AIRPORT CITY AN URBAN DESIGN QUESTION (2019)

Michał Stangel
AIRPORT CITY
— AN URBAN DESIGN QUESTION

Reviewers: prof. dr hab. inż. arch. Agata Bonenberg,
prof. dr hab. inż. arch. Piotr Lorens
Scientific editor: dr hab. inż. Seweryn Spałek
Cover design by Maria Stangel
ISBN: 978-83-283-5980-2
© Helion 2019.
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This monograph was supported within the research scholarship funded by own
scholarship fund. Silesian University of Technology, 239/RN2/RR4/2019.
Most photos in this book were taken by the author.
For all the other photos and illustrations the source is provided.
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3
CONTENTS
5 INTRODUCTION
15 1. CONTEMPORARY DETERMINANTS OF AIRPORT
AND AIRPORT-PROXIMATE ZONE DEVELOPMENT
15 1.1. Contemporary air transport
22 1.2. Air transport and contemporary urban structure development tendencies
29 1.3. Airport as an intermodal transport component
34 1.4. Functional development of the terminal and the air-proximate zone
39 1.5. Economic, social and environmental impact
41 Conclusions
43 2. AIRPORT-PROXIMATE ZONE DEVELOPMENT MODELS
46 2.1. Commercial areas at the airports
50 2.2. Airport City
56 2.3. Aerotropolis
64 2.4. Airport Corridor
66 2.5. Airport Region and Airea
73 Conclusions
75 3. DETERMINANTS OF AIRPORT
AND AIRPORT-PROXIMATE ZONE DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND
77 3.1. Airports in Poland
83 3.2. Central Airport / Central Transport Hub
88 3.3. Strategic determinants on the national level
91 3.4. Legal determinants of the airport-proximate zone development
93 Conclusions
95 4. SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES
FOR THE AREAS AT SELECTED AIRPORTS IN POLAND
97 4.1. Warsaw, Chopin Airport City
103 4.2. Gdańsk
109 4.3. Krakow
114 4.4. Wrocław

117 4.5. Rzeszów, Aeropolis
119 4.6. Katowice
129 Conclusions
133 5. AIRPORT AS A PLACE
134 5.1. Airport City as urban space
139 5.2. Airport Oriented Development in the polycentric urban structure
141 5.3. Airport Cities for people?
148 5.4. Airport City as a large-scale urban project
149 Conclusions
151 6. FUTURE TRENDS FOR THE AIRPORT CITIES
155 6.1. Advancements in future transportation and mobility
167 6.2. Improved passenger experience
170 6.3. Sustainable infrastructure
176 6.4. Green spaces and landscape
181 6.5. Smart, sustainable airport city of the future
190 Conclusions
193 7. THE ENDING
197 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
199 BIBLIOGRAPHY

5
INTRODUCTION
Airports are of particular significance for contemporary cities.They are not just places where
airplanes take off and land, but also hubs where locality combines with globality. They
provide global connections, transfer of people and goods, offering access to the global
economy and enabling cities and regions to compete on a supra-local scale. At the same
time, they are connected with the surroundings, usually offer good traffic connections and
they are frequently a workplace important in the region. New developments are erected
near the airports, connected with them directly and indirectly, leading to creating new
urban structure types.
The transport hubs have always played an important role in city creation and development.
Sea harbors, railway stations or major road crossroads were the locations of intense contacts,
where settlement structures developed. They became centers of economic growth and, as
privileged locations, attracted investments and received intensive spatial development.
A similar phenomenon may be observed for airports since a passenger terminal receives
many extra functions as the numbers of passengers and amount of cargo transported in-
crease.The process of functional and spatial evolution of an airport passenger terminal, with
all the adjacent functions related to the airport, is sometimes called a process of an airport
city emergence, and the Airport City notion has become so appealing that it was considered
one of ten contemporary ideas to change the world by Time Magazine in 2011 (Iyer, 2011).
The intense development of airports and airport-proximate zones has been observed re-
cently also in Poland. It is where office buildings, hotels, restaurants, and private car parts are
erected. Approaching airports, we can see an increasing number of advertisements related
to development land for sale and the communes update their plans, introducing the ability
to intensify the development of such areas. There are also comprehensive development
plans designed for the areas near the airports, with the most ambitious example being
the concept design of Chopin Airport City in Warsaw, i.e. a business and shopping park
with recreation and entertainment functions, as well as with a new park. Similar ideas have
shown up also in e.g. Gdańsk, Krakow or Katowice. Simultaneously, unavoidable conflicts
appear, related e.g. to the nuisance for the nearby residents, ability to use the roads to the
airports to serve the development lands or coordinating the activities on real properties
owned by different people.

6
Origin, purpose and method of work
This book is an international publicization, extension, and supplementation of the mon-
ograph published in Polish in 2014, as a result of the research project “The airport city as
an urban design issue — preliminary research”, realized by the author at the Faculty of Ar-
chitecture, Silesian University of Technology, funded by the Polish Ministry of Science and
Education. The English edition is based on the original text in Polish, but it was updated
with new information important for the subject of this book as at 2018 and extended by
approximately one third of the length of the original text.1.
The objective of this work is to recognize and characterize contemporary spatial development
processes for the airport-proximate zones in Polish cities with reference to the experience of
West-European ones and theoretical development models for areas adjacent to airports. In
recent years, the intense civil aviation development has taken place in Poland in connection
with the extension of the existing airports and the erection of new ones. Concurrently, in their
proximity, we can observe the intensified spatial development and the traffic infrastructure
growth (e.g. in recent years inWarsaw,Wrocław, Krakow, Katowice or Gdańsk).The reference
works published in western countries in the recent decade contain many analyses of the air-
port-proximate zone development as well as theoretical models describing those processes.
Many of them emphasize the multiplier and synergy effects, and some researchers claim
even that in the course of their development, the airport-proximate zones attract functions
traditionally reserved for the city centers (Güller, Güller, 2003; Kasandra, Appold, 2012).
Analysing this problem, it can be observed that the airport-proximate zones of civil airports
have been developed intensely nowadays, with increased public and private investment
activity. Their development goes beyond the functions related to aviation directly. Those
zones, as prestigious and easily accessible places, attract the functions not connected di-
rectly with aviation, but related to the functions which appeared there earlier. Successive
developments often emerge in line with the snowball effect leading to creating a new type
of multifunctional urbanized areas.
Parts of the text in English were used in two articles published in 2016: Stangel M., Sustainable Airport Districts?
TendenciesandPerspectivesofUrbanDevelopmentinAirport-ProximateZones [in:] Hájek, P., J. Tywoniak, A. Lupíšek, K.
Sojková [eds.]: CESB16 – Central Europe towards Sustainable Building 2016, Prague 2016; and Stangel M.: Placemaking
andairport-relatedurbandevelopment [in:] Ryser J. ed.: CitiesSavetheWorld.Let´sReinventPlanning(51stInternational
ISOCARP Congress Results), ISOCARP 2016. An English translation of the original book was prepared as an ebook in
2018, preceding this updated and extended, printed edition.
1

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Scope and method of work
This work is devoted primarily to the processes of developing and shaping area-proximate
zones as a new type of building complexes and urban districts, both emerging spontane-
ously and subject to comprehensive urban planning and design.This problem is discussed
in reference to the contemporary trends in the development and transformation of urban
structures, e.g. globalization, space commercialization or the increased supra-local compet-
itiveness of urban settlements.
The work method adopted comprises a description of conditions, directions, significance,
and role of airport-proximate zone development with respect to urbanized areas in the
context of contemporary tendencies connected with the rational and harmonious shaping
of the urban structure. For this purpose, reference work and field studies were carried out
for selected airport-proximate zones in Western Europe and the model concepts of the
airport-proximate zone development.
With regard to the situation in Poland, strategic and planning determinants on the national
level (National Spatial Development Concept 2030, NSDC,Transport Development Strategy
etc.) and specific conditions of the performed or planned developments near the airports
were analyzed, including the provisions of the land use plans of communes, airport devel-
opment master plans, development projects and other studies and concepts. The author
used also his own experience e.g. derived from studies devoted to Katowice airport, carried
out at the Faculty of Architecture, Silesian University of Technology.
Most photographs in this book were taken by the author during his visits at the airports.
For all the other photographs and illustrations the source is provided with the captions.
Problem significance for the Polish cities’situation
The intense development of airports in Poland has been related to civilization changes, eco-
nomic growth, increased mobility of inhabitants and metropolitan aspirations of Polish cities.
This is related both to making up for any civilization backlog when compared to Western
Europe, particularly after Poland accessed the European Union in 2004 and to the global
tendencies of increased airport significance.The number of passengers and amount of cargo
transported grows, civil airports are extended, there are plans to transform any military and
sports airports into civil ones, erection of new airports is contemplated.

