Urban-Air Port Collaborates with Gardiner & Theobald and Atelier Ten
The team unveils innovative strategies for designing and building financially and environmentally sustainable Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) & aviation infrastructure.
Illustration by Atelier Ten: Integrated LEED Platinum Sustainability Strategies of Urban-Air Port’s Next-Gen AirOne Vertiport.
Today, at Passenger Terminal Expo 2025 in Madrid, the world’s leading international airport conference and host of Skytrax World Airport Awards, we are delighted to announce our very latest news on how we are shaping sustainable aviation infrastructure.
As anticipated by the team at Urban-Air Port (UAP), cost of certification has taken its toll on several eVTOL OEMs in Europe, Asia and the US. This new reality of exorbitant costs to design, develop and certify electric VTOL aircraft has left many wondering how did this happen and why wasn't this foreseen?
UAP has been developing its VTOL landing and charging infrastructure since before 2019 with early projects for clients heavily invested in the sector including Airbus, Volocopter, Honda Motors and Hyundai Motor Group and consistently identified the importance of tackling head-on, the capital costs across all aspects of the AAM value chain, particularly on the design, build and operational costs of the necessary vertiport infrastructure. The fundamental pillars to success.
Success, being financial viability powered by UAP’s innovative strategies resulting in social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Having developed and secured a strong international patent portfolio (including tech on mitigating negative effects of eVTOL downwash & outwash), the team at UAP continues its mission to develop the key technologies to allow compact, affordable and efficient infrastructure for this industry - always advocating, that without realistic infrastructure designs and costs, the business case for eVTOL will not stack up. As one of the few, if not only, revenue generating business in this sector, UAP leads by example.
As early as 2022, the team highlighted the importance of non-aeronautical revenue to bolster the business case for vertiports and created their subsidiary Urban-Air Choice to capture all non-aero related services from parking, EV charging, F+B and Retail & Digital. Today, UAP continues its pioneering work and has teamed up with the world leading construction and property consultancy Gardiner & Theobald to ensure cost certainty for its suite of vertiport technologies and vertiport models and with the environmental design consultancy Atelier Ten, part of the Singapore based Surbana Jurong Group, to provide best-in-class environmental design, analysis and LEED pre-certification of our next generation vertiport solution.
“Our multi-disciplinary background in Architecture, Design, Construction and Aerospace & Technology has always led us to firmly believe in our approach - a small footprint, high capacity infrastructure will become the fundamental pillar of this industry and essential for it to be successful. Over the last 8 years we have honed this belief into real solutions with real technologies that can be used either in part or in whole to enable new, or existing heliport/vertiport sites to be viable. Working with Jason and his team at G&T and Atelier Ten continues to be a real pleasure as their knowledge, depth and understanding of what makes a truly viable & sustainable solution is fully aligned with our own.”
9th April 2025 signing ceremony at the Surbana Jurong Group stand at Passenger Terminal Exhibition, Madrid, Spain, with Ricky Sandhu (UAP), Jason Fowler (G&T), Andrea Wu (UAP), Christopher Shugg (SJ Group) and Ioannis Rizos (Atelier Ten).
Financial Viability
Gardiner & Theobald worked with UAP to hone their production cost basis for a fully integrated AirOne Next-Gen vertiport. As a market leading independent consultant, G&T’s input has produced a robust budget for this stage of development taking each element of the facility and modelling against extensive current market benchmark prices.
They have led identification and appraisal of risks and opportunities that have enabled refinement of the scope to enhance value and their cost led design reviews have generated a clear, structured cost plan differentiating between base scope necessary for operations and optional elements relevant to related commercial activity and passenger service.
“G&T is delighted to support Urban-Air Port in the development of AirOne and related facilities. Advanced Air Mobility is a core component of a future sustainable aviation sector that requires investment of time and effort now to materialise.
We have added our commercial and project delivery skillset and experience to support their excellent team in resolving a robust proposition for delivery. In doing so we have adapted our knowledge for this new sector and look forward to applying further as the market evolves.”
Environmental Sustainability
The AirOne vertiport’s design allows for localisation to climate through a variety of features including adaptable façade transparency, which can be adjusted in response to elevation and shading from surrounding developments. Strategically placed openings at both low and high levels help prevent heat build-up within the hangar, significantly enhancing passenger comfort during embarkation and disembarkation from VTOLs.
