Lendlease team to carry out huge earthworks contract at development

Zaha Hadid Architects has beaten Foster + Partners and Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners to land the job of designing a new airport in Australia.

The UK practice teamed up with local firm Cox Architecture to bid the 拢3bn Western Sydney Airport project. They have now been appointed master architect.

Lendlease was last month appointed by the Australian government to a A$644m (拢343m) earthworks contract for the development. It is carrying out the work in joint venture with local firm CPB Contractors.

More than 40 architectural teams tendered and five were shortlisted in the summer. International practices were expected to partner with a local firm.

The finalists were: Design Inc with Foster + Partners; Architectus, Gensler, SAA and Surbana Jurong; Cox with Zaha Hadid Architects; Woods Bagot with RSHP; and Hassell with Pascall & Watson.

The brief demanded that entrants must have designed at least three major aviation projects in the last 10 years. They were also required to involve university students in the design process.

ZHA has designed Beijing Daxing International Airport and Navi Mumbai International Airport. Cox has worked at Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra airports.

The Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport, named after the youngest Australian woman to gain her pilot鈥檚 licence in the 1930s, is planned for a greenfield site in Sydney鈥檚 emerging western Parkland City region.

The airport will be built in four stages, beginning in 2022. The first stage is due to open in 2026 with a capacity of 10 million passengers a year. By 2060, when it will be capable of handling 82 million passengers annually, it should be the largest international gateway to Australia.