The construction of airports has traditionally been a task entrusted to engineers, but lately the architectural design of the buildings and their visual image are also being valued as true gateways of communication of each city with the rest of the world.

Kansai Airport in Osaka is not a bad airport. Japan's critical lack of living space has led to the conception of nothing less than an artificial island of formidable dimensions, to install there its grandiose exit to the skies. An international competition was held for its construction, in which almost all the heavyweights of today's architecture took part, and Piano's team was the brilliant winner.

Its layout is functionally very simple. The aim was to eliminate both the physical and visual obstacles that usually stand in the way of travelers on their way from the entrance to the aircraft and vice versa. The terminal has a railroad station and a dock for cars. From there, one passes to the great hall, covered with a lowered and perforated vault, and arranged on three levels visually linked by patios of the entire height of the building...[+]