In spring 1987, Peruvian architect Walter Alva attended a local police call. The police had discovered looting activities at an archaeological site from the 2nd century in Sipán, 35 kilometres from the city of Chiclayo, in the department of Lambayeque in northern Peru. The remains they found, which include the first intact tomb and grave goods of a Moche leader with his entourage, known today as ‘the Lord of Sipán’, were subsequently compared with discoveries such as Tutankhamen’s tomb in Egypt or even the Machu Picchu complex in the south of the country. Later on in the excavations, another 15 burials were discovered, as well as around 2,000 articles made of gold and silver, valued in some estimates at more than $16 million. Today, they are exhibited in the modern Museum of the Royal Tombs of Sipán, which was opened in 2002 under the directive of Alva himself, and attracts 160,000 visitors a year.

Sipán and its treasure, which is one of the jewels of Peruvian and global cultural heritage, transformed Chiclayo’s demographic and socioeconomic reality. Chiclayo, unlike other Peruvian cities, is not of Hispanic but indigenous origin, and was the epicentre of the pre-Hispanic Lambayeque and Moche cultures. With almost 600,000 inhabitants, it is the country’s fourth most populated city, after Lima, Arequipa and Trujillo. Within a distance of under 35 kilometres from the urban centre, there are also other significant archaeological enclaves, like the Valley of the Pyramids in Túcume, which is a World Heritage Site, and museums such as that of Sicán in Ferreñafe or the Brüning Museum in Lambayeque, the oldest in the area, also dedicated to the local pre-Hispanic cultures.

To the range of local tourist attractions we can add the beaches in the region, such as San José, Pimentel and Santa Rosa, although this ‘sun, sea and sand’ tourism is far from having the same impact as the more cultural attractions. Despite this, in recent years, the flow of tourists in the country has reoriented: before the 1990s it was mostly directed towards the centre and the capital, Lima, 770 kilometres away on the roads, and towards the south, with the Machu Picchu complex and the plains of Nazca being the main magnets for domestic and international tourists.

The central and local governments, as well as the private sector, are aware that the potential for tourist development in Lambayeque and its capital, Chiclayo, has great development margins. The modernisation and enlargement of its airport, which is named after aviator and national hero José Quiñónez Gonzales, is an essential step in boosting tourism. The task is in the hands of the manager of the airport, the company Aeropuertos de Perú, AdP (Airports of Peru), which in 2006 was granted the project by the government of Peru, along with another 11 aerodromes.

Chiclayo airport opened in 1956 and, though it has been classed as international since 1994, the first regular operations of this type began on 28th June 2016 with the introduction of two weekly Copa Airlines flights to Tocumen Airport in Panama. In 2015, according to figures from the General Directorate for Civil Aviation (DGAC in Spanish), there were 7,813 operations, 431,840 passengers and 731,120 kilograms of air freight recorded.

AdP aims to increase these figures and boost Chiclayo as the air transport hub for the whole region of northern Peru. The goal is to increase passenger traffic fivefold to 2.1 million by 2031. To this end it has put in place a process of modernisation that comprises overlaying the runway (2,520 metres long and 45 metres wide) and, once feasibility studies are complete, building a new terminal building, as well as remodelling access ways and other improvement works, including a new control tower, firefighting services, hangars, fuel area, freight terminal, etc.

As this is a co-funded award, it is a legal obligation to plan lines of action as well as the necessary investment, and to have the approval of the Peruvian Government before beginning the work. In December 2014, AdP entrusted the consortium set up by Ineco and Peruvian engineering company CESEL –who are also working on overseeing the enlargement work at Jorge Chávez Airport in Lima– with the task of drawing up these pre-investment and feasibility studies.

