International Airport At Heraklion, Crete

The international airport at Heraklion was one of the first to be designed and built by Greek technicians. Experience was lacking and foreign examples could not be consulted because this particular airport serves both domestic flights and international chartered flights, which however use it only during a specific period every year. Thus during the season the building serves 800 passengers, but for the rest of the time their number declines to about 100, and the greater part of the building remains unused.
The structure failed to achieve the desired standard, mainly because the architects were not allowed to supervise construction. Current Iaws make no provision for private architects to supervise the construction of public works they have designed. Moreover, provincial Greece is notoriously lacking in trained manpower to realise complex building programmes.
The project was published in detail in Architecture in Greece 3/1969. The building was completed in 40 months at a cost of 55 m. drs.


Text from the magazine: «architecture in Greece» Νο 7, 1973.