A giant vineyard covers the roof of a new passenger terminal at Florence Airport.. What is the reason?

Editor's Note: Earth Call is an editorial series from Ofoq News committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, and the solutions to address them. Through the Perpetual Planet initiative, Rolex has partnered with Ofoq News to raise awareness and knowledge about key sustainability issues and inspire positive action Dubai, United Arab Emirates - From the “Walkie Talkie” skyscraper in London, to the Carrasco International Airport in Uruguay, the portfolio of Rafael Viñoly Architects, based in New York City, is filled with hundreds of projects spanning five continents.

A new international passenger terminal at Aeroporto Amerigo Vespucci International Airport in Florence, the capital of the Italian region of Tuscany, is the latest addition announced in January. The structure will serve as a "new landmark for the city's sustainable future," according to the company, and is a tribute to the region's wine-producing heritage, and will feature a rooftop vineyard.

“The concept of the building is to recreate the most quintessential landscape of Tuscany, namely the vineyards,” says Romain Vinoli, director of Rafael Vinoli Architects. The project is scheduled to be completed in two phases, between 2026 and 2035, and Vignoli explains that sustainability is at the core of the new structure, describing it as “a moral responsibility of anyone who builds anything.”

The construction sector and the built environment are responsible for 40% of global energy-related carbon emissions. Meanwhile, commercial aviation produces about 2.5% of total emissions.

Efforts to reduce this impact often focus on innovations in aviation fuel, including fuel made from cooking oil, and even wastewater, but this new project turns attention to the operation and construction of the airport itself. Vineyards and solar panels The main attraction of the design is a 19-acre vineyard, which acts as a sloping green roof.

Research shows that it can have environmental benefits, such as helping to insulate a building. Besides the sloped design, the roof will have other features designed to achieve energy efficiency.

“In the summer, when you need to cool the interior of the space, you are exchanging the heat back to that mass of land,” Viñoly points out. The roof maintains that temperature very effectively for a long time, so that when winter comes and you need to heat the interior, you can do a heat exchange again and pull the heat out of that soil and put it into the building.

The structure, including between the rows of vines, will feature a mix of transparent solar and photovoltaic panels, which Vignoli considers important for reducing energy use throughout the day, and creating a “visual connection” between occupants inside the building and the vineyard. But when passengers look up, they won't be able to see any fruit.

According to Viñoly, due to the risk of aircraft engines being damaged by foreign objects, the roof will be mainly covered with fruitless vines. “We did a fair amount of research and consultation with winemakers and agronomists,” explains Vignoli, noting that “the building is about 500 meters from the nearest plane,” considering that potential contaminants that might be around the plane are far enough away that they would not have an impact on the quality of the wine produced.

According to Viñoly, there are provisions in the design for an under-roof winery, although this has not been confirmed. Meanwhile, a winemaker has not yet been selected by the airport.

Green challenge for aviation The project will be cutting-edge in its sustainable features, believes Filippo Weber, a member of the non-profit Italian Climate Network and founder of the Italian sustainable architecture firm Weber Architects, who has no connection to the project. But he wonders whether too much emphasis has been placed on the appearance of chromium, rather than its sustainable benefits.

Aside from the potentially high water demand in the vineyards, “the vines are not green all year round, and this reduces their ability to offset carbon in terms of embodied energy and energy consumption in the building,” says Weber, adding that with regard to photovoltaic panels, those placed between the rows of vines may not be sufficient in terms of surface area, and there is a risk that they will be overwhelmed by the vines themselves. While Weber calls the use of an embankment as a heat exchanger “an interesting strategy,” he says there is not enough information to evaluate its effectiveness, and that “doubts can be raised that such a shallow layer of soil would be able to store enough energy to exchange heat with such an energy-intensive building.”

Ultimately, green airports will not have a significant impact on reducing aviation emissions. The most important and urgent need is to reduce emissions from airlines themselves.

While airlines around the world have pledged to reach net zero greenhouse gases by 2050, the industry is not far on track to reach that goal. However, Vignoli hopes that the project will encourage airports around the world to take sustainability seriously, and recognize that “airports are not just transitional places, but also destinations in their own right.”