First stage

The first stage studies revolve around identifying investment alternatives and assessing the technical, economic, social and environmental aspects of the modernisation project. During this stage, both the general conceptual design of the project and the specific conceptual design of the terminal building and other buildings were developed. The aim of these studies is to demarcate the key aspects of the project –what is needed and how it will be financed– to be approved by the concessionaire AdP, as well as the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

The tasks undertaken include an analysis of capacity and demand, studying navigation easements and the general conceptual design, which enables certain basic standards to be defined for the whole project. Thus, regarding airside, we investigated what length of runway would be the most suitable considering type of aircrafts used at the airport, what would be the most effective design for the rapid exit taxiways; how to distribute the parking positions over the apron, how passengers will reach aircraft on foot to reduce turnaround times, etc.

Regarding on the land side, we analysed how to achieve the shortest and most comfortable distances and passenger flows between key points (check-in –security– boarding gates) so as to avoid queues. Modular growth is envisioned that will enable demand to be met. We have researched how to make sure access is fast and well connected to the surrounding area. We also seek to ensure that basic services such as a coffee shop and parking facilities are provided in balance with the other functional requirements.

In addition to drawing up the specific conceptual design for the terminal building, analysing the architectural aspects, placement, shape and size, materials and design of spaces, analysis was also undertaken of the investment necessary and alternatives were compared, and a study was conducted on the environmental impact, permissions management and general coordination of the project.

Second stage

The second stage of studies is feasibility, which goes deeper into the fundamental technical aspects of the first stage, such as positioning and size of the new infrastructure, the technology to be implemented, the timescale of the work and management of finances. Thus, in terms of airside, the geometric design of the runway will be performed, as well as overlaying designs and designs of traffic signing and road marking and guiding lights, of drainage works and of air navigation equipment and systems.

Underground treasures

The studies conducted by Ineco also took into account the physical and socioeconomic environment of the airport, indicated by tourist potential and agroindustrial activity. According to AdP, the airport’s development will aid in boosting both activities, tourism and exportation of agricultural products. Notable among the latter is asparagus, of which Peru is the world’s largest exporter of this fresh vegetable and the second in preserved form; more than half is cultivated on the northern coast. The department (region) of Lambayeque, of which Chiclayo is the capital, is the fifth highest producer of this vegetable in the country. It is exported fresh, preserved or frozen to Europe, the United States and other countries in South America. For this purpose, the concessionaire has announced that the airport will have refrigerated storage units for this kind of air freight. As regards tourism, the city of Chiclayo is located on the ‘Moche Route’ promoted by the Peruvian government, an itinerary which connects several points of cultural and archaeological interest around the axle of Chiclayo-Trujillo. According to the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, more than 923,000 tourists went to Lambayeque in 2015, up 7.4% from the previous year. 77% of foreign visitors came by aircraft, making Chiclayo airport the gateway for international tourism in the region.

The environment, which takes centre stage on this autumn’s cover, increasingly influences our projects and activities in Spain and around the world. With the support of Ineco, Ecuador’s capital Quito has launched initiatives to reduce waste and foster a circular economy of resources; this will without a doubt translate into improved welfare and quality of life for the city’s inhabitants.

Public policy is key in the move towards more sustainable cities. We are honoured with the opinion of María Verónica Arias Cabanilla, Environment secretary for the Municipality of Quito, the highest authority for environmental policy in the Ecuadorian capital. The city’s environmental policy includes the ‘Cero Basura’ programme, based on the integrated management of resources; this is an ambitious project in which Ineco was responsible for the Master Plan for Comprehensive Waste Management and its legal framework. This coincides with Quito’s selection by the UN to host the Habitat III Sustainable Cities Conference in October 2016. In addition to this, as Verónica Arias points out in her interview, Quito is Ecuador’s most sustainable city and one of the 17 finalists for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) award for the world’s most sustainable city.

Optimal management of an environmental resource such as the sky is another area of interest that we will address in these pages. Specifically, we have a report dedicated to ENAIRE’s significant technical efforts and investment to guarantee air safety with the highest levels of efficiency. The high concentration of flights in Europe requires a complex new automated air traffic control system: SACTA (so-called for its initials in Spanish) is a series of systems and equipment which ENAIRE is investing over 16 million euros to renovate. Ineco engineers, who are collaborating in the project, offer us a detailed description of the function of these services and what they bring us.

