“I go to Zurich airport on the weekends sometimes with friends to hang out at the visitor’s terrace,” says Laura Frommberg. “It sounds geeky, but even my non-geeky friends enjoy it very much.”

Hanging around any airport when you’re not travelling, sounds more insane than nerdy, but Frommberg makes her living writing about aviation, so it does make sense.

“Visiting the airport makes you excited about your next journey, and fuels the urge to explore the world,” she says of her unusual pastime. “It’s also a space where time doesn’t exist – you can have breakfast in the afternoon, or a beer in the morning, and nobody judges you.”

As co-author of The Art of the Airport: The World’s Most Beautiful Terminals, Frommberg’s latest project does a great job of tracking the evolution of these ubiquitous spaces from dark and brutal mazes into glittering emporiums.

Visiting the airport makes you excited about your next journey, and fuels the urge to explore the world

“Older airports weren’t designed with the passenger experience in mind,” says Laura. “Lots of them are very dark and you can’t even see the planes or the runways. Newer airports take the atmosphere very seriously. They consider things like having a friendly surrounding at the check-in area, quick security, and a short wait at the baggage claim.”

Of the 21 destinations featured, Frommberg’s personal favourite is in Mestia, Georgia, because of its cutting-edge design and unique location. “It’s such a tiny airport, but it’s so beautifully designed. I love the picture in the book where there’s a cow standing next to the terminal – I love how the building is really modern, but it blends in with the landscape, and the medieval towers that you can see in the area.”

If you enjoy travel, architecture, and the challenges of designing complex structures, you should click here to grab yourself a copy.