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If you listen to the podcast they explain that it wasn't his fault. Spoilers: he designed BER for fast passenger transit, just like Tegel, but the airport auth

If you listen to the podcast they explain that it wasn't his fault. Spoilers: he designed BER for fast passenger transit, just like Tegel, but the airport authorities wanted more shopping space. So they crammed as many shops as they could in detriment of the passenger experience. And then there's the situation with the rise of low-cost airlines who weren't allowed to use the jetway... I definitely recommend listening to the whole series. It's really well done and a must-listen for anyone with interest in project management.

bobthepanda 4y ago
This glosses over some stuff that is definitely his fault. The first issue that caused the issues, the fire system, was designed to suck air underground, because the architect did not want a fire system to obstruct his roof, never mind that smoke and hot air naturally rise. https://www.thegermanreview.de/p/the-real-story-behind-berlins-airport https://www.thegermanreview.de/p/the-real-story-behind-berli...
- paganel 4y ago
  Maybe half-invented, but I read an architect's memoirs some years ago and he was saying how around the 1940s there were often cases when he and his chief-architect/supervisor at the time were actually chased out (like, physically) from the construction sites whenever they were coming in to add/make some changes that the constructor was considering as being too over the top/unrealistic. We need for that attitude to come back, at least in a metaphorical way, otherwise we'll continue being stuck with projects like this one.
  - bigDinosaur 4y ago
    Why would you chase the architect with his insane ideas away when you're getting paid by the hour and the project must be completed at some point because there's no alternative for the government? Unfortunately nobody appears to come off as not corrupt or idiotic in some way in this story.
    - scott_w 4y ago
      Because most workers, even though they get paid by the hour, actually want to see the job done. Plenty of people want to do a good job, so when they see someone coming in and adding to the workload to make the job worse they’ll, naturally, tell them to piss off.
      - bobthepanda 4y ago
        There’s also the issue of reputational damage. Everyone associated with BER is now tainted by association.
- smaudet 4y ago
  Even by the claims of your article, it doesn't sound really like it was his fault. The system was designed to a specification, whether or not the architect was given too much free reign is entirely on the board. If you hire a design team to create a car with a massive hole where the engine and wheels should be, because it is more "clean", and then neglect to hire an engineer to check their work is feasible, is it on the design team or on you being incompetent? You can say all you want "hot air naturally rises", true, but I doubt an architect has the training to be a safety engineer, and before you say "oh well that's obvious", consider that heavy objects naturally fall to the earth, and yet we have airplanes. They had a design which would work, but nobody in charge actually did the legwork of bothering to check if it was feasible or not, and/or bungled it so badly even if it were feasible it was like attaching a helicopter to an airplane and then wondering why it didn't fly...
xxpor 4y ago
The whole not using the jetway thing in Germany blows my mind. I flew Lufthansa SEA-FRA in 2019, and the fully packed 747 had to walk onto the ramp, and load up into buses to get to the terminal. Outrageous. The only time I've ever done that in NA is flying at places like CAK in a micro regional jet.
- bobthepanda 4y ago
  LCCs generally do this because charges for the apron are cheaper than the jetway. With Lufthansa, I'd assume that FRA is super busy and didn't actually have a gate available at the time; a 747 is a really large aircraft to load using buses.
- sneak 4y ago
  They also cram the busses sardine-full, despite having signs all over exhorting everyone to keep a 1,5m distance, and half the people are unmasked. thisisfine.jpg
- Atsuii 4y ago
  Apron buses are very common in large airports and I always found it really efficient. From memory I’ve used them at Haneda, Narita and KL. Perhaps the ones in Germany are just altered metro buses though, which would be terrible. Apron buses are efficient due to being low to the ground, having very wide doors to accomodate quick loading and unloading, typically no seats.
  - Aeolun 4y ago
    They may be efficient for the airport, but they suck balls for the passengers. The last thing I want to do after a long and tiring flight is load up into a bunch of packed buses.
  - nradov 4y ago
    Buses are a lot less efficient than proper jetways. Why are European airports so far behind?
    - 4y ago

bobthepanda 4y ago

This glosses over some stuff that is definitely his fault. The first issue that caused the issues, the fire system, was designed to suck air underground, because the architect did not want a fire system to obstruct his roof, never mind that smoke and hot air naturally rise. https://www.thegermanreview.de/p/the-real-story-behind-berlins-airport https://www.thegermanreview.de/p/the-real-story-behind-berli...

paganel 4y ago
Maybe half-invented, but I read an architect's memoirs some years ago and he was saying how around the 1940s there were often cases when he and his chief-architect/supervisor at the time were actually chased out (like, physically) from the construction sites whenever they were coming in to add/make some changes that the constructor was considering as being too over the top/unrealistic. We need for that attitude to come back, at least in a metaphorical way, otherwise we'll continue being stuck with projects like this one.
- bigDinosaur 4y ago
  Why would you chase the architect with his insane ideas away when you're getting paid by the hour and the project must be completed at some point because there's no alternative for the government? Unfortunately nobody appears to come off as not corrupt or idiotic in some way in this story.
  - scott_w 4y ago
    Because most workers, even though they get paid by the hour, actually want to see the job done. Plenty of people want to do a good job, so when they see someone coming in and adding to the workload to make the job worse they’ll, naturally, tell them to piss off.
    - bobthepanda 4y ago
      There’s also the issue of reputational damage. Everyone associated with BER is now tainted by association.
smaudet 4y ago
Even by the claims of your article, it doesn't sound really like it was his fault. The system was designed to a specification, whether or not the architect was given too much free reign is entirely on the board. If you hire a design team to create a car with a massive hole where the engine and wheels should be, because it is more "clean", and then neglect to hire an engineer to check their work is feasible, is it on the design team or on you being incompetent? You can say all you want "hot air naturally rises", true, but I doubt an architect has the training to be a safety engineer, and before you say "oh well that's obvious", consider that heavy objects naturally fall to the earth, and yet we have airplanes. They had a design which would work, but nobody in charge actually did the legwork of bothering to check if it was feasible or not, and/or bungled it so badly even if it were feasible it was like attaching a helicopter to an airplane and then wondering why it didn't fly...

xxpor 4y ago

The whole not using the jetway thing in Germany blows my mind. I flew Lufthansa SEA-FRA in 2019, and the fully packed 747 had to walk onto the ramp, and load up into buses to get to the terminal. Outrageous. The only time I've ever done that in NA is flying at places like CAK in a micro regional jet.

bobthepanda 4y ago
LCCs generally do this because charges for the apron are cheaper than the jetway. With Lufthansa, I'd assume that FRA is super busy and didn't actually have a gate available at the time; a 747 is a really large aircraft to load using buses.
sneak 4y ago
They also cram the busses sardine-full, despite having signs all over exhorting everyone to keep a 1,5m distance, and half the people are unmasked. thisisfine.jpg
Atsuii 4y ago
Apron buses are very common in large airports and I always found it really efficient. From memory I’ve used them at Haneda, Narita and KL. Perhaps the ones in Germany are just altered metro buses though, which would be terrible. Apron buses are efficient due to being low to the ground, having very wide doors to accomodate quick loading and unloading, typically no seats.
- Aeolun 4y ago
  They may be efficient for the airport, but they suck balls for the passengers. The last thing I want to do after a long and tiring flight is load up into a bunch of packed buses.
- nradov 4y ago
  Buses are a lot less efficient than proper jetways. Why are European airports so far behind?
  - 4y ago