Western Sydney Airport has announced the five shortlisted architectural teams that will participate in its competition to design a passenger terminal.

Over 40 teams expressed their interest in designing the terminal for Sydney’s second airport, which includes a plaza, a public transport interchange and the integrated international and domestic passenger terminal.

The shortlisted teams are as follows:

• Design Inc & Foster + Partners
• Architectus, Gensler, SAA and Surbana Jurong
• Cox and Zaha Hadid
• Woods Bagot and RSHP
• Hassell and Pascall Watson

As part of the shortlisting process, each architectural team had to demonstrate they have designed at least three major airport or aviation projects on a comparable scale to Western Sydney International in the past 10 years.

One of the participating practices on each team also needed to be permanently based in Australia and they had to outline how they intend to involve university students with a link to Western Sydney in the design process.

The airport has also recently entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOUs)with Qantas and Virgin Australia, which will see the airlines provide insights that will feed into the airport design process.

“Each team’s experience in airport design will be crucial to their pitch to design Western Sydney International’s terminal,” says Western Sydney Airport chief executive officer Graham Millett.

“There are so many factors that will have to come together in the design to ensure our customers have a seamless experience in an enjoyable environment. From the moment they arrive at the Airport, through check-in, security and customs, to the boarding gate, we want every stage to be stress-free.

“Smart design will be the cornerstone of our vision to create an airport that passengers love using and that offers airlines an efficient, reliable product.”

The successful design will have to be scalable and include concepts not only for the first stage of the airport but for subsequent stages, including the long term 82 million annual passenger development in the 2060s.

The winning design is expected to be selected by the end of the year.