Airports - Six Ways to Save the World

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The main area of any airport should be for its basic functions, the departure and arrival of passengers and their luggage. Minhad von gerkan was determined not to create a kicophany. Unlike every other airport in the world, gerkhan's b e r would have as few shops as possible. This critical design and economic decision incredibly seems to have gone unnoticed by the airport managers until construction was already under way. Their desperate attempts to shove hundreds of shops into the terminal post construction created a mess which is still being cleaned up to day. Number six, don't hire experts. Put politicians in charge.

BER is the international airport code for Berlin Brandenburg Airport, nickname Willy Brandt. It has also become a signifier of failure, incompetence, corruption and Berlin’s general inability to get its act together.

If you’ve flown to Berlin Schönefeld Airport in the last few years, you’ll have seen BER as your plane taxied along the runway. But despite outward appearances, BER is far from finished. It has been under construction for 11 years, blown through six opening dates, three general managers and two state leaders. Costs have ballooned from around €1 billion to at least €5.4 billion.

Across this series, you’ll learn why the escalators are too short, why the lights are always on, and why the rooms seemed to be numbered by bingo. We’ll interview insiders and disgruntled workers, chase ghost trains running to the terminal, and go inside the unfinished airport.

On this episode we’ll go way back to before any plans had been drawn, before even the Berlin wall had come down, to discover the foundational flaws that continue to haunt the unfinished airport.

Presented by Radio Spaetkauf and RadioEins Produced by Joel Dullroy, Maisie Hitchcock, Jöran Mandik and Daniel Stern Music: Ducks! Artwork: Jim Avignon