179. Renzo Piano, Kansai Airport Terminal,

Osaka, 1987-1994 (Japan)

At 1.7 km in length, KIX is the longest airport terminal in the world. Even more remarkably, it is built on the world’s largest artificial island, 4 km long, which rises 30 metres from the sea bed in Osaka Bay. One million piers and 69 huge concrete caissons give it a firm foundation, while some 48,000 sunken concrete blocks act as a barrier against typhoons. The island is far from the mainland, accessed by a single bridge 3 km long. The terminal itself was designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop with Noriaki Okabe. Its roof is shaped like a huge airfoil: ducts on one side of the building blow air across the curve of the ceiling and collect it on the other side, thus promoting healthy ventilation. Visitors move along the building’s immense length on a driverless train system known as the Wing Shuttle. The total construction cost was around 20 billion dollars. Though the weight of fill and buildings means that the island is slowly sinking, its integrity is guaranteed by the use of hydraulic pumps and extensible columns. Kansai Terminal performed well in the Kobe earthquake of 1995, partly because of its use of sliding joints.