8
An airport becomes an important component of competitiveness promotion, increasing
also the prestige and improving the city image. In many places in Poland, the processes of
developing areas located near airports and traffic routes connecting the airport with the
city have already started. Those processes are similar to the ones taking place worldwide,
but connected with the local specificity and conditions.The airport development is a spatial
phenomenon which may be examined on different levels and from different perspectives.
From the national perspective, that means primarily offering access to various parts of Po-
land and connections with the Polish road and railway transport network. From the regional
perspective, there have already been multiple functional and spatial connections with the
airport surroundings, with adjacent communes and cities, with the metropolis, with business
activity zones and transport corridors.There is a number of direct and indirect interdepend-
encies, taking the form of multiplier effects and feedback. From the local perspective, it is
possible to examine both the spatial development of airports themselves, i.e. landside and
airside zones, and their relationships with their immediate vicinity.
In the context of rapid development of airports and airport-proximate zones, and of the
growing significance of air transport for the metropolis, it seems advisable to analyze the
conditions and directions of that development from the perspective of urban and spatial
planning. The synthesis of results will contribute to improved understanding of contempo-
rary development processes of Polish cities.
The airport-proximate zone development is a peculiar problem of spatial planning and
urban design, where it is expedient to refer to theoretical models. Analyses of experiences
of selected West-European cities and airports may contribute to developing methods of
handling such areas in Poland.
State of the art in the study subject
The problem of contemporary development of airport-proximate zones is relatively new and
has not been identified fully in Poland and has not been described in any comprehensive
way in the context of urban planning and spatial development. For over a dozen years this
problem has been analyzed in the context of highly-developed cities in Western Europe
and North America, as well as Asian municipalities. Mathias and Michael Güller (2003) in
their publication FromAirporttoAirportCity describe the evolution of relationships between
metropolises and adjacent airports based on a couple of largest European airports. Freestone

9
(2009) points out the environmental aspects of airport-proximate zone spatial development.
Kasarda (2000) introduces the notion of “Aerotropolis”, suggesting a development model of
broadly-taken airport-proximate zones within about 30 km from the airport. The problems
of this new type of functional regions, created between airports and cities, are discussed
e.g. by Michael Droß and AlainThierstein from theTechnical University of Munich and Kees
Christiaanse from ETH (EidgenössischeTechnische Hochschule) in Zurich.Those aspects have
also been contemplated by the Central European Institute of Technology (CEIT).
According to Kasarda and Appold (2012), the airport-proximate zones, in the course of
their development, in line with the snowball effect, attract functions not related directly
to aviation but accompanying other companies which have such affiliations. Mathias and
Michael Güller (2003) distinguished three activity types here: the major aviation activity (i.e.
technical airport operation), additional activities related to passenger and cargo transport
(e.g. sales in the terminal or cargo handling) and airport-oriented activities (e.g. hotels or
business parks near the airport).
The process of functional and spatial evolution of a passenger terminal, together with the
adjacent airport-related functions, has also been termed emergence of an Airport City. The
airport-proximate zones have developed organically so far, as the airports would“overgrow”
with consecutive functions. Today, however, more and more frequently there are compre-
hensive development plans created for the airport-proximate zones as multifunctional urban
areas.The airports which develop their commercial complexes in the landside zone nowadays
include e.g.: Amsterdam-Schiphol, Belgrade, Bremen, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Dublin, Frankfurt
am Main, Manchester,Vienna or Zurich. On image-related grounds and in order to develop
additional functions, going beyond any aviation operations and generating income, airports
promote the development of commercial complexes, giving appealing names to them, e.g.
Airport City, Air City, Aerotropolis, Aeropolis, Aeropark, Aviopolis, Avioport, Flight Forum, Sky
City or Airpark (Schlaack, 2010). Obviously, we could ask to what extent such complexes do
actually resemble urban space and what type of city it is.
In the ongoing discussion on the spatial development of airport-proximate areas, there
have been several model approaches and attempts at classifying them. The first approach,
i.e. the Airport City, focuses on the airport surroundings and functions located nearby the
terminal. Here, dense buildings with para-urban functions are emphasized. This term has
become the most popular for marketing reasons. Airport Corridor, Airport Region, and Aeria

10
describe various shapes and spatial forms related to the development directions of air-
port-proximate zones.
The relatively fullest model seems to be the one proposed by John Kasarda (2000), i.e.
Aerotropolis.This is a model of a further development stage of airport-proximate zones, with
new developments around the Airport City, connected with the airport operations directly
or indirectly. Kasarda believes that just like a traditional metropolis model is composed of
a centrally located downtown, or the“city”, and the suburbs/satellite districts located around
it, Aerotropolis has an airport complex or the Airport City, and other complexes of various
functions, connecting it with the transport corridors’area and the area located among them,
within up to 30 km, comprising entities related to aviation, services for passengers, office
complexes, or even housing estates oriented to airport employees or people who fly very
often. Kasarda suggests a simplified Aerotropolis model (forecasting that although no zone
around the airport will look exactly this way, if any location-related restrictions within a given
airport are reduced, the development will take place in a way similar to the proposed model).
In Poland, the problems of airport construction and development have been discussed by
transport engineers, economists, and geographers. The airport relations with the region
have been contemplated e.g. by Marek Rekowski from the University of Economics in
Poznań (analyses of aviation market functioning in Poland and the economic impact of the
airport on the regional development, e.g. for the airport in Poznań, Gdańsk, and Katowice),
Andrzej Ruciński from the University of Gdańsk (e.g. Transport lotniczy jako czynnik obsługi
regionu [Air Transport as the Region Service Aspect]; Współzależność między rozwojem
transportu lotniczego i aglomeracji wielkomiejskich [Relationship between the Development
of Air Transport and Large City Agglomerations]; Planowanie i lokalizacja sieci regionalnych
portów lotniczych [Planning and Location of Regional Airport Network]) and by Elżbieta
Marciszewska from the SGH Warsaw School of Economics.
With respect to urban and spatial planning, the airport-related aspects were included in
publications devoted to transport spaces in the city, e.g. Planowanie miast i osiedli [City and
Estate Planning] byWładysław Czarnecki, Zarys teorii kształtowania układów osadniczych [Set-
tlement Layout Shaping Outline] by Bolesław Malisz or in the works by Michał Rościszewski,
although many theses included there seem to require verification nowadays. For a couple
of years, the problems related to airports and airport terminals have been studied by Piotr
Wróbel. In his articles, he discusses e.g. the city-forming role of airports, the evolution of

