pillars in portugal

(2003) extended runway at funchal airport in portugal. the original 1400m runway was notoriously short and, as a result, sometimes dangerous for landing planes

the runway extension won the iabse’s ‘outstanding structures award’ and rightly so: due to an obvious lack of land, engineers have supported the extension on 180 pillars, each 70m high. on the last photo you can see what seems to be a car park that now lives under the end of the runway