: A Strategic Decision with Long-Term Impact
Selecting a design team for an airport terminal is not just a procurement step – it is a strategic decision that directly influences project success over decades.
A structured, dialogue-driven, and flexible selection process helps ensure:
- Better collaboration
- Reduced risk
- Stronger project outcomes
Investing time and care at this early stage pays off throughout the entire lifecycle of the airport.
