A bamboo-inspired sky forest in northeast India, an enormous lotus flower seemingly floating above Mumbai, a Cambodian cover of towering timber—these are simply a few of the architectural options discovered contained in the world’s most stunning (*7*).
Seven airports and terminals had been chosen for the 2026 Prix Versailles World’s Most Beautiful Airports List, unveiled in Paris on Monday, June 15. The annual structure awards—which acknowledge excellent modern design world wide—selected terminals in China, Germany, India, Cambodia, and the United States. According to the group, the winners display how airports are evolving into locations in their very own proper.
The record spans from Guangzhou’s flower-inspired Terminal 3 and Frankfurt’s huge city-sized enlargement to Pittsburgh’s mountain-shaped roofline and San Diego’s glass-wrapped waterfront gateway. Three of the seven tasks will go on to obtain extra world titles for structure inside or exterior design later this 12 months, per Prix Versailles.
According to the judges, the chosen airports are trendy terminals that effectively steadiness the demands of fast, high-volume travel whereas additionally reflecting a meaningful sense of place—moderately than functioning solely as transit infrastructure. Jérôme Gouadain, Secretary General of the Prix Versailles, mentioned modern airports had develop into “innovative, inescapable hallmarks of their regions and their eras.”
He added: “They are innovative, because they resolve the apparent conflict between the increasing frequency of travel and the need for speed—both central to an airport’s purpose—on the one hand and, on the other, the singularity of a form of tourism that aims to be accessible and that values people’s time in places that, in this day and age, can no longer be described as mere ‘transfer’ spaces.
“And they’re inescapable, in that this infrastructure leaves an enduring environmental footprint on the land but additionally on the historical past of humanity: within the amalgamation of structure that they show, airports have gotten enticing settings, emblems of financial, cultural, and social dynamics that can proceed to form the societies of tomorrow, draw them collectively and unify them.”
But do not simply take their phrase for it—see for your self. Below, the world’s most stunning airports for 2026.
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Prix Versailles
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Terminal 3
Guangzhou is named China’s City of Flowers, and its new Terminal 3 combines clouds, water, and blossoms right into a sequence of curves, terraces, gardens, and light-filled atriums set in one of many world’s largest transport buildings. Designed by Artelia in collaboration with the Guangdong Architectural Design and Research Institute, the terminal attracts closely on Lingnan tradition, the southern Chinese custom formed by Guangzhou’s subtropical local weather and lengthy historical past as a buying and selling port. The constructing’s natural types assist steer passengers by means of the terminal, whereas gardens and open areas break up its monumental scale. Its most dramatic outside characteristic is claimed to be the very best open-air public statement deck at any Chinese airport, giving vacationers a uncommon probability to step exterior and watch plane shifting throughout the runways under.