Public policy is key in the necessary move towards more sustainable cities

Also worth highlighting is Ineco’s more than 20 years of experience in supervising the manufacture of trains. This issue features an in-depth article on rolling stock design validation, supervision and testing, particularly in Spain, Chile, Brazil and Colombia, where we have recently renewed our contract.

Finally, I am proud to present the new modernisation project at Chiclayo airport in Peru, where a new terminal is being designed. This large aeronautical project will complement our existing project at Lima’s Jorge Chávez airport. These are big jobs and big challenges in a globalised world where we want to demonstrate the skills and capabilities of Spanish engineering.

“To create a unique symbol for each place”

Bruce Fairbanks, founder of Fairbanks Arquitectos, has accumulated extensive experience in the design of airport buildings since 1996 when he won the tender for the construction of the Madrid-Barajas control tower.

Presently in the world of airports there is a trend to promote the control tower as a symbol, an image that represents the airport and a reference point for the arrival in, and departure from the city where it is located. This trend has created increased interest in architectural execution in the design of control towers in addition to their functional requirements. It is precisely the individuality of these requirements that significantly affects the type of building, such that throughout history there are various examples of “types” of tower designs, which, once designed, were repeated in various airports: one notable case is the leoh Ming Pei control tower. It was designed between 1962 and 1965 with the objective implementation in 70 airports, although in the end 16 were built. The concept of locating in upper levels strictly that which was necessary was developed, putting the maximum amount of functions in the base building, which was adapted to the specific characteristics of each location. As such, the tower could be prefabricated and repeated with standardised equipment, giving the airport network an image of safety since a controller could work in any location without having to adapt. The tower was designed with 5 standardised heights (18-46 m) in accordance with visibility requirements in each location. The control tower’s cab is pentagonal so there are no parallel façades and so as to avoid reflections. In Spain, in the 1970s, Juan Montero Romero, an aeronautical engineer, built a tower, which was repeated in several cities: Málaga, Alicante, Valencia, etc.

To create a landmark, the architect must find within the functionality the characteristics that distinguish one tower from others

Converting control towers into airport landmarks and reference points for cities is a challenge in the work of an architect: creating a symbol, always unique for each location, which meets all of the requirements for the optimal functioning of the tower. The location, the height of the control room, its form and the layout of its structural elements are some of the first elements to define. Control towers typically have a base building and a shaft that supports the upper floors, which are designed to adapt to the control operations. Given the form, with an upper part and a lower part and the height of the type of building, in my opinion it is essential to incorporate the construction process into the design of the tower, and this is what I have done in those which I have designed. This design comes from an analysis of the functional aspects, the programme and the location. To create a landmark, the architect must find within the functionality the characteristics that can distinguish one tower from others and strengthen them to create a unique tower with its own character in each case.

Analysis of four cases

The following examples of control towers show diferente conceptual approaches to design this building type and the elements that diversify its design.

1962. Dulles airport, Washington DC
Eero Saarinen

The Dulles tower has all of the equipment rooms at a height, elegantly assembled by Saarinen with two juxtaposed bodies. The form of the tower is integrated with that of the terminal building, also designed by the same architect.

1992. JFK airport, Nueva York
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

The upper part of the JFK tower, 97.5 metres in height, contains only the aerodrome control cab and half way up the shaft there is the platform control room, which takes the same form as the upper levels.

1997. Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport
Bruce Fairbanks

The Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas control tower had the specific feature of a 400 m² equipment room located at a height. To resolve the transition between the shaft of the tower and the projection, an inverted half sphere was adopted, with a floor for air conditioning equipment being inserted in the support. The octagonal shape defined for the
cab is extended throughout the top of the building, the structural design of a central column and 8 perimeter columns is repeated on all levels.

Another particular feature of the tower is the construction system designed as an integral part of the design. The shaft is built with prefabricated segments assembled in spirals, which, on the inside, contain the service ducts and circumscribe the emergency stairway. The upper floors were built with a metallic structure on the floor and subsequently hoisted onto the shaft. The system allowed the tower to be built in nine months, without using scaffolding.

