Skyportz – alongside Contreras Earl Architecture and Arup – has released its latest design, for privately owned vertiports for public usage on compact sites.
“We have in our stable of designs a large public vertiport, a smaller public waterfront vertiport and a tiny “Vertiport in Box” for private usage. With this Skyportz Vertistop design we are filling a gap in the market for a public vertistop that is compact and affordable for property developers wanting to bolt on a vertiport to their existing sites,” said Clem Newton-Brown, CEO of Skyportz.
“It could be placed on a rooftop, in a car park or anywhere there is a space with a minimum of 30x30m. By keeping the footprint tight and the passenger handling facilities underneath the pad we can provide a similar customer experience to our larger vertiports.”
The concept behind this design is to keep the construction costs to minimum by utilising modular design and a small footprint. The design lends itself to retrofitting existing buildings.
“Land is expensive in urban locations, and we believe that simple set down and pick-up vertistops in prime locations will have a huge role to play in an Advanced Air Mobility ecosystem,” said Newton-Brown.
The Skyportz Vertistop is designed for a quick turnaround and high throughput. Skyportz anticipates only providing charging facilities as a back-up at some, but not all, locations.
“Aircraft only provide a return when they are in the air and there is certainly a place for this style of vertiport that encourages quick turnarounds with charging done at larger facilities. Compact vertistops will enable us to achieve more passenger destinations closer to where people want to go,” said Newton-Brown.
According to Skyportz, the beauty of the design is that should a property owner have a larger site, additional landing pads can be provided adjacent at ground level, without spending any more on a larger building. This would then open the way for waiting bays for aircraft to charge.
Form and function
The Skyportz Vertistop has been designed by Contreras Earl Architecture with input from Arup, to ensure that it is not just a beautiful and functional building, but it also fulfils the expectations for sustainability.
“This landmark building is the result of addressing many different important parameters, including sustainability, context, climate, community and the user experience. The vertiport will feature a high-performance roof designed to be structurally robust, lightweight and sustainable owing to its aluminium monocoque structure – the same system employed in the manufacturing of cars and aircraft,” said Rafael Contreras, director, Contreras Earl Architecture.
Richard Vincent, sustainable buildings leader at Arup, said of the project: “The infrastructure and buildings facilitating these innovative transportation modes must be designed with circular economy principles, climate resilience and zero emissions in order to achieve the best possible results for our planet and local communities alike. At Arup we are keen to be involved in helping to make the future modes of transport a sustainable reality”.
Images: Skyportz