11
terminal building form and function, and offers theoretical ponderations related to the
experience of the architect dealing with airport-related issues.
The development of airport-proximate zones has been a topical economic and political
problem in Poland. In connection with this subject-matter, there are legislative initiatives,
studies or planning works initiated. Strategic and planning conditions result from the na-
tional strategic documents, including theNationalSpatialDevelopmentConcept2030 (2012)
and theDevelopmentProgrammefortheAirportNetworksandAviationGroundFacilities. Other
important aspects include the international law provisions, such as transport policy of the
European Union, regional transport corridors, and location of competitive airports at the
Polish boundaries (e.g. the new Berlin-Brandenburg airport). The planned extensions and
constructions of new airports are related to the planning documents on a voivodeship and
communal level, e.g. the amendment to the Zoning Plan for the Voivodship of Silesia in
2010, covering the area located near Katowice Airport in Pyrzowice. Certain aspects related
to airports are included also in strategic and planning documents prepared by communes
where airports are located.
It is also impossible to neglect the design experience from recent years, derived from the
completed and planned modernizations of airports e.g. in Krakow,Wrocław,Warsaw, Gdańsk,
Katowice and other.Those projects frequently include components going beyond the airport
infrastructure, e.g. Chopin Airport City in the Okęcie Airport in Warsaw (ARUP, 2012), Coor-
dinative Plan for Krakow-Balice Surroundings Development (Q-ARCH, APA Czech Duliński
Wróbel, ALTRANS, 2009), Concept Design of Airport City in Gdańsk (JSK, 2013) or the devel-
opment master plan for Katowice airport (Egis, Polconsult, 2008).
Those problems have been discussed recently during several trade conferences, e.g.
“Kraków Airport City — Spatial Planning in the Airport”, in 2013 in Krakow, “3rd Aviation
Summit — Cutting-edge Airports. Airport and Airport-related Infrastructure” in Wrocław
and during the International Economic Forum in Gdynia, within the panel called“A Model
of a Modern GA+B Airport. Development of Airport-related Business as a Chance for the
Airport Development”. For a couple of years, there have been regular seminars held in
the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure, devoted to the airport development, comprising also
aspects connected with the airport-proximate zone development. In 2018 the planned
Central Transport Hub for Poland was a subject of a plenary meeting of the Committee
for Spatial Economy and Regional Planning, Polish Academy of Sciences.

12
Work structure
This work is composed of six chapters.
Chapter 1 discusses contemporary determinants of airport and airport-proximate zone
development, airport infrastructure components and the significance of air transport and
airports in relation to the present urban structure development trends.
Chapter 2 describes the airport-proximate zone models presented in reference works, with
references to case studies of characteristic areas near selected European airports.
Chapter 3 is devoted to the determinants and perspectives of airport and airport-proximate
zone development in Poland in reference to the latest strategic documents, e.g. NSDC 2030
or the Transport Development Strategy by 2020, adopted in 2013.
Chapter 4 presents the up-to-date experience, tendencies and plans of developing the
airport-proximate zones for selected airports, i.e. in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Krakow, Wrocław,
Rzeszów, and Katowice.
Chapter 5 describes the problem of airport-proximate building complexes as a contemporary
new architectural challenge, which can be analyzed from the perspective of the need to
“create places”, urban tissue and the new type of multifunctional districts in the polycentric
structure of urbanized areas.
Chapter 6 discusses the trends, which are likely to influence airports and airport cities in
the future, such as advancements in transportation, improved passenger experience and
security, and making the airports more sustainable and green.

Airports are not just
airports anymore
Mathis Güller, Michael Güller,
From Airport to Airport City

14
Schiphol Airport. In the foreground, there are radio
beacons of the instrument landing system

15
1. CONTEMPORARY DETERMINANTS OF AIRPORT
AND AIRPORT-PROXIMATE ZONE DEVELOPMENT
Airports play a special role in contemporary metropolises.They are no longer places where
airplanes take off, land and are serviced, but they have become hubs of cities and regions,
places where the transfer of people and goods in the global economy is concentrated. The
presence of a well-connected airport is a key aspect contributing to the competitiveness
and investment image of urbanized areas. Airports, just like many other transport-related
locations, are becoming privileged sites attracting investments not only connected directly
with the air traffic.
Airports possess also symbolic and prestigious significance.They are a component of building
the development strategy for cities and regions, enable to develop supra-local aspirations,
e.g. to organize international events. As airports and airport-proximate zones attract invest-
ments and belong to the most dynamically growing areas in metropolises, more and more
workplaces are created there. Infrastructure investments related to airports are one of the
largest and most prestigious undertakings in cities.
1.1. CONTEMPORARY AIR TRANSPORT
Air transport is the youngest1 and the most dynamically developing branch of transport
and one of the most important sectors of the global economy, generating the turnover of
about 700 billion USD a year2. Air transport worldwide serves more than 5 billion passengers
a year3, playing also an important role in the cargo transport. Quantitatively, about 0.5% of
Some believe the beginnings of the modern aviation were the first flight with a hot-air balloon by Montgolfier
brothers in 1783. In 1903, the first successful flight took place in an airplane construed by Wright brothers. The
early days of a large-scale air transport in the early 20th century were connected with zeppelins. In the twenties
and thirties, airplanes started to be predominant means of air transport, while in 1937 the zeppelin era ended
together with the Hindenburg crash.
Data quoted after: Fact Sheet: Industry Statistics, http://www.iata.org/pressroom/facts_figures/fact_sheets/Documents/
industry-facts.pdf [access: 13 November 2013].
The statistics on the website of the Airports Council International mention 5.4 billion passengers in 2011. Obviously,
this number of flights covers also people traveling many times. Quoted after: Airports Council International Annual
World Airport Traffic Report, 2011, http://www.aci.aero/Data-Centre/Annual-Traffic-Data [access: 13 November 2013].
1
2
3

16
goods in international trade exchange is transported by airplanes, while considering the
goods’value, this is about 35%4.
Transport aviation, i.e. the one offering regular transport of passengers, mail or goods, was
started in 1919 in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom5. At the beginning of the Second
World War, many cities had their own airports, and the post-war period witnessed further
intensive growth of air transport and civil aviation, primarily in the United States of America.
Starting from the 1950s, jet engines were developed, and the consecutive milestones of
aviation development include e.g. helicopters, supersonic aircraft or the first private airship
(2004) which raised to the height considered the atmosphere boundary, i.e. SpaceShipOne.
Data quoted after the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), http://www.atag.org/ [access 13 November 2013].
Encyclopedia PWN, http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/3933875/lotnictwo.html.
4
5
Figure 1.1. A diagram of global
connections in passenger air traffic
Source: Josullivan.59 under CC
license

17
Figure 1.2. A display of the fascination with aviation
is“planespotting”, a hobby consisting in aircraft
observation. The amateurs most frequently observe
and photograph passenger airplanes near runways.
They sometimes even take down also other details
of the plane.
Planespotter at Schiphol Airport, observing
landing of the largest passenger airplane worldwide,
i.e. Airbus A380 of the Emirates Airlines.
The international air transport uses primarily large airplanes adapted to transporting pas-
sengers and cargo, i.e. airliners nowadays. Over 90% of the carrying capacity offered by
airlines is accomplished by about 18 thousand of such airplanes, with about 120 to 240 seats
(Ruciński, 2009). Currently, the largest passenger aircraft, introduced in 2007, is the two-level
Airbus A380 (figure 1.2) which takes from about 500 to more than 850 passengers. This is
about one third more than the previous record holder, Boeing 747, the so-called Jumbo Jet.

