How architects design airports to handle superlong security lines

The historically long security lines currently snaking through U.S. airports are the painful result of extreme circumstances. Callouts, no-shows, and resignations by Transportation Security Administration workers fed up with a lack of pay during a partial government shutdown, combined with a bump in spring break travelers, have created unusually congested airport security checkpoints. For the architects and airport authorities that work together to design these heavily regulated spaces, it’s the kind of convergence you can’t exactly plan for. But, according to some of the designers of these spaces, airports are increasingly incorporating design features that can help them manage extreme security lines in the future. George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston [Image: Stantec, in collaboration with Grimshaw] Flexible space allows for overflows The lines, though currently caused by TSA worker shortages, are actually governed by the airports themselves and therefore