Schiphol: Alwasy ready, never finished
Last week, Schiphol celebrated its 110th birthday with the publication of Schiphol: Always Ready, Never Finished. Designs 1975–2025 by Paul Meurs. Looking back at fifty years of design and development, its title refers just as much to the future.
Our involvement started in the early 1980s, remarkably, with a bicycle shed. In 1989 followed the Masterplan Schiphol 2003. As Benthem Crouwel NACO, we designed the expansion of the airport and remained involved as Schiphol’s principal architect for almost four decades.
— Photos: Beukers Scholma
That masterplan anticipated a maximum of 35 million passengers a year. Eventually, Schiphol handled twice that number. What followed was not simply one expansion after another. As the airport became denser, the challenge increasingly shifted from expanding Schiphol to adapting, transforming and intensifying what was already there.
All while the airport remained fully operational.
The modular architecture makes this continuous evolution possible, allowing Schiphol to respond to changing demands while maintaining its recognizable identity, human scale and comfort for travelers.
As Jan Benthem states in his interview for the book: “The only constant throughout all these years is change and unpredictability.”
Publisher: nai010
Author: Paul Meurs
Graphic design: Beukers Scholma
