Rodney Fitch & Co shows its plans for Turin airport

Rodney Fitch & Co will present third-stage design concepts for the refurbishment of Turin International Airport next week, as the airport prepares itself for the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

The consultancy is redesigning interiors for the whole of the passenger terminal building, including the commercial areas at arrivals, departures and restaurant levels and the baggage reclaim areas.

It is also developing graphics, signage and wayfinding programmes to increase revenue streams for the airport and improve passenger circulation. Work is scheduled for completion at the end of 2003.

The project, which will result in a fee of approximately £80 000 for the consultancy, is the first phase in the refurbishment of the airport, which has a total budget of approximately £4m.

The airport will then increase in size in time for the Winter Olympics using Rodney Fitch & Co’s guidelines for retail expansion, says the consultancy’s senior creative consultant Alan Thompson.

‘The brief [given to Rodney Fitch & Co] is to review improvements to the existing environment, which have to be adaptable for when the airport expands for 2006. It’s an increase of commercial development of about 300 per cent,’ says Thompson.

‘The airport has been evolved in a piecemeal fashion. It is aware that it needs one holistic app-roach,’ he adds.

As part of the interiors work the consultancy is creating new retail frontages and developing the retail mix, and making changes to the lighting, floor and ceiling finishes, check-in desks, passport control desks and information desks.

Elements of the city’s architecture will be recreated in a contemporary way across retail frontages.

Signage and wayfinding systems for the retail and non-retail areas must work independent of each other, but with a common link. Walls will be exploited to enliven the airport through the creation of a collage of identifiable images relating to the history of Turin.

The consultancy, which was appointed in December last year, won the work via a creative pitch.