Thorn has secured a £2.1 million order from Beijing Capital Airport Expansion Project Headquarters to provide lighting for their new Terminal Three (T3) building. The airport extension is one of Beijing’s major infrastructure projects for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
Beijing Capital, the busiest airport in the People’s Republic of China, currently has two terminals and the 420,000m² extension is expected to handle an extra 25 million passengers per annum, with over five million a month arriving during the 2008 Olympics.
A number of factors combined to clinch the order: Thorn’s proven expertise in handling major international projects (Thorn UK is currently lighting Heathrow’s gigantic Terminal 5) and a lighting scheme that made excellent economic and environmental sense considering that the airport will be one of the worlds most sustainable.
The specification, developed in conjunction with a joint venture design and engineering team comprising Dutch airport planners NACO, architects Foster and Partners, engineers Arup and the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design and Research, involves over 70,000 luminaires. It is expected that deliveries will commence in the first quarter of 2007, with completion anticipated later that year. The Thorn supplies will cover the architectural lighting of the new terminal buildings, T3A and T3B, and the Ground Traffic Centre.
Commenting on the announcement, Johannes Burtscher, Managing Director of Thorn Asia said: “I am delighted that the Thorn Asia team has secured this order, our largest ever in China, in the face of intense international competition. It demonstrates our expertise and delivery capability in the Chinese domestic market, supported by our plant in Guangzhou which will supply much of the contract. With this significant achievement we will put the Thorn brand on the entrance to the capital city of the People’s Republic of China.”