18
Air transport infrastructure
The air transport infrastructure consists of nodes, e.g. airstrips, airports, and from linear
components, or air lanes. As mentioned by Andrzej Ruciński (2009), air lanes, or sections of
airspace which acquire the properties of infrastructure only after the appropriate navigation
devices have been installed on the ground, contrary to popular belief, possess many fea-
tures of the linear infrastructure of other transport branches, including the basic one: they
cost and they bring economic benefits. Components connecting air lanes with the nodal
infrastructure are the airport control zones (CTRs).
An airport is “any area, delineated on the ground or on water, including any appurtenant
building structures, facilities, and equipment, designed in whole or in part for aircraft arrivals,
departures and maneuvering”6. In 1930s, the term“airport”started to be used in the context
of air transport (passenger and cargo) as a business activity, while after the Second World
War, the term“international airport”got popular, defined as“a port for landing and take-offs
in international air traffic, with any activities pursuant to customs, migration, public health
protection, quarantine regulations and other formal procedures of that type carried out”7.
The contemporary international airports are large technological and economic organiza-
tions handling millions of passengers and hundreds of tonnes of cargo a year. The largest
airports worldwide include Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta (over 88 million passengers a year),
Heathrow in London (66 million passengers), Capital in Beijing (65 million), O’Hare in Chicago
(64 million passengers) and Haneda in Tokyo (61 million passengers). In Poland, the largest
airport is Fryderyk Chopin International Airport (formerly Okęcie) with more than 12 million
passengers a year (data from 2016).
In the European Union, the airports are divided into four categories:
A — large, community airports (over 10 million passengers a year),
B — national airports (5–10 million passengers a year),
C — large, regional airports (1–5 million passengers a year),
D — small, regional airports (below 1 million passengers a year),
Ruciński, 2009, after ICAO, Annex 14. Aerodromem, May 1969.
Ruciński, 2009, after ICAO, Annex 9.
•
•
•
•
6
7

19
Airport components — airside and landside
The functional and spatial airport component may be generally divided into the airside and
landside, groundside).The airside is“the area permanently designed for aircraft take-offs and
landings and for the related aircraft traffic, including any devices for handling that traffic,
access to which is controlled”8. This zone includes runways, taxiways, hangars, navigation
devices etc. The landside covers a terminal which is sometimes equated with the airport.
The terminal building form has been shaped and has evolved in recent one hundred years.
Piotr Wróbel (2011) believes that the first terminal may be the shed where Wright brothers
kept their airplane in 1903. The first airports in the early 20th
century were composed of
a grassy landing area, with hangars and service buildings located at it. The first passenger
terminals, e.g. Le Bourget or Königsberg (today’s Kaliningrad) had isolated buildings, most
often in a style inspired by Classicism or called Art Deco; also the early modernistic exper-
iments were erected. The terminals evolved, adapting to technical requirements. In most
airports, in the course of their operation, the buildings have been extended or modified
many times. At larger airports, new terminals, hangars and other infrastructure buildings
have been erected in line with the growing needs.
The contemporary terminals are designed to ensure primarily they are functional and enable
space adaptation to the changing needs on the one hand, and on the other, they are often
unique solutions and showpieces of the stars of architecture. An example of a functional
approach may be the terminal at the Stansted airport near London.This terminal, designed by
the design studio of Norman Foster, is a single-space hall covered with a flat roof supported
by characteristic columns. Refined forms, on the other hand, often refer to a more or less
successful way to any shapes associated with airplanes, air, lightness etc. An example may
be e.g. the terminal at the NewYork JFK Airport designed by Eero Saarinen or the Japanese
Kansai airport by Renzo Piano.With respect to airport architecture, a unique“extensive roof
problem” appears (Wróbel, 2011), i.e. a problem of a uniform roof on a building housing
many varied functions, in the form of the so-called fifth facade, watched from above with
peculiar frequency.
Definition based on the Aviation Law Act.
8

20
Figure 1.3. View of the apron in a large airport (Schiphol)

21
Figure 1.4. Private airplanes in the civil aviation zone (Schiphol)

22
1.2. AIR TRANSPORT AND CONTEMPORARY URBAN STRUCTURE
DEVELOPMENT TENDENCIES
Globalization
The development of contemporary urban structures is related to the global economic and
social processes. The major force beyond the dynamics of the contemporary development
of civilization and economy is deemed to be the globalization, i.e. the creation of one
global market of goods, services and information within the so-called global information
civilization. Its effects are important for the economy, society and also space. Globalization is
a relatively new term, while the processes of supra-regional communication, as well as trade
and cultural exchange, have been present for a long time9 and have always been connected
with the development of transport and communication. Thomas Friedman (2005) believes
we may speak of three phases of globalization:
Globalization 1.0 (15th
to 18th
century) was related to the sea transport, and it was manifested
in cities by means of harbors.
Globalization 2.0 (19th
and 20th
century) was connected with the development of railway
and cars which was related to the growth of cities and suburbanization.
Globalization 3.0 (taking place now) is associated, on the one hand, with the telecommu-
nications links (Internet, mobile phones) and with air transport, enabling people to travel
worldwide, on the other.
Global logistic connections, including but not limited to container sea transport, are of
utmost importance for cargo transport. Air cargo transport is an important component of
the intermodal transport primarily of valuables or perishable goods.
Contemporary civilization changes have been described in various ways by many research-
ers starting from the mid-20th century. The grounds for those changes is the shift from the
industrial economy to the service-based one, with subsequent emergence of the global
information economy, based on the development of communications and information
technology. This has its implications for almost every activity area of individuals, groups,
organizations and the entire societies. AlvinToffler called those changes a third wave (1980),
Jared Diamond of the University of California claims the first globalization phase took place as early as about 8.5
thousand years BC, and its major subject was the genetically modified food spreading all over the world.
•
•
•
9

23
while various researchers use such terms as a post-Fordist society (e.g. Tadeusz Sławek),
knowledge society or, first and foremost, the information society. Manuel Castells (1996)
proposed a term of the network society. He noticed that the recent 25 years witnessed
a start of a radical “transformation of ways we think, produce, consume, trade, manage,
communicate, live, die, wage war and love. (...) A global economy was created, combining
precious resources and people worldwide, and yet excluding people and territories con-
sidered useless for the predominant economic values. A real-value culture focused around
the more and more interactive audiovisual sphere, infiltrated the spiritual imaging and
communicating tissue, combining various cultures in an electronic hypertext. Space and
time, the material grounds of human experience, have been transformed, as the space of
flows dominates over the space of places, and the timeless time replaces the clock time of
the industrial era”(Castells, 1996).
Observation of social and technological changes in early 21st
century encouraged the re-
searchers to come up with a new approach, e.g. Alvin and Heidi Toffler speak of the fourth
wave of civilization transformations. Thomas Friedman believes the most characteristic
feature is the flattening of the world or the process of ensuring equal opportunities in
the global economy as a result of many technologies and political events in the late 20th
century. Extreme changes in the organization of the production market and service provision
have taken place in recent years primarily as a result of employing new communications
technology, such as the Internet and mobile phones, or the emergence of new techniques
of acquiring and processing information (Google browser). This process enabled India,
China, and East European countries to become a part of a global delivery chain of goods
and services, brought about the increased wealth and significance of the middle class in
those societies, as well as permitted to use many benefits of globalization (Friedman, 2005).
In those global ties, the Internet ensures the flow of information, while flight connections
ensure transfer of people.
Global relations of cities, metropolization and development polarization
Apart from the basic functions, such as serving passengers, cargo, and airplanes, the airports
play a strategic role in the development of cities and regions nowadays and are an important
competitive advantage factor for some areas.They are focal points of economic growth and
create workplaces direct and indirectly.

24
The globalization phenomenon and its effects are clearly visi-
ble primarily in cities. A new spatial ties’ structure emerges,
related to the said international transfer of goods, services,
information, and people. Simultaneously, the tendency of
metropolization and growth polarization, as well as global
competitiveness between cities, competing e.g. for invest-
ment and qualified human resources, becomes stronger.
The global competitiveness of places and the new loca-
tion criteria strengthen the metropolization tendencies.This
process consists in changing relations between the central
city and its immediate back-end, i.e. in weakening or breaking
economic ties of the city with its regional back-end and replacing
them with ties with other metropolises within the same continent
or worldwide. The role of the region is reduced to fulfilling residential
and recreational functions for the metropolis residents, while the discon-
tinued space means that a“neighbor”in economic and social terms is no
longer the surrounding region, but another metropolis, located hundreds
or sometimes even thousands of kilometers away (Jałowiecki, 2000). Saskia
Sassen (1991) pointed out to the creation of a peculiar “global city”, composed
of the largest global metropolises.
A new mobility culture
An airplane is, obviously, a means of transport not so omnipresent as a vehicle, but the
contemporary lifestyle of urban populations in developed countries is based largely
on convenient international air connections and the ability to transport the required
goods by air.
Besides the economic and social consequences of globalization, the consequences in
the culture, customs and the new understanding of the world are not less important. As
noticed by the analysts of processes taking place in contemporary cities, globalization
affects perception and valuation of space (Frenchman 2001, Mitchell 1999). The fact that
information comes from every place worldwide and virtually every location is available by
means of the Internet or the mobile phone leads to the so-called subjective compression
Figure 1.5. A shrinking map
of the world
Source: David Harvey,
The Condition of Postmo-
dernity: An Enquiry into the
Origins of Cultural Change,
Wiley-Blackwell,
London 1991

