El Lissitzky Business Lounge

Hans Maréchal's Business Lounge operates as a symbolic threshold space where the phenomenology of travel transforms into an experience of grounded sanctuary through carefully orchestrated material and formal choices that encode meanings of shelter, nature, and transcendence. The undulating wooden ceiling functions as an archetypal canopy, evoking the protective embrace of forest cover or the ribbed vaulting of sacred architectural spaces, its organic flowing forms suggesting natural growth patterns that connect occupants to biophilic comfort despite the technological context of modern transit. The concentric elliptical patterns may reference ripples expanding across still water, symbolizing the journey's point of departure spreading outward into possibility, while simultaneously suggesting tree rings that encode accumulated time and wisdom within their layered structure. The turquoise crystalline elements introduce symbolism of precious mineral wealth, transformation through geological pressure, and the liminal quality of ice or glacial formations that occupy states between solid and liquid, echoing the transitional nature of the lounge space itself between departure and destination. The chromatic dialogue between warm amber wood and cool teal establishes a temperature symbolism balancing terrestrial warmth with celestial coolness, the earthbound with the aerial, the familiar with the extraordinary. The curvilinear geometry throughout resists orthogonal rationality in favor of organic flow, potentially encoding values of flexibility, natural harmony, and resistance to rigid systematic thinking. The material hierarchy places natural wood in the dominant overhead position traditionally associated with divine or protective presence, while grounding occupants on neutral terrazzo that suggests stability and permanence. This spatial organization invites interpretation as a contemporary sacred grove, an architectural environment that honors both the journey ahead and the contemplative pause that precedes it.

The new terminal is designed in Russian constructivist style. The imposing ceiling in the lounge is a representation of the supremacist style of El Lissitzky which he called Proun, "the stage where someone changes from painting to architecture". By adopting the architectural columns in the ceiling design it was possible to divide the lounge into zones. The large mirror wall at the end of the lounge makes the movement become infinite. In reference to painting Victory over the sun.