Xiamen Airport
Project Status: Competition
Project Year: 2020
Use: Airport
Area: 62 km
Location: Xiamen, China
Design: Mauricio Ceballos, FR-EE
Team: MCxA, CABR, Bloqstudio, Melk, DGL
Project developed for FR-EE Fernando Romero EnterprisE by Mauricio Ceballos and Team.
Context
The Xiamen New Airport Area occupies a strategically significant position on the coastline, presenting exceptional potential to emerge as a major international air and sea port hub. This geographic advantage positions the development at the intersection of maritime and aviation infrastructure, enabling it to serve as a critical node in regional and global trade networks. The site's coastal location provides not only practical advantages for port operations but also defines the environmental and experiential character of the future development, where water becomes a constant presence shaping urban life and economic activity.
The site's broader territorial context reveals its position at the confluence of three important regional axes that will fundamentally shape its development character. Running parallel to the coastline, the Marine Cultural Belt and Coastal Industrial Belt provide strong identity components that acknowledge the area's maritime heritage and contemporary economic functions. The intersection with the Mountain Green Development Belt introduces ecological characteristics to the new development, ensuring that environmental values are woven into the urban fabric from its inception rather than added as an afterthought. Dadeng Island's location at the nexus of the Zhangzhou-Xiamen-Quanzhou metropolitan area amplifies its strategic importance, positioning it within a broader polycentric urban system where it can serve multiple cities simultaneously. The development area extends around the delta of Jiuxi Brook, adding another layer of water-related identity and opportunity while presenting specific challenges related to flood management and ecological preservation that must be addressed through the planning framework.
Design Principles
The programmatic vision organizes the development around five primary functional centers that together create a diversified and resilient economic base. The Airport City concept establishes an international trade center and convention and exhibition facilities that leverage proximity to aviation infrastructure for business tourism and commerce. A Regional Logistic Port paired with a High-End Manufacturing Demonstration Base capitalizes on the dual air-sea connectivity to create efficient supply chain operations and showcase advanced production technologies. An International Financial Center positions the area as a hub for capital flows and financial services that support the surrounding economic activities. A Regional Cultural Center ensures that development extends beyond purely economic functions to encompass arts, heritage, and community identity. Finally, a Regional Innovation Center fosters research, development, and entrepreneurship that can drive long-term economic evolution. This programmatic diversity creates multiple engines of growth and activity, reducing dependence on any single economic sector while generating synergies between complementary functions.
The spatial organization embraces the unique opportunities presented by the delta location to create a city characterized by multiple cross-river views and a distinctive skyline that will serve as a visual identity for the entire development. Rather than treating the water as a barrier to be bridged, the design leverages it as an amenity that structures urban experience and creates varied perspectives across the metropolitan area. The relationship with the mountain region to the north receives particular emphasis, with multiple green corridors planned to extend across the Xiang'an District. These corridors serve multiple purposes: they provide ecological connectivity between the mountains and the coast, create recreational amenities threading through the urban fabric, and establish visual axes that maintain perceptual connections to the natural landscape even from deep within the developed area.
The environmental framework centers on the creation of a comprehensive urban park system that incorporates sponge-city concepts to increase the resilience and sustainability of the overall plan. This approach recognizes that traditional drainage infrastructure is inadequate for contemporary climate challenges and instead proposes landscapes that absorb, filter, and slowly release stormwater through natural processes. The park system thus becomes critical infrastructure rather than merely aesthetic amenity, performing essential ecological services while providing recreational and social benefits. The delta location and coastal setting create ideal conditions for implementing these strategies, where the area's natural hydrological character can be enhanced and choreographed rather than suppressed. By positioning ecological performance at the center of the urban design framework, the plan ensures that growth and environmental health advance together rather than in opposition, creating a development model appropriate for an era of climate uncertainty and environmental awareness. The resulting urban form aspires to demonstrate that major international hubs can be simultaneously economically dynamic and ecologically responsible, offering a canvas for building a new kind of coastal city that harmonizes infrastructure, nature, commerce, and culture within an integrated spatial vision.