There’s no denying that first impressions are important.

And for travellers the first impression they usually make of a new country happens at the airport.

Architecture professionals and students were recently challenged to redesign the entrance to the LF Wade International Airport, as part of The Institute of Bermuda Architects’ Summer Design Competition.

There were originally six groups taking part, but due to challenging workloads only two groups stayed on.

Tomorrow the winning team will be announced and handed a cash prize at a special ceremony at Washington Mall from 6pm until 9pm.

All the group’s design plans will be later on display at the Island’s airport.

Jonathan Castro, an IBA spokesman, explained that the designs were part of an educational excise and not intended for any future works.

However, they helped to spark the imaginations of local architects and get them to challenge their skills, he said.

“Participating in competitions provides a healthy opportunity to strengthen one’s skills, while promoting healthy competitiveness between firms and students,” Mr Castro explained.

“Participants are often required to work quickly and creatively to develop an idea from scratch and often do it in just a short amount of time.

“Competitions also offer an array of perspectives and solutions for the same problem.”

Mr Castro, an architect at Cooper Gardner, said one of the components of the design was that it instil the sense of a grand arrival. Their designs had to include a master plan, as well as 3D and physical models.

“This year’s scope has been the biggest to date, with such an undertaking including developing both the causeway crossing as well as the international airport in parallel,” he said. “The IBA wanted to push the participants to think creatively and quickly to develop a large scale scheme.”

The competition also included input from Bermuda Association of Landscape Architects (BALA) and Bermuda Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE).

Mr Castro said the overall goal of the competition was to celebrate architecture. “We also wanted the public to become more aware of the IBA and our efforts to promote architecture and good design,” he said.

“Other reasons behind the competition is we wanted to make the public aware of talented local firms and students, encourage more engagement across different professions, as well as encourage a healthy conversation and dialogue about the work.

“This project was not intended to be made a reality, but we wanted people to consider their Island and what the future could look like,” he said.

The IBA is encouraging the public to come out and support local students and professionals at the awards presentation which will be held on the second level of the Washington Mall (at the former Soundstage) starting at 6pm.

People are encouraged to give a donation, which will go towards future events and student scholarships.

Event sponsors include: Bermuda International Airport, Ace Group, Mailboxes US Express, Washington Properties, (DMG) Design Flair, Discovery Wines, AJW Construction and Bermuda Blueprinting.