A team led by Austrian architect Coop Himmelb(l)au and Perkins & Will subsidiary Dar Al-Handasah has won a competition to design and masterplan the next phase of Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai.

AI will be used to determine the airport’s placement and curvature so as to optimise its environmental and operational performance.

According to the Viennese firm, its concept “pushes the boundaries of airport design language, incorporating cutting-edge structural solutions, energy concepts, and innovative technologies to create a world-class facility that serves the global community”.

In particular, the design aims to create “wide spans and majestic spaces” so as to make the business of checking in and passing through security as painless as possible.

When the final phase of the airport is completed, it will have five parallel runways and be able to accommodate 260 million passengers a year. The first phase of the facility opened in 2010 with one runway that only accepted cargo flights.

Once completed in 2032, the “airport city” will be cover some 70 sq km and be more than five times the size of Dubai International Airport – which is presently ranked the world’s busiest hub for international passenger traffic.