Zagreb International Airport

Zagreb Airport, which is situated in the suburb of Pleso in Croatia, is the country’s main international airport. Two main ideas were at the origin of the airport's new terminal. First of all, Zagreb Airport was expected to handle initially five million passengers a year, and eight million in the subsequent years through further expansion, compared with the current two million passengers. Secondly, with state-of-the-art infrastructure and contemporary design, it is also expected to become a new landmark for the region and boost its tourism and economic growth.

This project is a challenge insofar as the airport carries with it both great promise and great responsibility. Not only will it contribute to strengthening the Croatian economy by representing their new indoors to the world and further increasing their tourism, but it will also be their largest infrastructure project in the last ten years.

After three years of construction works, the new passenger terminal of the Zagreb Airport opened in the second half of March 2017. The construction was scheduled in two phases. First, a building of about 65,000m² that features four levels, with the first two being for arrivals and the last two for departures. The rectangular main body was extended into two asymmetric piers, with the west pier for international operations and the east pier for the domestic traffic.

The second phase of the realisation was above this concrete structure with a steel construction that was meant to combine the roof to the main body and piers with the north facade. The south, east and west facades were conceived with flat aluminum curtains and structural glazing. If you look at the roof, it is partially glazed, and partially covered by a state-of-the-art aluminum shield.

Regarding the extraordinary undulating shape of the roof, it was designed by the architects as a reminder of the surrounding mountains.

The new terminal has been designed with a high light transmittance glazing in our COOL-LITE® SKN product range, also known for its solar control properties.

Indeed, COOL-LITE® SKN is a solar control glass range which gives excellent selectivity while retaining a neutral appearance. It was here used to improve the comfort inside the building by reducing overheating and the need for costly air conditioning, whilst at the same time noticeably reducing excessive heat loss.

As the landscape of contemporary infrastructure has become a standard reference for architects, thanks to our Glassolutions network, we were also able to provide LITE-WALL ISO point fixed IGU for the elevators. In this way, the architects could use a minimum number of visible connections for a maximum transparency.

As Saint-Gobain is a major actor of sustainable habitat, we were pleased to hear that the project follows sustainable construction practices with the aim of securing LEED certification.