UNStudio has been appointed to design the new Kutaisi Airport in Georgia.

The airport will serve tourists visiting two major heritage sites and politicians and diplomats once the nation’s parliament moves there from the capital, Tbilisi.

President Mikheil Saakashvili demolished one of the walls of the old airport this week and said work would be completed next year.

The 4,000sq m terminal building will house a central arrivals hall, a check-in area, three departure gates plus retail, cafés, customs and border police offices.

The 55m-high air traffic control tower is clad with a transparent skin with the potential to change colour as air traffic fluctuates.

UNStudio founder Ben van Berkel said: “Moments of both leaving and returning are celebrated by the large span, open spaces and high ceiling of the terminal structure - reflecting the ways in which such gestures were employed in the great railway stations of the past.”