Architects from all over the globe have been welcomed to submit conceptual designs for what will soon become one of the biggest airports in the world, situated between Lodz and Warsaw in Poland.

The CPK airport, short for Central Communication Port, is believed to be able to service nearly 100 million passengers per year. Right now it’s still only a proposed project that is yet to be greenlit by the Polish government, but if everything goes according to plan, it will be fully functioning by 2027. The initiative for the design competition has gathered nearly a dozen concepts from world renowned architectural firms based in various countries.

The expected size of the new Polish airport is believed to be larger than New York City’s Manhattan, meaning that it can easily service the expected annual hoard of 100 million passengers. CPK officials believe, however, that during the first year of its opening the airport won’t see more than 45 million passengers.

Mikołaj Wild, the Polish Secretary of State at the Ministry of Infrastructure, stated that the appearances of the main façade and the servicing structures of the airport will be chosen through the international competition that will run till the end of 2019. The winner of the contest will need to present a concept for a floor plan, amenities and overall appearances that would do CPK justice for a long period of 25 years, which means that the architectural vision needs to be backed up by creative, engineering and entrepreneurial calculations with utmost precision.

So far the most futuristic and environmentally friendly proposals have come from Zaha Hadid – the company of the late Iraqi-British prodigy Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid, who was the very first woman to receive a Pritzker Architecture Prize and the only female who has ever been awarded with the prestigious Royal Gold Medal by the UK’s Royal Institute of British Architects.

A total of three concepts have been submitted by the Zaha Hadid company, all of which focus on lush greenery, bright interior design, lots of natural light flow and an extensive railway infrastructure that would make transportation from and to the airport more comfortable.

Other acclaimed architects from Benoy, Grimshaw, Pascall+Watson, Chapman Taylor and Foster+Partners have also entered the competition. Albeit with fewer concepts than Zaha Hadid, their ideas also strive towards a modern, functional, self-sustainable and inspirational design for what will surely become the biggest airport in Poland.

Dariusz Sawicki, one of the CPK board members, shared with the media that the decision to host a global contest allows the Poles to think outside the box by welcoming foreign ideas which have already provided solutions to aspects the Polish teams previously hadn’t even considered. The board has dubbed the project a “communication hub” as the word “airport” wouldn’t be sufficient enough to measure its grandeur.

Due to the site’s massive size, various transportation methods and vast passenger capacity the board is seeking to cash down the investors’ money into a communication center that would include shuttles for different types of transportation, airplane terminals, conference centers, restaurants, shopping areas, hotels and a plethora of other amenities. Benoy’s architects even proposed to name the premises Airport City due to the variety of facilities the area could house.

As of right now, the CPK board hasn’t confirmed or denied the possibility of expanding the idea of a large airport into a full blown complex with places for side activities such as shopping, accommodation, workspace offices and so forth. The general idea is to make transportation convenient and stress-free for all passengers, but even the most conservative CPK officials can’t deny the advantages of a gigantic Airport City.