been spending a lot of time on and in airports lately. and however it may sound familiar or even outdated, i also feel that airports are more and more becoming like cities.
subject: automated walkways.
case: tokyo narita airport
narita, tokyo's major airport, is laidout in a rather classic spoke system. the different gate areas are all located on the ends of longer piers, connecting at the central arrivals hall. unlike for example atlanta, where all terminals are linear and situated parallel to each other, connected through a underground rail, tokyo narita is small enough to be walkable. still there are automated walkways. the longest one does make sense, being over 150 meters, but the smaller ones, only extending to about twenty feet, are simply put absurd.
for one, they create horizontal barriers in an already horizontal space. many airports have the uncomfortable tendency to appear as extremely long, horizontal and monotonous. boring. automated walkways not only divide up the already segregated spaces, they also tend to cluster facilities and passengers at their beginnings (or ends). like the highway in the city, the exits are where the urban craziness appears, however at a high price.
but where the city is often able to offer a wide array of niche facilities away from the highway exits and crossings, in places where land is cheaper and more abundant, the airport has no room to offer to those often interesting businesses. we are forever condemned to the same franchises in airports. mcdonalds, starbucks and duty-free shops will cluster at the entrances of the walkways like jack-in-the-box, home depot and gas stations will.
the gentrification of the airport is not a result of programmatic reason, dependent on financial factors, but much more a result of the spatial lay-out of the circulation spaces.
written over the pacific #3
a very interesting proposal for an airport of the 21st century can be seen here.
_md417* 1 km/h drive thru airport by miklos deri
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