How might we reduce stress at Bergamo Airport when a wave of people arrives all at once?
We started by looking closely at when and where crowds of people suddenly converge, and landed on Milan-Bergamo Airport as one of the city's busiest, most energetic spaces, where movement and tension are constantly concentrated in one place. We identified three recurring problems: a lack of any sense of community among travelers, an instinct to rush toward the exit as fast as possible, and a general lack of social etiquette in these tight, high-pressure moments.
For inspiration on how to solve these problems, we turned to ant colonies. Ants are highly social, altruistic creatures, every individual acts not for itself, but for the wellbeing of the colony as a whole, which seems to be lacking in the behavior of visitors at an airport. Ants manage tight spaces without ever clogging, merging fluidly like a zipper, and make way for carriers of heavier loads. t's a decentralized system built entirely on the group's shared success, no individual ant benefits at the expense of another.
Back at the airport, we noticed the same pattern in reverse: the moment a plane lands, there's a rush to get out, and that rush breeds chaos, stress, and anxiety. People seem to forget that exiting or transiting through an airport follows a set process that takes time, no matter how fast anyone moves. So our goal became less about speeding things up, and more about slowing people down: encouraging travelers to let others go first, to hold back the instinct to rush, and to bring a bit more social etiquette into a space that rarely asks for it.
The concept we landed on is simple: Infographic pamphlets are placed in airport seat pockets, showing supporting data to give travelers context for why the rush isn't worth it. Beyond the poster, we envisioned the concept extending across other stations of the airport journey, using little ant trails as a recurring visual thread. These trails could appear on things like conveyor belts, luggage carousels, or the info screens on the plane, each one connecting a specific ant behavior to the moment travelers are actually in, showing how the same principles of patience and cooperation could apply throughout the airport, not just while deboarding.
What we took away from this project was really about how a community can find harmony without central control, and how looking to nature for an adaptable mindset can be one of the most valuable resources in design.
