Project: Yelizovo Airport named after Vitus Bering Architecture:Claudio Silvestrin Architect Photo: airport press office Location: Kamchatka, Russia
You can’t really come to Kamchatka — you can only fly there: there are no roads, railways, or ferries. The airfield has existed here since 1942: first as a military base, from which planes departed for the Kuril operation, and since 1948 as a civilian airport. On March 31, 2025, Yelizovo Airport received a new terminal: a circular building shaped like a volcanic caldera, five times larger than the old one.
The new terminal at Vitus Bering Airport was designed by Italian architect Claudio Silvestrin, often called the godfather of modern minimalism. For eight years, he created Giorgio Armani stores around the world, designed a loft for Kanye West, and made exhibition installations for Anish Kapoor. His creed is "architecture for contemplation and for our soul." He had never designed an airport in Kamchatka before.
The project was inspired by the caldera of Gorely volcano, whose crater is covered by an ice lake for much of the year. The terminal is circular: 50,000 m² of ring-shaped planning, and there are only a few airports like this in the world. The dark metal facade in an earthy tone is covered with small white dots to make it feel lighter, while the walls are cut through with large round and oval windows.
From above, Yelizovo reads like a nest: in the center of the inner courtyard stands a 25-meter white egg-shaped dome, which houses the congress hall. Silvestrin refers to Piero della Francesca’s Montefeltro Altarpiece, where the egg suspended above the Virgin Mary becomes a symbol of birth and perfection. A pond surrounds the dome and turns into an ice rink in winter: there is definitely nowhere else like it.
Inside the terminal, the Kamchatka palette comes through: walls of reddish plaster, ceilings made of pear wood with a pinkish tint, and stone in warm earthy tones. The result is a cozy spaceship in a retro-futurist style: smooth lines, flowing forms, and not a single sharp corner.
Silvestrin wanted local residents to use the airport as part of the city, not as a foreign object. Yelizovo includes a fish market and a spa — a nod to the thermal springs. Five jet bridges lead to the aircraft; before, people used to step out directly into freezing weather. Half of the terminal’s second floor is occupied by a five-star hotel with 3-meter-wide round porthole windows and views of the volcanoes.
Building in Kamchatka is an engineering challenge of its own: the site is in a 10-point seismic zone, with a snow load of 480 kg/m² and wind pressure of 85 kg/m². The structure, made of 9,000 tons of steel and 30,000 m³ of concrete, is divided into three blocks by seismic joints, with hydraulic dampers built into the design.
In July 2025, four months after opening, Kamchatka was hit by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake — the strongest in 73 years. The load-bearing structures held up. But some of the 20,000 decorative ceiling panels came loose, and one woman was injured. The structure passed its first real test; the finishing did not.
In May 2026, Yelizovo received the international BIG SEE Architecture Award in the Infrastructure category, with Silvestrin personally presenting the project in Slovenia. The hotel is still under construction, and the international section has not yet opened. The terminal is already welcoming flights, and the first impression of Kamchatka is architecture.