The West Country's Stansted

Opened earlier this month, the new £27m terminal to Bristol International Airport replaces a building on the other side of the runway. The clear-cut rectangular building beneath an oversailing canopy roof and behind clear-glazed walls stands as the symbolic gateway to the West Country. Its 17 500 m² area, which currently contains 31 check-in desks, 13 retail units and four catering areas, is intended to accommodate 3.5 million visitors a year by 2005. YRM's design exploits a natural slope in the site, as both landside and airside entrances are at ground level, although passengers rise one storey from the former to the latter, an arrangement that allows the baggage to follow through in the basement below. Construction costs were £1200/m², a fraction of the cost of London Stansted, which the new terminal resembles.