A Floating feather, the latest design of an airport building in ‎China

Ma Yansong, one of China’s most famous architects, has unveiled his company’s vision for a new airport terminal in the northeastern city of Changchun, Jilin Province.

The design, which is intended to resemble a “floating feather” from above, was revealed on Tuesday, after Beijing-based MAD Architects won an international competition to manage the expansion of Longjia International Airport in Changchun.

According to CNN, the building extends over an area of 270,000 square meters, or about 2.9 million square feet. It will connect with the two existing airport terminals, while directly connecting to downtown Changchun via road and subway.

It is expected to accommodate 22 million passengers annually upon completion, although the opening date has not yet been announced.

The proposal was created in cooperation with the China Airport Planning and Design Institute and the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design. It is among a large number of new or expanded airports that are opening across China

Under the supervision of both international and local architects, recently completed projects include the starfish-shaped “Beijing Daxing International Airport”, which was headed by the famous architect Zaha Hadid, and the new “Chengdu Tianfu” International Airport, whose design indicates to a legendary sunbird.

According to the transportation network planning blueprint, released by the Chinese government in early 2021, the country aims to use 400 airports by 2035. This is a big jump from 241 airports in 2020.

Yansong is best known for designing both the Ordos Museum in Inner Mongolia, which was meant to represent the sun rising over the surrounding grasslands, and Fake Hills, the undulating oceanfront apartment complex in Beihai, southern China.

He is considered one of the few Chinese architects to have major projects abroad, including the Absolute Towers in Canada and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.

The latter is scheduled to open in 2025 and will include a landscaped turf deck and 100,000 square feet of exhibition space.

“I think in our modern cities there are a lot of boxes, there are a lot of straight lines,” he said in a 2017 interview. “They often deal with efficiency, function and structure.”

He continued, “There is no nature.. People like to be close to nature and other people.. Therefore, we need to create environments that allow people these emotional connections.”