Designed to guide circulation and offer additional seating within a busy airport departure lounge, this linear travertine island brings new visual focus to an otherwise cluttered gathering space.

Breaking with typical material choices for information stations, a rectangular, travertine seating station doubles as a signature info-point within Malta International Airport’s departure terminal. Recalling the tone and texture of typical Maltese stone, the seating island has been designed as a subtle wayfinding intervention, wrapping around – and disguising – an existing structural column at the point of a busy intersection on the main terminal floor.

The brief for the seating and information island was to introduce a physical and visual buffer between the security screening area and the terminal’s departure gates, creating a diminutive landmark within a busy circulation route and the terminal’s main seating area. The design proposed positioning the island at the first junction or break in travellers’ journeys from land to air-side. Previously a chaotic intersection, the travertine bench would be paired with a large FID screen – a necessary and immediate point of information for visitors to encounter at the start of their terminal experience.

A strip of planting runs parallel to the seating band along the length of the island, introducing green into the terminal space and creating an added layer of visual separation between entry point and gates. Black, T-shaped bars divide the informal seating pew into evenly distributed seats, alleviating visual density and redirecting focus back to the digital screen above.