Mexico’s new ‘floating’ airport promises to revolutionize sustainability

Some of the most innovative minds in global architecture are coming together to build a revolutionary ‘floating’ airport in Mexico City that will be able to withstand earthquakes and the looming threats of the nearby Popocatepetl volcano.

Oh yeah, and it also promises to be the most sustainable airport in the world.

Last year, the Mexican government announced that a consortium led by British architect Norman Foster and Mexican architect Fernando Romero won the contract to build Mexico City’s new $9.2 billion international airport.

Foster, a prolific architect known for developing landmark buildings across the globe, along with Romero, a local urban developer and son-in-law of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, are already calling the airport project “out of this world” and “the most sustainable on the planet.”  It’s being designed to shake like “a jelly in a bowl” when earthquakes hit, according to a promo video released by Foster’s firm.

The new airport, the most ambitious infrastructure project commissioned by President Enrique Peña Nieto, is expected to start construction in 2016 and finish in 2020.

The licitation and construction arrangements have been under close scrutiny following the cancellation of a high-speed train project that was awarded to a Chinese company in a murky bidding process.

The Mexican government previously attempted to build a new airport in 2002, but was forced to suspend the project when a local community refused to be relocated. The new airport will be built near that sight but on a land patch owned by the federal government.