Paul Andreu: French Architect Best Known for Airport Design

Early career and training

Trained in France, Andreu rose to prominence during the late 20th century when growing international air travel led many countries to commission new terminals and airports. His professional work combined an architectural sensibility with close collaboration with structural and mechanical engineers, responding to the programmatic and operational demands of airport design while making a clear formal statement.

Design characteristics and approach

Andreu's terminals are often described as modernist in intent and technical in expression. Common characteristics include long clear spans, repetitive structural ribs or trusses, generous use of glass for daylighting and views, and large column-free concourses to accommodate passenger flows. He treated terminals as complex civic interiors, where circulation, safety, baggage handling and services are integrated within a legible spatial order. Andreu frequently worked with advanced structural solutions and industrial materials — steel, concrete and glazed façades — to achieve both economy and monumentality.

Major projects

Over several decades Andreu designed or contributed to many major airport projects. Notable examples include:

• Charles de Gaulle Airport (Paris) — significant terminal work and planning contributions that shaped the airport’s modern identity
• Orly Airport, Paris — a series of terminal projects and renovations connected with the expansion of Parisian aviation infrastructure (Orly)
• Shanghai Pudong International Airport — large-span concourses and terminal architecture for one of China’s main international gateways
• Soekarno–Hatta International Airport (Jakarta) and other Indonesian commissions
• Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Manila)
• Major Middle Eastern airports including projects in Abu Dhabi and Dubai (Dubai International Airport)
• Cairo International Airport, Brunei International Airport and additional national airport works

Teaching, consultancy and later work

Alongside practice, Andreu engaged in teaching and consultancy. His academic activities included positions and guest lectures that linked architectural education to contemporary infrastructure challenges. He advised on large transport programs and remained active professionally into the 21st century, balancing new commissions with reflection on the relationship between form, technology and user experience.

Reception and legacy

Andreu’s work influenced the aesthetics and operational thinking of late-20th- and early-21st-century airport design. His terminals are studied for their engineering integration and scale; at the same time, critics and users have debated issues such as wayfinding, human scale and the experience of monumental airport interiors. Regardless of those debates, his projects continue to serve millions of passengers annually and are frequently cited in discussions of transport architecture.

Further information

For a concise career overview and selected project references consult professional and institutional resources: a general career outline is available through published profiles and project galleries (career overview), and institutional pages provide additional context for his teaching and later-career activities at places such as Zhejiang University. Regional archives and collections may hold project records in the area of his birth, in Gironde, and in countries where he worked. Contemporary press and architectural histories also discuss his major commissions and their impacts.

Paul Andreu died on 11 October 2018 at the age of 80. His designs remain important case studies in the architecture of transport and the collaboration of architecture and engineering.

Selected online and institutional entries, galleries and project lists can be consulted via dedicated pages and archives: see general profiles (project summary), academic affiliations (Zhejiang University), and regional or project-specific pages for Paris and international terminals (Orly, Dubai International Airport, Gironde).