Cover At dusk, the rippling roof vaults of Techo International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia — named one of the world’s most beautiful airports at the Prix Versailles 2026 and designed by Foster + Partners — catch the last light, each scalloped form repeating along the terminal's length against a darkening sky. (Photo: Nigel Young)
At dusk, the rippling roof vaults of Techo International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia — named one of the world’s most beautiful airports at the Prix Versailles 2026 and designed by Foster + Partners — catch the last light, each scalloped form repeating along the terminal's length against a darkening sky. (Photo: Nigel Young)
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The Prix Versailles has published its 2026 list of the world’s most beautiful airports: seven terminals across five countries, from a lotus-shaped roof outside Mumbai to a basket-weave ceiling in Phnom Penh
On 15 June 2026, the Prix Versailles published its World’s Most Beautiful Airports List, naming seven airports and terminals across China, Germany, India, Cambodia and the United States. The selection includes major hub renovations at Guangzhou Baiyun and Frankfurt, both among the busiest airports in their respective countries, as well as entirely new buildings such as Navi Mumbai’s lotus-shaped terminal by Zaha Hadid Architects and Foster + Partners’ Techo International outside Phnom Penh. In the United States, Pittsburgh and San Diego both feature terminals that replace ageing predecessors with structures designed around their local landscapes, from the Allegheny Mountains to San Diego’s bayfront. Three of the seven will receive a World Title, Prix Versailles, Interior or Exterior, at the end of the year.
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Terminal 3 - Artelia and the Guangdong Architectural Design and Research Institute
The departure hall waiting area at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport’s Terminal 3, with a sweeping timber-clad ceiling featuring leaf-shaped acoustic panels above a polished stone floor (Photo: 李威/Li Wei)
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The new terminal at Guangzhou Baiyun, a major hub for China Southern Airlines, takes its form from clouds, water and flowers associated with the Lingnan region. Terraces, atriums and gardens run through the building, culminating in the highest open-air public observation deck at any Chinese airport.
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Frankfurt Airport, Terminal 3 - Christoph Mäckler
Above The exterior of Frankfurt Airport’s new Terminal 3, designed by Christoph Mäckler, with its glazed facade and elevated Skyline people-mover platform in the foreground
Above A detail of Terminal 3’s coffered ceiling structure at Frankfurt Airport, with grid-patterned skylights running above a glazed mezzanine level
The exterior of Frankfurt Airport’s new Terminal 3, designed by Christoph Mäckler, with its glazed facade and elevated Skyline people-mover platform in the foreground
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Mäckler’s terminal for Lufthansa’s home hub covers 1.3 square kilometres, roughly the footprint of Frankfurt’s historic centre. Jura limestone and travertine line piers, gates and lounges built to the proportions of city streets and squares, and three rotating sculptures of coloured aluminium discs hang above the public concourses.
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Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi International Airport, Terminal 2 - Nuru Karim
Above Seen from outside, the structure reads as a single colossal tree, its canopy of slender timber battens branching outward to shade the glazed facade below
Above At the departures forecourt, a forest of golden timber-clad columns fans out into canopy-like brackets, framing views towards the city beyond
Seen from outside, the structure reads as a single colossal tree, its canopy of slender timber battens branching outward to shade the glazed facade below
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Above Inside the check-in hall, the tree-form canopies repeat in rhythmic succession, their interlaced timber fins creating a cathedral-like procession of light and shadow
Above The arrivals hall is crowned by a sweeping bamboo barrel vault, its woven lattice ribs evoking the form of a traditional Assamese boat or basket structure
Inside the check-in hall, the tree-form canopies repeat in rhythmic succession, their interlaced timber fins creating a cathedral-like procession of light and shadow
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Guwahati’s new terminal, the gateway to Northeast India’s Seven Sister states, takes the bamboo orchid as its starting point: vaulted ceilings curve and fold like the flower’s petals, while ceiling patterns trace the paths of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries. Tribal art and craftsmanship are built into the waiting areas themselves rather than added afterwards.
