Airports, Cities and Infrastructures
Post-war European Airport Models and their Impacts on Cities
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Abstract
This paper is a comparative analysis on major airport-related plannings and
developments in Europe. Since the advancement of aviation technology in the
20th century, airports have become indispensable infrastructures and emerging urban city nodes. This thesis aims to look into how airport developments affect the transformations of their host cities and neighbouring infrastructures.
Aeiral images reflect that various airports relate with their host cities through different urban patterns and networks. To understand the reason behind such
disparity, six case studies will be conducted and compared: Paris Orly Airport,
Copenhagen Airport, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, London Heathrow Airport,
Frankfurt Airport and Stockholm Arlanda Airport. These airports are categorised into three types, namely urban, urban periphery and remote. Firstly, historical studies of each case are done individually. Maps of each case are drawn to discover their developments throughout the century. These airport-related developments and their driving forces are compared among airports of the same category as well as different categories.
Acknowledging the unique context of each city and airport, the driving forces and stakeholders behind the morphology of urban, urban periphery and remote airports are revealed towards the end of this paper. The findings conclude some decisive factors for the airport-related development and shed light on the debate of whether the type of airports is the quintessential factor or not.