UAPs’ AirOne NextGen is sufficiently adaptable to incorporate measures aligned with LEED Platinum principles, offering potential for certification if pursued by the owner / operator. Beyond passive strategies, any residual heating and cooling demand will be met by high-efficiency reversible air source heat pumps, supported by a 300 m² photovoltaic array capable of supplying a substantial portion of the vertiport’s electricity and battery charging needs.
The design also supports options for rainwater harvesting for non-potable uses such as toilet flushing and vehicle washing when operating as a standalone facility, while offering the flexibility to connect to the host building’s services if located on a rooftop. An intelligent fire prevention system monitors battery rooms using infrared technology to detect temperature increases and provide early warning.
“We’re delighted to support UAP on the development of their vertiport solution, its hugely exciting to be involved in their progress and assist them in ensuring cutting edge sustainable design strategies not only form the core of their solutions but are also communicated through established certification processes – just like larger airports do.
This is a giant leap forward in sustainable air-transport and its supporting infrastructure, the future of mobility is changing, and we want to help shape it.”
“Transport is one of the biggest contributors to man-made climate change, therefore supporting the development of low-carbon air transport has the potential to make a significant contribution to reducing impacts. Thinking through the strategies to navigate the next steps in low carbon transport is really exciting! ”
About Urban-Air Port®
Aviation-Tech & Defence-Tech | The World's most advanced, patented infrastructure technology for Advanced Air Mobility.
Urban-Air Port is an award-winning infrastructure provider that develops landing and charging infrastructure for new forms of sustainable urban air transport such as passenger and cargo VTOL air taxis and autonomous delivery drones for civilian and defence applications. Its mission is to enable the electrification of aviation by addressing the largest single constraint to sustainable air mobility – ground infrastructure – in order to create a zero-emission mobility ecosystem, significantly cutting congestion and air pollution from passenger and cargo transport.
Urban-Air Port is recognised as a world leader in the Advanced Air Mobility sector, with plans to deliver patented vertiport technology that provides ultra-compact, high-capacity infrastructure: this will revolutionise cities around the world, making them more connected and cleaner, thereby accelerating our green economic future. Urban-Air Port’s technology is proven to respond more effectively to the unique characteristics of electric & hybrid VTOL aircraft and therefore offer safer, quieter and more sustainable vertiport infrastructure than any other provider.
The Urban-Air Port technology-driven “Vertical Airfield” compacts a conventional airfield and allows for safe electric vertical take-off and landing at height, acting like an aircraft carrier. Urban-Air Port vertiports are 80% smaller than any other provider: they provide a modular design for flexible expansion, maximise eVTOL throughput and come with a modular energy storage system – all in all providing an enhanced passenger experience, and optimum performance and range for the eVTOL due to minimised energy consumption during ground operations.
Urban-Air Port’s Air-One project in Coventry, launched in April 2022 and supported by UK Government Research and Innovation funding, was the world’s first fully operational vertiport in such dense downtown location, with over 15,000 visitors and 150 successful flights orchestrated in the complex urban and air environment of downtown Coventry and within Coventry Airport’s Flight Restriction Zone.
The company is backed by major international partners, including Supernal (a part of Hyundai Motor Group) and Directors of M7 Real Estate (part of Oxford Properties). Urban-Air Port’s team of innovators, aeronautical engineers and aerospace experts have worked at companies including Airbus, Foster + Partners, Arup, BAA, Bank of Ireland, Knight Frank, McKinsey, Hyundai Motor Group, Vertical Aerospace, EASA, NATS, Uber, Qatar Airways, H55, Otto Aviation and the US Special Forces & British Army.
Visit www.urbanairport.com for more information and follow us on LinkedIn.
About Gardiner & Theobald
G&T is a construction and property consultancy with 1,400 dedicated and highly specialised professionals committed to providing World-Class Service to its clients. Founded in 1835, G&T provides Cost Management, Project Management, Infrastructure Management and Specialist Consultancy across all sectors of the built environment. The firm is selectively international and operates from a network of offices in the United Kingdom, United States and Ireland.