25
of time and space (fig. 1.5). Thanks to air connections, almost every place worldwide is
accessible to a post-modern society member within a 48-hours flight, and although this
opportunity is hardly ever used by anyone, this knowledge affects the perception of the
world (Harvey, 1991).
Whilst in the past the travelers were just a tiny fraction of the society, today tourism is one
of the largest economy sectors in many parts of the world, with its significant part being
urban tourism. Today, we are all pilgrims (Frenchman, 2001) which creates demand for
information related to the location and promotes development. Expectations concerning
the information in the urban environment are related to the media culture, search for new
experience and sensations, as well as to the fact that people are moving now in new and
unknown places much more often than anytime before.
The convenient travel opportunities, including for farther distances by air, are of particular
importance for the contemporary inhabitants of cities who were termed the creative class
by Richard Florida (2002). In his book entitled The Rise of Creative Class he proves, based on
his studies of American cities, that a new social class emerged, namely people dealing with
creating innovations. This group includes e.g. artists, engineers, scientists or managers10.
Because of their multitude and purchasing power, the creative class not only generates the
economic growth to a significant degree but also dictates its ethos to the whole society.
According to Florida, in the centers with many creative people, where economy develops,
where high-tech companies are created or seated, both employment and population grow.
For the creative class members, including but not limited to those creating its super-creative
core, the ability to travel and access air transport is an inseparable component of everyday life.
Network city
Nowadays, we do not speak so much of the city, but of urbanized areas, i.e. agglomerations,
conurbations, metropolitan regions, urbanization corridors, and ranges. A useful metaphor
Florida includes about 40 million Americans in the creative class, being more or less 30% of all employees. Based on
the degree, in which "creating significant new forms" takes place in particular work types, Florida distinguishes the
so-called "super-creative core", i.e. about 10% of employees involved in the creative process entirely and regularly,
and paid for it. This group includes scientists, engineers, IT specialists, university professors, poets, writers, artists,
performers, actors, designers, architects, editors, filmmakers, people of culture, think-tank members), analysts and
public opinion leaders. The tasks of people belonging to the creative core comprise not only solving problems
but also looking for them.
10

26
is the network city. This term (German Netzstadt) was suggested as a new paradigm and
metaphor of the contemporary urbanized space in the late 1990s by Franz Oswald and Peter
Baccini, from ETH in Zurich. Manuel Castells (1996) introduces the term network cities, to
denominate places, the significance of which stems not only from the regional context but
also from the privileged position in the international ties’network.
According to Piotr Wróbel (2012), the network is a contemporary metaphor of the urban
space: decentralized, multi-component structure, associated with IT networks, meaning
a layout with a flexible geometry, stable and consistent, but flexible and appropriate to de-
scribe the contemporary reality. In the network city, airports play the role of important nodes
in many ways, as transport hubs, economic activity nodes and city development centers.
City versus the sustainable development and the compact city concept
A noticeable tendency in planning city development is paying attention to the implications
of the sustainable development within the concept of the so-called sustainable urban
planning11. In contemporary civilization conditions, the sustainable development12 is con-
sidered a leading paradigm of the civilization development. The idea of the sustainable
development is recapitulated in the first sentence of theWCED report of 1987 OurCommon
Future 13:“Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets
theneeds of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs.”The sustainable development, therefore, means not only a fair satisfaction
of current needs, but also a deeper concept of intergenerational fairness. Consequently, you
should cope with the ongoing problems in a way ensuring permanent material and social
grounds for further development.
The English reference works include such terms as sustainableurbanism, ecologicalurbanism, greenurbanism, eco-ur-
banism. Polish counterparts may be fuzzy and disputable, nonetheless, it seems the term "sustainable urbanism",
gaining popularity, is the most suitable, as it is a general description of a tendency covering broadly-taken problems
of city development and shaping in the sustainable development aspect.
The Polish translation of the sustainable development as "zrównoważony rozwój" is controversial and sometimes
criticized as irrelevant. There are also some alternatives, like e.g. "rozwój trwały" or "rozwój podtrzymywany", but
in this work, I use only the most popular term.
OurCommonFuture, or the so-called Brundtland Report, from the name of the commission chairperson, Gro Harlem
Brundtland.
11
12
13

27
The essence of the sustainable development is a reasonable use of resources and maximised
social, economic and environmental benefits of human activityThe term“resources”is very
wide enough. With respect to the city, resources include e.g. space, raw materials, energy,
and capital, but also the so-called human resources, social capital or time (of inhabitants).
Within the sustainable development notion, there is a term introduced by John Elkington
in 1994, i.e. the so-called triple bottom line , which turns attention to three types of capital,
namely economic, social and natural. John Thackara (2010) in his book called In the Buble.
Designing in the Complex World presents a wide view of the sustainable development need.
His theses are based primarily on the assumed optimization of resources use, i.e. space, mat-
ter, raw materials, energy, time, people etc. As the ecological debate sometimes assumes an
ideologicalnature,itisworthfocusingonefficiency,effectiveness,andrationality.According
to Thackara, designing (or planning) is a very broad term. This refers not only to creating
buildings, but rather to planning all types of complex social and economic systems, such as
product life cycles, methods of food production and distribution, education, care, mobility,
or all that contributes to the contemporary civilization functioning.
As most business activity takes place in cities and is, to a certain extent, conditional on their
organization method, the broadly-taken sustainable development involves cities. When
taken more narrowly, it is connected with urban planning as shaping the spatial form of new
building areas to maximise the potential of the location and providing added value in social,
economic and environmental terms.This is why it is more and more popularly believed that
it is in cities and good urban planning policy where the challenges of the contemporary
world may find common environmental, social and economic solutions. Such a solution may
be shaping of cities and regions to reduce dependence on crude oil and the carbon dioxide
emission at the same time, minimizing costs for average households, as well as creating
a healthy, diversified place for varied communities.
Assuming the sustainable development concept implies the method of shaping the built
environment. According to Tigran Haas (2012): “sustainable urbanism becomes a brace
connecting architecture, urban planning and design, which refers more to the problems
of sustainable development, economic resilience, public health and security, ecosystems,
natural resource management, permaculture, green, eco-friendly buildings, energy saving,
availability and mobility, as well as eco-friendly economic development”.This apprehension
results in a holistic approach to the city development problems in three scales. First, of the

28
polycentric structure of regions, metropolises and cities. Second, of the urban tissue and
the traffic network of quarters, neighborhoods and estates. Third, in a microscale: a block,
buildings, frontages and public space development.
A widespread implication of the sustainable development idea for the urban space is the
concept of the compact city, termed also a city of short distances14. Defined as opposed
to the city sprawling to the suburbs, the compact city is characterized by a relatively higher
floor area ratio, and consequently smaller consumption of resources, namely lower land
consumption, lower unit expenditure on infrastructure etc. In reference to the inhabitants’
life, the essence of the compact city is to improve the quality of life by reducing transport
needs, or minimizing the consumption of such resources as time and money. The notion
associated with the compact city is the sustainable mobility. It means reduced transport
needs thanks to the appropriate functional and spatial structure and creating opportunities
to use eco-friendly and energy-efficient means of transport.
The term“compact city”is popularly used but only rarely defined precisely. For example, Rod
Burgess (2000) proposes a general definition of“the contemporary strive to the compact city
as the increased floor area ratio and population density in cities, intensified economic, social
and cultural activity, and shaping the form and ties between building complexes to obtain
environmental, social and economic benefits related to the urban function concentration”.
Attention is paid to the synergy and multiplier effects, as well as to the positive feedback
found in the compact urban structure, resulting in e.g. lower consumption of energy and
time required for transport, stimulated social contacts and increased use of local services
and, consequently, benefits for the local economic base.
There are two disparate concepts of providing grounds for further development in the
economics: strong sustainability, postulating sustainability of both natural resources
and also all the other resources connected with human activity, and weak sustainability ,
requiring only to retain the total sum of resources, e.g. the depletion of the natural capital
may be justified provided it is balanced with the accumulation of other resources, e.g. hu-
man capital and material capital generated by humans. Many theories being a variation on
The term compact city was introduced in 1973 by two mathematicians, George Dantzig and Thomas Saaty, looking
for a model of more efficient use of resources with respect to the sprawling suburbs. This term has been connected
with the movement of modern urbanism criticism starting from the 1960s.
14

