Project Details

The Grand Bahama Airport and Free Trade Zone (FTZ) project is a service we provided to the community of Grand Bahama. The airport was destroyed by Hurricane Dorian and we saw an opportunity to help. 

 

Our top priority was to design a solution that would mitigate flooding, which we achieved by creating a canal system that drains to the southern side of the island. This ensured that the new airport would not suffer the same fate as the old one. Additionally, we designed a new business model for the site that shifts the focus away from passenger traffic and towards commercial distribution and transitional airport services. By selling high-grade aggregates extracted from the canal system, the new airport could ensure its own funding, neutralizing the public expenditure for the new facility. 

 

The FTZ is a commercial/industrial site between the sea port and the new airport, designed to be a hub for international business that requires easy access to the Americas. We designed a system where containers can come in on ships, go directly to a business in the FTZ, be assembled, worked on, repackaged, and then directly to the airport. This streamlined process provides efficiency and cost savings for businesses. The entire project, when built, will provide thousands of jobs to the community and stimulate economic growth. 

 

We did this project for the sake of the community. Something needed to be done, someone had to do it, and we were glad to get involved. Our proposal was taken up by Bahamian interests, presented to the government of the Bahamas, and accepted. It is currently in the design phase of development and there is still a lot more work to be done. But we are glad that we could contribute to the rebuilding of the community. 

 

This project combined strategic planning, flood mitigation concepts, economic modelling, visualisation, animation and presentation materials into a single redevelopment proposal. It remains one of the strongest examples of how planning, visualisation and economic strategy can be combined to address complex community challenges.

Launch VIDEO

 

 

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