Tips for Designing an Eco-Friendly Airport with a Civil Construction

If you're designing an airport, you need an expert in civil construction. These professionals can help guide you through the process, from designing your structure to doing the actual building. However, before you even meet with your civil construction crew, you may want to spend some time brainstorming design ideas. To create an environmentally friendly airport, here are some ideas you should consider.

Integrate Alternative Energy Sources

An airport is a large space, and you have a lot of room to play with alternative energy sources. In an area with a lot of sunlight, you may want to put solar panels on your roof. At the same time, you may want to place wind turbines in strategic places so that you can capture the wind to cover some of your airport's power needs. Although these options require an upfront investment, they can help save money by reducing energy costs in the long run.

Use Natural Light

You may also want to find ways to take advantage of natural light. Talk with your designer about utilizing daylight with lots of large windows or skylights. Additionally, you may want to put in light fixtures using bulbs that don't take a lot of electricity, and you may want to add dimmers to the fixtures so that the lights only come on when there isn't enough natural light streaming into your airport.

Think About the Landscaping

When creating your design, don't just think about the building. Also, remember to think about the environmental impact of your landscaping. Airports have a lot of hard surfaces which create stormwater runoff. Ideally, you want greenery around the runways so that they can absorb the rainwater, which helps to prevent unnecessary erosion. At the same time, however, you also want to choose plants that don't need a lot of water so that you don't have to waste water to help your landscaping thrive.

Take Inspiration from Existing Eco-Friendly Airports

To get even more ideas, consider looking at other eco-friendly airports in the world. Talk with the designer from your civil construction firm and let them know which ideas you like the most, both from an aesthetic perspective and from an environmental perspective. The main advantage of borrowing ideas from existing airports is that you can likely find empirical data related to how well those elements are performing.

To get more ideas on how to create a great airport, contact a civil construction firm directly.