Today's airports are a new, distinctive building type, a combination of transportation centre and shopping mall. Like in a miniature city the passenger-visitor is lead through squares, streets, spaces and rooms for transportation, commercial and private uses.

Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi Airport is an outstanding example of innovative, integrated structural and environmental design, and the development and application of new materials and advanced technology. The result is a building bathed in controlled daylight in a tropical climate. After eleven years of planning and construction the terminal opened for passenger traffic in September 2006.

Helmut Jahn is head of the renowned architectural firm Murphy / Jahn, based in Chicago. Founded over 70 years ago Murphy / Jahn has created many large-scale buildings in the US and Europe,such as the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, the Sony Center in Berlin and the Post Tower in Bonn.