Deerns is leading Airport engineering with flexible and modular designs to meet modern airport needs for resilience and adaptability. Ready for whatever tomorrow brings.
Modern airports are no longer fixed pieces of infrastructure – they are constantly changing environments. From fluctuating passenger volumes to evolving regulations and technologies, today’s airports, once defined by permanence, now face the challenge of uncertainty. At its core, flexible (flexi) and modular design is about resilience through readiness.
Passenger behaviour, sustainability goals, airline operations and digital solutions are all evolving at speed. Conventional approaches to design of airport infrastructure often fall short in this new reality, where responsiveness is more valuable than rigidity. This is where flexible and modular design proves its strategic value.
3 Key Features of Flexi and Modular Design
Rather than locking in functions, layouts or technologies, it anticipates change. Flexi and modular design builds for what is needed now – and what might be needed next.
3 key features of flexi and modular design for airports are:
- Rethinking how gates, lounges and passenger flows are arranged to optimise operations
- Designing technical systems (like HVAC, power and ICT) to be re-routable and upgradable without massive disruption
- Creating building components and zones that can be extended, divided or reconfigured without loss of operational integrity, and with minimal disturbance while executing changes.
The result is a terminal building that is more responsive, easier to maintain and far more cost effective over time.
3 Key Strategies for the Unknown
Deerns has positioned itself at the forefront of this shift. Its role in the ongoing development of Schiphol Airport illustrates how engineering foresight and multidisciplinary coordination can deliver terminal buildings that are not only operationally efficient, but also inherently adaptable.
The infrastructure at Schiphol is designed with the long-term in mind. The needs of today, such as baggage handling and gate operations, are balanced with the unknowns of tomorrow: automation, climate targets, and digital service layers. Deerns focuses on designing for uncertainty. This means not locking in assumptions, but enabling future decisions through flexibility.
3 key strategies make this possible:
- Service cores are placed outside passenger areas, allowing technical upgrades without interfering with terminal flow
- Zoning allows public and operational areas to evolve independently while maintaining security and compliance
- System architecture supports both central and decentralised operations, giving airport operators room to adapt as needed.
Making it Work for People
Deerns’ approach towards flexibility is human-centred. That is what makes the difference. The ability to reconfigure spaces, replace technologies or expand capacity is only valuable if it supports real operational and passenger needs.
This translates into zones that can be adapted without affecting adjacent areas. Airline operations and public facing services are able to shift independently. Maintenance crews can access key systems with minimal impact. And if passenger flow changed due to security updates or automation, the building could accommodate that too.
This approach still makes room for sustainability. Modular systems allow the building to phase in new energy sources, integrate circular materials and respond to net zero goals without wholesale reconstruction.
Long Term Value for Owners and Operators
Flexi and modular design creates real value for those who build, own and operate airports. There are 5 key implications for flexi and modular design.
It means:
- Minimising construction time within operational areas, by enabling off-site construction as a possibility
- Lower lifecycle costs through easier maintenance and upgrades
- Reduced operational downtime during interventions or refurbishments
- Greater investor confidence, as infrastructure can evolve with demand
- Improved passenger experience, through buildings that adapt to new expectations and services.
More importantly, it offers resilience in an unpredictable world. As the aviation industry continues to recover, reinvent and respond to new realities, flexibility becomes less of a luxury and more of a baseline requirement.
Deerns has consistently championed a whole-system approach to flexibility in airports and beyond – one that goes beyond designing technical systems to seamlessly integrating them with architectural vision, user experience, and operational logic.
With deep expertise in energy systems, HVAC, ICT and fire safety, Deerns not only delivers best-in-class systems, but also ensures they work together as one. This integration creates true agility in how a building is constructed and in how it functions, adapts and evolves over time.
Looking Ahead
As sustainability goals tighten and user expectations shift, the need for responsive infrastructure will only grow.
" Modular and flexible design is not improvisation – it is a design discipline.
Every choice supports resilience. Deerns continues to explore new ways to make buildings adaptable. In that pursuit, flexibility becomes more than a design feature. It becomes an ethic. One that ensures buildings remain relevant, systems operate efficiently, and people stay at the heart of the design.
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