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Navi Mumbai International Airport, Terminal 1 - Zaha Hadid Architects
Inside Terminal 1, lotus-inspired columns rise into an overarching ceiling, their petalled forms unfurling overhead like the sacred flower that gave the terminal its design language
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Built on reclaimed marshland after rivers were rerouted and high-voltage lines relocated, Navi Mumbai’s Terminal 1 opened in 2025 as the city’s second airport. Zaha Hadid Architects’ lotus motif runs from the roof’s overhanging petals down through a sequence of geometric portals into lotus-form columns marking the terminal’s entrances.
Techo International Airport - Foster + Partners
Above Lit from within at night, the terminal’s row of soaring vaults glows against the dark, their fan-like profiles echoing the silhouettes of Cambodia’s palaces and temples (Photo: Nigel Young)
Above Inside Techo International Airport, a series of basket-woven roof canopies arches overhead, their lattice-like underside filtering daylight across the concourse below (Photo: Nigel Young)
Lit from within at night, the terminal’s row of soaring vaults glows against the dark, their fan-like profiles echoing the silhouettes of Cambodia’s palaces and temples (Photo: Nigel Young)
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Above By day, the terminal’s undulating canopy reads as a procession of woven, leaf-like vaults, supported on slender columns above a planted green roofline (Photo: Nigel Young)
By day, the terminal’s undulating canopy reads as a procession of woven, leaf-like vaults, supported on slender columns above a planted green roofline (Photo: Nigel Young)
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Set to replace Phnom Penh International Airport, Techo takes its name from a royal title meaning invincible. Foster + Partners’ single undulating roof rises to a central crescendo echoing the silhouettes of Khmer temples, its underside woven in a pattern that mimics bamboo and rattan basketry. Rumduol trees, Cambodia’s national flower, grow within the central void.
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Pittsburgh International Airport - Gensler and HDR, with luis vidal + architects
At dusk, branching red steel columns support a deep wood-clad canopy along the departures kerb, their forked forms reading like a row of trees against the evening sky (Photo: Ema Peter)
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Pittsburgh’s new landside terminal, replacing one that opened in 1992, takes its rolling roofline from the nearby Allegheny Mountains. Inside, 38 steel columns shaped like trees support a canopy meant to recall the region’s forests, and a new Petal Tunnel nods to the city’s Fort Pitt Tunnel.
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San Diego International Airport, Terminal 1 - Gensler, with James Carpenter
Above Terminal 1’s curved glass facade catches the evening light, its rippling fluted screen and angled cross-bracing visible behind a line of palm trees (Photo: Ema Peter)
Above At dusk, a luminous pink jellyfish sculpture anchors the kerbside approach, set against the terminal’s cantilevered roofline and connecting skybridge (Photo: Ema Peter)
Terminal 1’s curved glass facade catches the evening light, its rippling fluted screen and angled cross-bracing visible behind a line of palm trees (Photo: Ema Peter)
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A sweeping gold sculptural form drifts across the wood-clad ceiling of the departures hall, part of the terminal’s curated digital and physical art programme (Photo: Ema Peter)
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San Diego’s new Terminal 1 replaces the building that served America’s busiest single-runway airport for decades. Its defining feature is a 244-metre curved glass facade developed with artist and architect James Carpenter, which filters daylight and tempers glare. Removing structural columns from the ticketing hall opened up the space and cut the building’s carbon footprint by 30 per cent.
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Jennifer Choo is Regional Managing Editor of Tatler Homes, covering architecture, interior design, and art across Asia. Based in Malaysia, she oversees regional content on luxury residential design and contemporary art collections. Legally trained but choosing to pursue her passion for design, she previously led notable design publications and worked as an interior stylist and art consultant for property developers, design firms, and private clients.