G&T is recognised as one of the leading consultancies in the sector and has delivered some of the world’s most recognisable construction and property projects, including critical infrastructure, energy and utilities projects, large-scale industrial, manufacturing, data centre and life-sciences facilities, complex corporate office schemes, high-end residential and mixed-use developments, five-star luxury hotels, resorts and restaurants, arts, heritage and cultural venues, and innovative healthcare and educational institutions.
To learn more about G&T, please visit www.gardiner.com
About Atelier Ten, a Surbana Jurong Group company
We are environmental design consultants, finding ways for buildings to tread more lightly on the planet. We’re also lighting designers who illuminate spaces with beauty and efficiency. And we are building services engineers. We know our way around all the elements that bring structures to life, from pipes to ducts to wires. On some projects we wear all three hats at once, sometimes just one or two.
We help clients create smart buildings that work with the natural laws of physics. Buildings that lift the spirit and make people feel good. Buildings that give back to the wider environment and don’t waste energy or resources.
High-performance, sustainable, award-winning buildings.
On every project, we’re spurred by the challenge of doing more with less. Every day we explore what it means to make architecture part of the wider environmental system. A pretty big concept when you think about it.
The integral nature of our work makes it invisible. So, at its most successful, it simply works.
We’re known as progressive.
Our green credentials attract some clients like bees to honey. That doesn’t mean we only work with people with big budgets and big sustainability goals. We’re always keen to get stuck into solving problems, whatever the scale – we simply find a way to best suit each client’s scope.
Then we push ourselves to find solutions that go beyond what’s expected. And we push our clients (nicely) to think creatively about their challenges.
We’re a safe pair of hands: you can rely on us to make beautiful, efficient buildings. And we’re shrewd operators. Exactly who you need at your side to navigate the maze of compliance, regulations, permissions, benchmarking, incentives and grants that accompanies any build.
Find out more by visiting our website www.atelierten.com
About Surbana Jurong Group
Surbana Jurong Group is a global urban, infrastructure and managed services consulting firm, with over 70 years of track record in successful project delivery. Headquartered in Singapore, the group has a global talent pool of over 16,000 across Surbana Jurong and our member companies AETOS, Atelier Ten, B+H, KTP, Prostruct, RBG, SAA, Sino-Sun and SMEC, based in more than 120 offices in over 40 countries. They include architects, designers, planners, engineers and other specialists driven by progressive thinking and creative ideas to shape a better future.
Our technical experts deliver sustainable solutions that cover the entire project life cycle from planning and design, through to delivery and management, as well as decommissioning and closure. We provide a full suite of multidisciplinary consultancy services across a diverse range of sectors including aviation, healthcare, hospitality, transport, energy, water and the environment.
Surbana Jurong has built more than a million homes in Singapore, created master plans in more than 30 countries and developed over 100 industrial parks globally. Our tag line “Real impact, made together” conveys our role as a pragmatic partner committed to creating measurable and meaningful change in the world. We are a collective of problem solvers, motivated and inspired by the real outcomes we achieve through our work.
Advanced infrastructure solutions cater to the rapidly evolving needs of the aviation industry. Aviation is a dynamic market with continually evolving regulations, operational systems, and user needs. Through the adoption of advanced infrastructure solutions, we are helping our clients and partners simplify the complex, embed sustainable practices into their projects and deliver a future focused aerotropolis.
SJ Group delivers integrated aviation solutions that optimise capacity, improve passenger experience, and streamline operational efficiency while prioritising safety and sustainability. Our services extend to project management, procurement, construction management, institutional strengthening, and development of management systems.
Together we create future-ready airports that help shape human connection, communities, and business. With the aviation sector experiencing unprecedented change, we’re supporting our clients and partners with a connected ecosystem of experienced global specialists to maximise emerging opportunities.
As part of the SJ Group, SMEC provides experienced global specialists to cater to all aspects of aviation planning, engineering, design, and delivery. Through our global network, we have partnerships with Changi Airport, CAPE and ST Engineering, positioning us as a leading aviation consultancy.
Major airports in our group portfolio include Changi (Singapore), London Heathrow, Noida (India), Western Sydney Airport (Australia) and Jedda Airport (Saudi Arabia).
For more information, please visit: www.surbanajurong.com.
