A team of Japanese architects have given us a glimpse into the future of travel, revealing a stunning new concept design for a spaceport, meant to float off the shore of Tokyo Bay.
The concept, called Spaceport Japan, looks like a super futuristic airport, albeit one that houses spaceships rather than Boeing 747s.
The spaceport is designed as a home for companies providing commercial space flight, with passengers taken on two-hour space shuttle trips into orbit where they can experience zero gravity and view the curvature of the Earth. The spacecraft in question look less like the vertical rockets we’re used to seeing blasting off from Cape Canaveral, and more like the planes currently being developed by the likes of Virgin Galactic.
Designed for the Space Port Japan Association, the four-story terminal features two towers designed to make the spaceport stand out amid the Tokyo skyline, and includes a solar panel layer that ‘hovers’ over the structure.
The upper levels of the spaceport feature a rooftop patio and open-air gardens, and a viewing deck for passengers to watch spacecraft take off and land. Noiz Architects, the firm behind the design, adds that the rooftop could also house ‘farmlands in various scale, while providing covered public space for people and other means of personal mobility’.
A network of bridges would also be built to connect roads and railways from the mainland to the spaceport island.
Much like Changi airport in Singapore, Spaceport Japan would also offer a range of leisure activities that go well beyond what you’d expect from your average airport terminal. Options for passengers include a hotel, gym, aquarium, 4D IMAX cinema and even an art gallery, making the spaceport itself a destination for Earthbound day-trippers.
