Students at Western Sydney University’s School are working with the winners of the design contract for the Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport, Zaha Hadid Architects and Sydney's Cox Architecture.
The two prestigious design firms have collaborated on the winning design from a pool of more than 40 entrants. Construction of the region-shaping airport is due to start in 2022.
The dean of the School of Built Environment, professor Kerry London, says, “The University is very proud that our architecture students will have front-row seats as this iconic infrastructure project takes shape. And to have exposure to such acclaimed architectural design firms, Zaha Hadid and Cox Architecture, will undoubtedly have an invaluable impact on their future as architects,” said Professor London.
“In the workshop, we found Western Sydney University students to be very authentic and articulate in expressing their ideas, they challenged our thinking and we were very impressed,” says David Holm from Cox Architecture.
Western Sydney Airport CEO, Graham Millett, says firms pitching to design the state-of-the-art terminal precinct were required to outline how they planned to involve university students with a link to Western Sydney in the design process.
“We wanted this to be a genuine learning opportunity for local students in our region to be involved in this once-in-a-generation project and we’re thrilled the architectural team has already engaged Western Sydney University students in the initial concept design development,” says Millett.
