Brasília–President Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport

Brief information

Before the current airport, Brasília, then under construction, had the temporary Vera Cruz: a 2,700-meter runway and a passenger terminal in the form of a shack under buriti palm leaves. It stood where Brasília's bus and train terminal is located today. Against this backdrop, the present Juscelino Kubitschek Airport reads not simply as a transport hub, but as part of the history of a city that was first served by temporary solutions and then quickly replaced them with permanent infrastructure.

The definitive airport began operating in 1957, and acquired its modern appearance later: with two satellites for departures and arrivals, a separate international arrivals terminal, a pier, and a second runway opened in 2006. Its layout shows how the airport was expanded not through a single construction project, but through successive additions.

What to notice right away

It makes sense to look at the airport as a set of solutions attached to one another. The two satellites for departures and arrivals mark the stage when passenger flows began to be separated according to a more complex scheme. The bridge to the passenger terminal shows that access to the building became a separate planning task, while the circular satellite added a more closed form of movement to the direct connections.

The nine jet bridges are important as a visible trace of the transition from a simple terminal to an airport with a large number of simultaneous operations. The new pier, the international arrivals terminal, and the panoramic terrace belong to the next expansion, where waiting and viewing areas were added to transportation. The gallery with fountains, landscaping, and space for exhibitions shows that the airport interior provided not only for passenger movement, but also for a place to pause. Terminal 2 is especially telling: it occupied the former civil aviation terminal, built in 1988, meaning that an old aviation building was given a new role.