Sophie Ashdown

In the past few weeks I have passed through several airports – Heathrow, Bangkok, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Gatwick and Madeira.

What struck me was the challenge it must be for airport designers to come up with interesting, attractive, universal, and dare I say non-offensive ways to decorate the interiors. Nowhere else do you have such a wide variety of people coming through the same space. I presume that what might be meaningful and/or attractive to one person may not be to the next.

In my recent practice of noticing patterns, I couldn’t help but notice the myriad of ways these airports adorned their interiors to appeal to the masses.

Here are a few that caught my eye…

I think essentially this serves as a kind of room divider but it has its own artistic merit. Someone gave thought as to how it could be aesthetically pleasing while also purposeful. I like the cascading slats and geometric shape.

These two above were art pieces on the wall at Bangkok airport. They are obviously of Thai origin given the colours and patterns, and they are made more effective by the overlapping shapes.

No prizes for guessing which airport this is from! Although this is not a pattern exactly, there are definitely repeating motifs and figures.

This was on the doorway to the Thai airways lounge in Bangkok. I like that it has a combination of art deco and nostalgic feel, but a touch of Asian influence at the same time. If you look at it for long enough, the repeating pattern makes things appear between the lines.

Even the windows are interesting in airports! It’s hard to see the scale of this in this photo but it is at least three stories high. It echoes a sense of flight in the shape and pattern of the windows. Very effective.

I like the sense of movement in this panel. Of course the circles and lines would appeal to me.

An aboriginal painting in Melbourne. I like the repeating circles with interior concentric rings, with complimentary coloured blocks in the background. It evokes a bit of Kandinsky to me:

I remember as an early teen when I first discovered Kandinsky. He has been a favourite ever since and I’ve sought out his pieces at galleries across the world. (Hmm I feel another blog post coming on!) Anyway back to airport finds…

Another aboriginal piece in Melbourne. This piece is less detailed than a traditional aboriginal work but I like the combination of shapes and colours.

This was an incredible metal artwork at the airport in Funchal, Madeira. It was huge and impressive. I love the metal art rods/slats in a long row behind the huge pieces of metal sheets. It has both order and disorder in equal measure. The piece was so powerful to me that I gave up our place in the queue so I could get a good photo. Absolutely love this.

I’m not expecting to go into any more airports this summer (thankfully!) but as always I’ll be on the lookout for intriguing patterns and artworks to share.