29
those basic assumptions have been created, e.g. permitting the use of exhaustible resources
at the rate corresponding to the rate of creating their renewable substitutes (Żylicz, 2010).
This is why the implications of assuming the sustainable development concept may be
diverse with respect to airports and airport-proximate zones. On the one hand, air transport
is responsible for emitting significant amounts of pollution or carbon dioxide and, conse-
quently, it is considered objectionable, having an adverse effect on the natural environment,
in the extreme eco-friendly approach. On the other hand, if we assume the loss of the natural
capital as a result of aviation activity may be compensated by the benefits in other areas, it
opens up the space for looking for synergy solutions, to minimize that loss and to maximize
the benefits and the multiplier effects.
1.3. AIRPORT AS AN INTERMODAL TRANSPORT COMPONENT
Airports are hubs not only within the air transportation system but also within the multi-
modal transport system. The higher number of passengers and air operations within the
airport, the higher importance of the road and railway connections which improve the
travelers’ comfort and increase the appeal of the airport-proximate zone location. Good
traffic connections of the airport-proximate zones are one of the reasons why they keep
attracting new functions and investments.
The term intermodal transport means ties between various means of transport. In prac-
tice, however, as mentioned by Sebastian Gościniarek (2013), most travels are intermodal
and what is called intermodality nowadays, has been a creation of reasonable transport
systems for ages. For example, in the Middle Ages, Polish grain was transported to rivers
on carts, then loaded on barges and transported to Gdańsk by the Bug and theVistula river,
and next reloaded on ships and dispatched to Amsterdam. All that was efficient with no
computerized logistic systems etc.
Intermodality means traveling changing means of transport on particular route sections.
It is different from multimodality, which is connected with the ability to travel by different
means of transport (e.g. a plane or train) and intramodality, or the ability to cover various
possible routes or change within a single means of transport.

30
An aspect indispensable for the airport functioning is road connections. Usually, those are
expressways or motorways with a direct access to the terminal from the interchange exit.
The terminals are served by a loop of one-way roads where the priorities include throughput
and maximized access to the terminal, in the following order: taxis, minibuses and buses,
a short stop in a car, car rentals, short-term car park and long-term car park. Immediately in
front of the terminals, roads often divide into many lanes with islets in between to increase
the space where it is possible to enter and leave vehicles comfortably (fig. 1.6). If a departure
lounge is situated on a higher floor and an arrival lounge on the lower, also the access to
terminals is usually placed on two floors.
An indispensable component of airport infrastructure are car parks, differentiated into
the short-term ones relatively close to the terminal and into the long-term ones further
away, but cheaper. Those are both large-size open-air car parks and multi-level garages. It
frequently turns out that the open-air car parks may be land reserves for future airport-re-
lated developments (e.g. a hotel erected on the site of a former car park at Chopin Airport).
The transport infrastructure comprises also car rentals, usually situated in the car park area
closest to the terminal. More and more frequently there are also carsharing rentals, consisting
in vehicle provision by fleet operators.The largest system of that type is the American Zipcar
system nowadays, possessing car rentals at several U.S. airports (Steinberg,Vlasic, 2013).The
car-sharing notion is further developed into the Mobility on Demand (MoD) systems. Such
a system consists in providing a fleet of lightweight, electric vehicles in rental and charging
stations placed in strategic locations within the city to ensure their maximum availability,
to solve the so-called problem of the first and the last kilometer, e.g. to ensure transport
between changing stations and home or workplace, e.g. the airport.
To transport passengers, it is good to have the terminal connected by means of railway
transport.The first terminal connected by means of railway line with the city, and linked by
means of a pedestrian tunnel with the railway station, was erected at the Gatwick airport in
London, called Eastleigh Southampton previously, created at the London-Brighton railway
line. At present, direct connection by means of rail transport is a desired component of air-
port infrastructure. It is the most advantageous and also the most expensive to integrate the
railway station with terminals within the same building (e.g. at the airport in Copenhagen,
Stansted airport near London etc.). Alternatively, the stations are sometimes located near

31
the terminal, with convenient links by means of a walkway, e.g. a tunnel, or footbridge with
a moving walkway (the so-called skywalk).
Obviously, intermodality need not always mean railway, and at smaller airports, the public
transport is ensured by private and public bus or minibus lines etc.To guarantee passengers’
comfort, the following are of primary importance: direct connections, availability, frequency,
cost, and punctuality of transport, as well as clear and direct pedestrian connections with
the stops.
In contemporary city, especially in the context of the sustainable development notion, the
bike transport is of particular importance, being an energy-saving, cheap and healthy
way of traveling within the city, with no adverse impact on the natural environment. The
advantages of bike transport include energy efficiency, health benefits, low cost, availability
and low land consumption. Although the role of this type of transport is obviously limited
due to the suburban location of airports, it is more and more often included in the airport
access concepts primarily to enable the people employed at the airport to come to work. For
example, such a comprehensive apprehension of bike transport is a sustainable transport
strategy component at the airport in Manchester.
Airports are places where also new, innovative transport solutions are sometimes intro-
duced, e.g. light rail or Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), based on independent “capsules”. One
of the first systems of such a type was introduced at the Heathrow airport in London. The
ULTra system (Urban Light Transit) replaced the bus connection between the terminal 5
and car park and it has been fully operable since Autumn 2011, following tests. The system
is composed of small, four-passenger “capsules” (automatic, autonomous electric vehicles
without a steering wheel). Passengers enter and leave at dedicated stations. The system is
fully automatic, with no need for driver’s intervention.Thanks to the minimized waiting time
(95% passengers wait less than one minute) and faster passenger exchange, the travel time
at the handled section has been reduced about three times (Miles, 2011).

32
Figure 1.6. Sample transport solutions at airports
Above: pre-terminal zone at Chopin Airport in Warsaw
Access for cars and buses, bus stops, taxi rank, minibus
stops etc.
Beside:
A. Motorway exit to the tunnel under the Schiphol apron
B. Bus stops in front of the terminal, Schiphol
C. Railway station, Warsaw
D. cycle track going to the terminal, Gdańsk
E. Skytrain — light (monorail), Düsseldorf
F. ULTra capsule at the Heathrow airport, (CC) Moshrunners, 2012

34
1.4. FUNCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TERMINAL
AND THE AIR-PROXIMATE ZONE
Throughout the history of city development, locations near transport hubs attracted invest-
ments and became the centers of intensive spatial development. A similar phenomenon may
be observed for airports and the increased number of transported passengers and goods
is accompanied by the tendency to attract additional commercial functions. According
to Kasarda and Appold (2012), “developing, the airport-proximate zones attract functions
which are not connected with aviation directly, but with the companies associated with it”.
Kasarda (2009) believes the following four basic factors affect the airport zone development:
companies providing air transport services (passengers and cargo);
companies using air transport frequently;
companies satisfying additional needs of air passengers and employees of the two previous
organization types;
companies which simply need well-connected investment land and select the available
plots near the airport, although they do not necessarily need the airport vicinity as such.
Those four factors lead to the airport-proximate zone development in an autonomous and
organic way, distributed in time.
Nowadays, a new business model of land use is emerging.The development which used to
be organic is becoming structured and accelerated thanks to the use of previous experience
of other airports.The grounds for this development is the observation that passengers and
companies located in the airport-proximate zone possess any unsatisfied needs which could
be satisfied and primarily that airports and their business partners may derive significant
financial benefits from satisfying those needs (Kasarda, 2009). This is why the model of in-
tegrated commercial complexes, bringing additional profits, is introduced more and more
often at the existing and newly designed airports.
•
•
•
•

