Spotlight: BAY System
‘Spotlight’ is a series that focuses on a single product developed by Foster + Partners Industrial Design – offering insights into the design process. Ranging from lighting, furniture to building systems, each edition celebrates a key milestone, award, anniversary or project installation.
Following the BAY System showcase at Passenger Terminal Expo last month, we explore our ongoing collaboration with the Italian manufacturer Poltrona Frau. Airports are among the most dynamic architectural environments, continuously adapting to accommodate high passenger volumes and increasingly diverse travellers. With dynamism in mind, the industrial design studio developed BAY – an adaptable seating system designed to anticipate change while maintaining comfort, timeless design, and spatial integrity.
Through extensive research into airport layouts and passenger behaviour, BAY reimagines the traditional seating system. By offering travellers choice through tailored and adaptable seating solutions, the system allows for variations in density, levels of comfort, and privacy.
BAY responds to different key traveller typologies: the active passenger – social, connected, child-friendly; the relaxed journeyer – prioritising comfort, leisure, privacy and dining; and the business traveller – focused, seeking acoustic and visual privacy with integrated connectivity. It also addresses different stakeholders needs – from architects demanding flexible and modular layouts tailored to individual airport identity; to managers looking for integrated cabling, ease of assembly, maintenance, and replacement.
Available as two different seating types – BAY Gate and BAY Lounge – each provides distinct levels of ergonomic support and privacy. BAY Gate accommodates high-density gate areas, while BAY Lounge’s curved shape allows for both individual and group gathering. The BAY System is characterised by its curved and linear modules allowing varied layouts, having a dual-beam structure that conceals its electrical connectivity within the form itself. This modularity ensures that each airport can tailor BAY to its preferred layout and user needs. The seating structure can also integrate AI-driven biometric systems, enabling airports to analyse usage patterns through anonymised occupancy and movement data, improving the passenger experience.
Today, BAY incorporates accessories such as pouffes, tables, drinks holders and lighting elements, giving it the ability to respond to different passenger needs – from large families to business travellers, individuals seeking privacy, or those with reduced mobility.
Moving beyond aviation, BAY is being specified in universities, workplaces and hospitality, continuously adapting and evolving through real-time user feedback, while staying true to its original concept: a seating system that is instinctively human, adaptable and enduring.
