---
title: "Entering Madrid through a Splendid Door"
canonical: "https://banuucak.com/en/madride-gorkemli-bir-kapidan-girmek/"
date: "2018-11-13"
author: "Banu Uçak"
description: "Barajas Terminal 4, by Rogers Stirk Harbour, is the door into Madrid: a bamboo ceiling, broad eaves, and a wave of a roof carried on slender columns."
categories: ["essays"]
lang: "en"
---

![](https://banuucak.com/_astro/bfd23-1i5k1vdp2irzfip1cnrmq2q2x.wVPU60gx_Z1g2eAT.webp)

Terminal 4 of Madrid's Barajas Airport, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour, is deeply impressive, with its elegant hybrid structure, its bamboo ceiling and its passive climate control. The first step into the joy that waits in Madrid, colourful and cosmopolitan, a joy that brings history and technology, art and life, together without effort, can be taken only through a building like this. Broad eaves protect the interior from Madrid's scorching summer heat, and the flowing, luminous interior is carried without a break, in a dazzling rhythm, on slender columns. A simple plan that works well is roofed with a form inspired by the wave. I understood once again: whether the inspiration is a wave or a gull, in able hands that know which age they live in, a "metaphor" has a flavour all its own.

![](https://banuucak.com/_astro/7895d-1ek0bmg3aqqz3u-0j4scohw2x.U5ciN0aw_wSAUt.webp) ![](https://banuucak.com/_astro/794c2-11gz1jlwxbjbgy6cdxbxb-w2x.DLHKj5_g_1q1qtW.webp) ![](https://banuucak.com/_astro/ed25c-1fn-fy36acb8sdxwsnupowg2x.DZaY8qoh_29MTJd.webp) ![](https://banuucak.com/_astro/44bf2-1avfbums0wex2vex3alavdq2x.BpP4bo6a_HLF5s.webp) ![](https://banuucak.com/_astro/ef96a-1syyqo5gc4ldjv9t8iymb8w2x.z8Biz8TD_Z1H9zow.webp) ![](https://banuucak.com/_astro/ef97b-1gzezotdgd9qiz87qmeax3a2x.DR4OU61n_Z1Ct9S0.webp) ![](https://banuucak.com/_astro/6848e-1dtsih-phdrot3svporfaya2x.DWlRNGvr_gHri0.webp) ![](https://banuucak.com/_astro/f6f88-1sfgsov-eqodrjineidwisw2x.CmkSCFqo_ZjJJ4s.webp)