Environmental Airport Design: Towards a New Design and Urban Approach

As nodes for the transportation of goods and people, as well as the modern frontiers of a country, airports do not only play a major economic role in modern society, but also enrich a community’s cultural and social cohesion and diversity. As for their impact to the natural and anthropological environment, they represent a very energy-intensive form of transport, which can impose significant changes to the established relationships and hierarchy. Built to host a variety of uses and serve diverse users’ groups, large airport terminals evolved from open fields, to shopping centres, to urban hybrids, having an operational magnitude usually equal to that of a modern metropolis, yet of a debatable quality and with no distinct territory or population. Security regulations and market surveys have so far ruled their design, leading to the adoption of a generic development pattern that further isolates them from the surrounding region, regardless of its enhanced accessibility. Therefore, an investigation and analysis of those recent developments and of any limitations and opportunities in regard to an airport’s ‘urban’ scale and characteristics, could prove to be an essential element of the contemporary debate on urban development, economic growth and its impact to the natural and built environment. As an essential first step towards a more sensible approach, this study will try to map this ‘territory-less’ platform’s elements, and serve as a reference base for a future in-depth research on the establishment, development and prospects arising from this new urban environment.