2004. Barcelona-El Prat airport
Bruce Fairbanks

The functional requirements were similar to those of Barajas, with the exception that a large part of the equipment is located in the base building. The resistant structure is defined independently from the functional elements of the shaft, which was developed as a representative design element. An eight-pointed hyperbola generated from the octagonal shape of the cab holds the upper floors.

The hyperbola links the tower with Catalan Modernism and Antoni Gaudí, who used this form in many of his designs, including on the domes of the Sagrada Familia. The construction system is a representative part of his design. The assembly of the hyperbola, built with prefabricated concrete girders, was guided by a central aluminium structure designed to contain the elements of the shaft. The upper floors were built on land and hoisted into position, supported by the eight points of the hyperbola, consolidating the whole structure when it was under load.

“In the future, it will not be necessary to view operations”

Roberto Serrano has participated in more than 50 aeronautical projects, amongst them, the NET and SAT control towers of Madrid-Barajas airport and the new control tower of Eldorado airport (Bogotá).

Although the first control towers date back to the 1920s (in 1921, Croydon airport in London was the first in the world to introduce air traffic control), it was from the 1930s that they became commonplace, due to the fact that growing aircraft traffic made controlling and managing it necessary. At that time, in which technology was nothing like the current systems, the need to visually supervise aeronautical operations around the airport was met by placing the control room (cab) in an elevated and predominant position of the airport (control tower).

To date, the first steps in designing a control tower involve establishing its site and the height of the cab. Internationally, to meet the viewing requirements from the cab, the recommendations of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are applied. The optimum height and location of a control tower is the result of weighing up many considerations. The view from the cab requires the air traffic controller to be able to distinguish the aircraft and vehicles that circulate in the manoeuvring area, as well as aircraft that fly over the airport, particularly in take-off and landing paths. The objective is to have the maximum visibility possible and avoid the sun, external light sources and reflections from adjacent buildings affecting the visibility of the controller.

Nowadays, technology allows a practically blind landing

With regard to the location, we must consider the potential effects of local weather: flood areas or areas susceptible to fog. Its compatibility with the potential future development of the airport must also be studied, thereby avoiding the need to relocate the tower before the end of its life cycle. Insofar as possible, the tower and its buildings should be located on the landside of the airport, thus avoiding access through the airfield and facilitating the entry of staff. Furthermore, the location should be such that it does not affect the quality of the signals of the airport’s radio navigation aids (ILS, VOR, DME, etc.), or communication systems. The minimum height required for the control tower can be obtained with the aid of the FAA visibility analysis tool, ATCTVAT (Airport Traffic Control Tower Visibility Analysis Tool), in accordance with the physical conditions of the airport.

Once the position and height has been determined, the infrastructure is designed, and generally includes a cab and an antenna field, which, located on the roof of the cab, normally has communications antennas, radio relays, and other electronic and lightening protection elements. Furthermore, there are areas for staff, equipment, power, air conditioning, etc.

In an era in which technology provides information to pilots to allow a practically blind landing, is it necessary to keep air traffic controllers in a high position so they can see these operations? In the future, air traffic control rooms will probably be in buildings that are more similar to those of offices or air traffic control centres than the current towers.

The future has already become reality

2015. Control tower of Örnsköldsvik airport, Sweden

Recently, Örnsköldsvik airport in Sweden replaced its control tower with high-tech cameras. Signals are sent to controllers stationed in Sunvsal airport, located around 150 kilometres away, from a 25-metre mast with 14 high-definition cameras. The high performance of these cameras eliminates blind spots, provides information in rain, fog or snow and, along with a whole series of weather sensors, microphones and other devices, it allows controllers to feel as if they were beside the runway. The Swedish Transport Agency approved remotely operated towers on 31 October 2014. Six months later, the first airplane landed in Örnsköldsvik airport using the remote tower services.