35
Functional evolution of the passenger terminal
The central component of the airport zone has still been the passenger terminal, overgrow-
ing with many additional functions for passengers.Those are no longer just duty-free shops
and catering, but also specialized services, e.g. boutiques, restaurants and bars of various
categories, shopping malls, banks, cinemas and other entertainment and cultural opportu-
nities, boxes for VIP passengers, chapels, business centers, beauty parlors or sports centers.
At the Polish airports, this tendency has only been emerging and the additional functions
are limited to sales, catering and the basic services which the passengers may use waiting
for their plane. However, also here the new functions are appearing, like e.g. beauty parlors,
playrooms for children or chapels. At the largest global airports, this has already been a whole
range of specialized business, retail, as well as recreational and cultural functions. For exam-
ple, at the Changi airport in Singapore, there are cinemas, fitness centers and a palm house,
at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, there is a casino and a branch of Rijksmuseum art gal-
lery, while the airport in Frankfurt am Mein houses a clinic serving more than 36,000 patients
a year. In 2010, the largest airport business center with the area of more than 1,500 m2
was
opened at the international airport in Hong Kong. At the Atatürk airport in Istanbul, there
are eight mosques open all day long: two in the check-in zone, in the transit zone, in the ar-
rival lounge and in the departure lounge each.
The aim of extra function development may be to improve the quality of service, reduced
the sense of wasted time when waiting for the plane, smaller travel-related stress and the
overall improvement of the passengers’ impressions left by their stay at the airport which
may contribute to selecting this airport in the future. However, the economic reasons are of
utmost importance. At the largest airports, the hundreds of thousands of passengers visiting
it every day create a group of consumers much larger than in the centers of medium-sized
cities or shopping malls (Kasarda, 2010). Moreover, this group represents usually people with
income higher than the average, and the typical consumer is also more willing to spend
more money on travel-related items.
A specific function is fulfilled also by hotels, located as close to the terminal as possible,
sometimes even in the same building (figure 1.7). Especially at the transfer airports, han-
dling intercontinental flights, those sites are active round the clock and adapted to the
needs of people from different time zones. Those are hotels of differing standard, starting

36
from luxurious, through business and tourist ones, to the ones similar to the cabin-type
Yotel at Schiphol where you may rent a cabin for even several hours’ sleep. Appropriately
shaped spaces may facilitate adapting to the changed time or climate zone or enable to
meet people coming from different parts of the world and to go back without the need to
adjust the body clock to a local time.
At the junction of the“airside”infrastructure and the pre-terminal zone, there is infrastructure
connected with technical service of airplanes, fuel base, cargo terminal, general aviation
terminal, handling small, private planes etc.
Besides developing sales and services for passengers within the terminal itself, additional
functions are developed also in the“landside”zone of airports.Those include e.g. retail sales,
Figure 1.7. Tulip Inn hotel erected on the terminal
building at Eindhoven airport

37
duty-free shops, banks and financial services, traffic (e.g. bus stops, railway station, car rental,
taxi rank), with the additional functions in the landside zone being hotels, cinemas, muse-
ums, art galleries, casinos, offices, conference and exhibition centres, sports and recreation
(e.g. fitness, spa, playrooms for children, healthcare and wellness services), chapels and many
other; functions related to passenger services, e.g. catering, laundries etc. Obviously, the
functions related both to the airplane service (fuel base, maintenance) and the industrial
ones, including logistics and distribution, cargo, processing perishable goods, aviation,
special economic zones still remain important. Sample functions developing in the airport
and near it are presented in the diagram (fig. 1.9).
Figure 1.8. Deportation center at the Schiphol
airport in Amsterdam. The location near the
airport is convenient also for such functions

38
AIRPORT
TERMINAL
PASSENGERS
RETAIL
DINING
SERVICES
CAR PARKS
TRAIN STATION
HYPERLOOP
OFFICES
HOTELS
CONFERENCE
CENTRES
RAILWAY
STATION
BUS STOPS
CAR PARKS
LOGISTICS
CARGO
INDUSTRIAL
PARKS
MEDICAL
SERVICES
AVIATION
INDUSTRY
SPECIAL ECONOMIC
ZONES
AIRPORT-ORIENTED
ECONOMY
AIRSIDE LANDSIDE
TERMINAL
PROXIMITY
(AIRPORT CITY)
AIRPORT
SURROUNDINGS
(AIRPORT
CORRIDOR,
AEROTROPOLIS)
REGION
CATERING, LAUNDRY, ETC.
SPORT AND RECREATION
HOUSING
NEW
URBAN
DISTRICTS
RECREATION
LEISURE
ENTERTAINMENT
CULTURE
BUSINESS
PARKS
INDUSTRIAL
PARKS
CARGO
FUEL BASE
SERVICE
RUNWAYS
NAVIGATION
INFRASTRUCTURE
GENERAL AVIATION
TAXIWAY
APRON
HANGARS
CAR RENTAL
Figure 1.9. Diagram of the functional development
of the airport and its surroundings
Own compilation based on Güller, Güller, 2003
and Stein 2010

39
1.5. ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Airports are complex, large institutions, the impact and functional relations of which go far
into metropolitan areas. Spatial development related to airports offers many opportunities
e.g. by creating new workplaces and new sources of income. However, also hazards and
conflicts appear in relation to spatial, economic, social, environmental or cultural aspects.
According to Robert Freestone (2009):“Traditional reaction types, e.g. »not in my backyard«,
as opposed to the airport development, evolve into a more general criticism of aviation
connected e.g. with climate changes. An attempt at mediating the conflict between the
pro-growth standing of aviation and more skeptical perspectives is the concept of sustain-
able aviation. It seems important to connect airport development planning with the wider
planning of sustainable urban areas and regions”.
Airports are considered one of the major factors stimulating the social and economic growth
of regions.This comprises increased mobility of people, the greater appeal of the region for
investors thanks to easier access to global markets, development of tourism, and primarily
workplace creation. Depending on how much those effects are connected with aviation,
the division into the direct impact, entirely or largely related to the airport operations, indi-
rect impact resulting from business activity outside the airport, which may be ascribed to
its existence, induced impact connected with the multiplier effect of development, as well
as the so-called catalytic impact can be made (Marciszewska, 2010, after ACI Europe/York
Aviation 2004).
The unavoidable side effects of airport functioning are the source of prospective conflicts
with neighboring inhabitants. The most harmful component is the noise, affecting a signif-
icant area. The noise maps made around the airports present the burdensome noise zones
along runways at the distance of a few to more than a dozen kilometers. Noise nuisance
depends on many factors, including flight frequency, as well as airplane type and size. The
noise is especially oppressive for the residents at night. On the other hand, airports wish to
use their infrastructure to its fullest potential, including also at night.
In Poland, pursuant to the Environmental Protection Law, the noise impact is grounds for
delineating a limited use area, which on the one hand enables the inhabitants to get com-
pensation or funds for sound insulation, but on the other limits the ability to erect houses
and lowers the real property value.

