Curved façade cladding: design & function, Madrid-Barajas Airport

Façades made of stainless steel mesh combine puristic elegance with functionality on the control towers of Spain's largest aviation hub and one of the largest passenger airports in Europe.

The semitransparent façade cladding functions as robust fall guard protection on the tower's exterior walkways and as effective solar protection. Moreover, the open structure of the Escale 7 x 1 metal mesh ensures that natural daylight can enter the building shell, it guarantees an unobstructed view of the outside surroundings from inside the building and impressively underlines the high architectural standard of the airport.

Architect Richard Rogers had a total of 1,600 square meters of metal fabric installed. The result? A visually seamless, multifunctional mesh façade that lends the control towers a technical appearance – also thanks to the curved stainless steel mesh from GKD.