AIRPORT CAFE
The Airport Café reimagines the sensory landscape of terminal architecture, transforming a chaotic junction into a space of calm immersion through repetition, light, and spatial filtering.
Located at a confluence within the Northwest Arkansas airport, the café occupies a triangular site formed by the convergence of pedestrian corridors. Rather than resist this irregularity, the project embraces it, harnessing the geometry to create a spatially nested experience defined by mass and void.
The architectural gesture is singular and precise: a field of acrylic fins, aggregated and subtracted to form a gradient enclosure. These lime-hued panels infill the space with a simultaneous intensity and softness, visually loud, yet atmospherically calming. The fins filter light, guide circulation, and shape an immersive interior environment that feels distinct from the visual clutter of the terminal beyond.
AIRPORT CAFE
YEAR 2024
BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS
Unbuilt
A single linear bar anchors the space, positioned against the back wall to serve as both functional core and spatial terminus. It offers dual modes of inhabitation: quick service for travelers on the move and seating zones for those who wish to dwell. The design resists over-programming, instead relying on spatial clarity and material saturation to define the experience.
The Airport Café proposes a new model for airport architecture. One that doesn’t compete with noise and signage but counteracts it. Through serial repetition, strategic subtraction, and atmospheric intensity, the project transforms a high-traffic threshold into a quiet moment of architectural calm.