Fly Airlink - Freedom of the African Sky

Kruger Park Gateway Airport

Airlink acquired the Phalaborwa airport from Foskor

Phalaborwa, the true gateway to both game and golf, is the central gate to the world's most famous nature reserve, the Kruger National Park. The airport is situated approx 2 km from the Phalaborwa Gate, providing easy access to the northern camps such as Letaba, Olifants, Mopani, Shingwedzi and Punda Maria as well as many famous private game lodges. Admire the Park by open 4x4 vehicle, or take a safari on the Olifants River amongst hippos, crocodiles and other wildlife. A bush walk offers a close encounter with the habitat of the Parks wildlife.

Design of the airport

Profile by the designer, Oliver Wills

I have travelled fairly widely throughout the world and as a result seen many airports. My experience has been that they are always merely people processing plants. They are buildings for the most part geared towards getting people into aeroplanes and out - or from aeroplanes and through, with perhaps allowing them to eat or drink something in passage and ablute! They are not buildings designed to evoke emotion or raise the human spirit. Sure some are aesthetically pleasing, the architecture is progressive/different but little thought is given to them as being the first ambassadors of the town/country which they represent. For the most part you could put an airport from say Alice Springs, Australia in a similar sized town in Europe and no-one would be surprised or any the wiser. They are for the most part anonymous in terms of the aesthetic relating to the country/town/context in which they are erected. It was my intention to break through this paradigm. I sought to create a building in which the form/aesthetic was representative of the town of Phalaborwa being the Gateway to the world-famous Kruger Park Game Reserve without the functionality of an airport being impaired. My intention from the outset was to create a building that a tourist - full of excitement for a whole new adventure - would like to see. I wanted to start their journey into a game reserve on the right note - give them a taste of what they were about to experience.

I was interested to note that your second question refers to my airport as a bush lodge. This was very affirming for me in showing that I achieved my objective - although I would prefer if the project was referred to as what it is - an airport, with an African aesthetic, if you like. I guess that the tendency of people to refer to this airport as a bush lodge is as a result of the perspective that airports can only look like airports. Whatever that's supposed to be!?

The animal sculptures were crafted by a world-renowned Zimbabwean sculptor - Adam Madebe - who I'd worked with on an earlier project. His sculptures complemented the theme. I wanted people to get off the plane and immediately be aware that this wasn't your average airport. All the poses and placements - from the guinea fowl scratching in the earth for food to the leopard leaping - create a kinetic dimension to the scene. The baboon sits on a rock, watching disembarking passengers enter the airport. Further along the arrivals link a snake is coiled on a rock and in the waterhole area a life-size giraffe stoops to drink. High above - on a ten ton leadwood - sits a vulture (donated by me to the project) surveying the scene. Adam was briefed to create each piece to be perfectly crafted and placed to appear as natural as they would in a real life bush situation. In the same way in the departure section you pass a male baboon in the act of defending an imminent attack by! a leopard. At the entrance to the airport a female baboon perches on another leadwood watching as people file in. All pieces were initially sculpted in clay on chicken wire and steel framework and then metal plates were either heated or hammered into shape on an anvil and welded together over the clay. Once everything was complete the clay was then removed. The animals were then treated with rust preventing poly-urethane varnish.

It was important to me, however, that an overly rustic aesthetic impression was avoided. The copper domes on the parapet walls at the entrance and arrivals/departures wings were to raise the African bushveld aesthetic to more of a high-tech, dependable, professional level. Similarly the circular concave impressions of the green skirting and door mouldings reinforce this intention and provide a visual link to the domes and a unifying element.

The zebra pattern on the floor of the concourse was created from a scan I made of a zebra skin. The spine of the zebra runs down the center of the concourse. The offshoots from the concourse to the check-in and to the arrivals and departure arcs are adaptations of this. I used it to reinforce the theme and to add animation and depth to the scene. It represents some real hard labour for the contractors as each piece of Marley tile had to be cut exactly to the pattern I described on the floor with a piece of chalk attached to the end of a long stick!

The same is true of the snakes that slither into the arrivals concourse and out of the departures concourse. These were designed to create flow and movement and fun. A lot of the airport was about fun - after all many of its users were about to start their vacation or were just returning from one.

The balance of the floor was made to present the sand colour of a dry river bed. The chequer-plate inserts were positioned to define the transition between the zebra skin pattern and the river sand floor. They were also intended to lift the design from rustic to solid/dependable and to be a small concession to the high-tech finishes that airports normally consist of.