40
Another side effect is pollution with carbon dioxide, contributing to the greenhouse effect,
on the general level, and primarily with carbon oxide, nitrogen oxide, unburned hydro-
carbons, volatile organic compounds and sulfur dioxide on the local and regional level
(Berthon, 2010). Measuring the pollution, it is impossible to isolate any pollution markers
resulting from air transport, but it is estimated air transport contributes about 2% to 3%
to the global greenhouse gases’ emission, with one half of this amount being emission
generated by the airport-related activity (terrestrial traffic related to accessing the airport).
Air transport is responsible for about 10% of pollutant concentration around the airports
in a densely populated region and for about 20% of pollutants for airports situated outside
an agglomeration, with the local pollution level conditional on weather conditions, such as
wind, insolation or cloud height (Berthon, 2010).
Figure 1.10. Boeing 747-400 of Qantas Airlines
approaching the Heathrow airport in London,
visible above the houses at Myrtle Avenue,
to the southeast of the airport
Photo by Adrian Pingstone, 2004
(under CC license)

41
CONCLUSIONS
Airports play a special role for contemporary urbanized areas, ensuring connections re-
quired for operating in the global economy. They are considered one of the major factors
contributing to the development of cities and regions and still they become centers of
intensive spatial development locally. Near the airports, in the so-called airport-proximate
zones, there are more and more developing new functions directly or indirectly connected
with aviation or simply using the prestigious and well-connected location. Until recently,
those processes referred first and foremost to large hubs, focusing the transfer in the so-
called hub and spoke system, but nowadays this tendency is noticeable also for smaller
airports. The airport-proximate zone development process used to be spontaneous, with
no central planning which led to various shapes of the functional and spatial infrastructure
in accordance with local economic, geographic and other conditions. Nowadays, however,
this development is more and more often planned and stimulated within the city and
regional development strategies and comprehensive investment projects. The examples
and models of such zones’development will be described in detail in the following chapter.

43
2. AIRPORT-PROXIMATE ZONE
DEVELOPMENT MODELS
Airports all over the world have developed commercial building areas connected with
the airports directly and indirectly. According to Piotr Wróbel (2012),“Judging by the facts,
we witness the formation of new architectural and urban planning structures, which use
passenger and cargo terminals, multi-level garages, transport stations, logistic back-end
facilities, i.e. what used to be a set of suburban structures, as their material. We witness
the transformation of our airports from the“suburban facility”period to the early phase of
“air cities”. Globally, for recent several dozens years there has been a transformation from
a suburban aerodrome for which simple sheds were sufficient, like hangars and wooden
auditoriums, to the Airport City and Aerotropolis so popular nowadays, i.e. cities combined
in an agglomeration network, with the central place occupied by airports operating round
the clock seven days a week, three hundred sixty-five days a year.”
The airport-proximate zones have usually developed spontaneously, with the airports“over-
growing” with consecutive functions. Mathias and Michael Güller (2003) distinguish three
categories of business activities in the airport-proximate zone:
principal aviation activity, i.e. the technical operations of the airport, related directly to air
transport handling;
activities related to the airport, connected directly with the passenger and cargo transport;
airport-oriented activity.
Further away there are the seats of companies associated with aviation, primarily along
major traffic routes. It is here that the logistic bases, industrial zones etc., which gradually
create a built-up area integrated economically with the airport, are located.
Apart from the spontaneous, gradual establishment of commercial functions near the
airports, comprehensive development plans are created more and more often for the air-
port-proximate zones as a new type of multifunctional urban areas. Many airports worldwide,
within their so-called non-aviation activity, generating additional income, not only develop
the new functions in the terminal but also get involved in building development activities.
For example, Schiphol Real Estate operates not only in Amsterdam or Eindhoven but also in
•
•
•

44
Milan and Hong Kong, while Manchester Airports Group develops commercial real properties
at four English airports. Commercial complexes at the terminals are often given appealing
names, e.g. Airport City, Air City, Aerotropolis, Aeropolis, Aeropark, Aviopolis, Avioport, Flight
Forum, Sky City, Airpark etc. (Schlaack, 2010).
Several models have been proposed in the existing spatial development analyses devoted
to areas surrounding airports. Several basic types may be distinguished among the concepts
described in reference works (Schlaack, 2010; Schaafsma, 2012 et al.):
Commercial buildings, erected at the terminal because of their affiliations with aviation or
simply convenient location, which is not coordinated within a coherent plan.
Airport City — a complex of multifunctional commercial buildings erected at the terminal
within a coordinated development project, sometimes with certain features of the urban area
(floor area ratio, vegetated areas).This term has become the most popular and is frequently
used for marketing reasons. Still, it may be ambiguous.
Aerotropolis — a complex spatial development model related to the airport within several
dozens of kilometers, proposed by John Kasarda.
AirportCorridor — a concept of development concentration in the transport corridor between
the city center and airport.This model assumes higher floor area ratio than Aerotropolis and
building integration with the public transport.
Airport Region — a concept with a wide meaning, comprising various regional relations
and the regional development opportunities in connection with the airport presence. This
is a political vision which implies the conscious use of the functional, infrastructural and
organizational potential in the area surrounding the airport1.
Airea — a designation of a complex situation in which in different metropolitan area places
fragmentary “development islands” emerge, more or less connected with the airport, and
their relations to the airport are similar to the ones described in other theoretical models
mentioned above.
Schematic diagrams of various development models of airport-proximate zones are pre-
sented in figure 2.1.
Such a meaning is stipulated e.g. by the Airport Regions Conference, an association of local and regional authorities
of European areas where airports are situated; www.airportregions.org [access: 13 November 2013].
•
•
•
•
•
•
1

45
city
commercial zones
airport
city
airport city
airport
city
airport region
airport
city
airport city
airport
city
airport city
airport
city
airport corridor
airea
airport
aerotropolis
Figure 2.1. Diagrams of various develop-
ment models of airport-proximate zones
Own compilation based on Schlaack,
2010

46
2.1. COMMERCIAL AREAS AT THE AIRPORTS
Commercial functions at the airport develop both as the activities directly connected with
aviation and airport-oriented ones or simply using the opportunities offered by the pres-
tigious location and very good transport connections. They are created not only in the
areas belonging to the airport, related to the non-aviation operations of airports, bringing
additional profits but also in the adjacent areas, belonging to public or private entities.
There are business activity zones and commercial areas, already functioning or planned, also
at most Polish airports, e.g. in Gdańsk, Goleniów, Wrocław, Rzeszów or Katowice2. From the
perspective of southern Poland, the plans of building the business activity zones in the area
of about 200 ha at the airport in Ostrava are interesting, which may be directly competitive
to such development types at the airports in Katowice and Kraków3.
The typical, most outstanding, kinds of industrial parks, logistic bases or office complexes
include the ones created within the innovative urban planning and architectural projects,
aimed at contributing added value thanks to the appropriate space development.
Flight Forum, Eindhoven
Flight Forum in Eindhoven is a business park situated within the area of about 66 ha in the
former military air base, right at the airport, about 5 km westward from the city center4.This
complex is erected based on the design developed in 1997 by a well-known Dutch design
studio called MVRDV (the architects Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries) (fig. 2.2).
The perspectives of the airport-proximate zone development at the Polish airports will be described in Chapter 4.
Mošnov Development Area: www.ostrava.cz/en/podnikatel-investor/ke-stazeni/development-newsletter/March/c-doc-
uments-and-settings-novotnaan-plocha-dokumenty-real-estate-report-projekty-vizualizace-rer-pra-myslova-c-za-
3ny-logisticka-c-parky-moa-nov-leta-k-moa-nov-2013_en.pdf [access: 13 November 2013].
Flight Forum: http://www.flightforum.nl/ [access: 13 November 2013].
2
3
4
Figure 2.2. Flight Forum —
urban planning structure diagram
Source: MVRDV

47
According to the designers’description5, the assumption was to create a complex with an
increased intensity when compared to other, average commercial parks in the Netherlands,
possessing a more urban and complex nature.
The complex can be accessed by means of a non-standard road network, with a loop of
a winding, one-way road with irregular, soft geometry ensuring access to all plots. According
to the designers who call the road network “asphalt spaghetti”, this offers easy and undis-
turbed access, with no crossroads and traffic lights, and guarantees the same prestigious
address at the main street to all the buildings (!). This assumption may seem disputable
and the shape of roads, and also blocks, requires a specific geometry of buildings. On the
one hand, this is certainly a solution less economical than rectangular buildings, while on
the other it provides grounds for unique, more interesting building forms6. Another effect
of the assumed geometry is leaving the undeveloped areas within the loop, between the
buildings, where vegetated areas connected into eco-friendly lines are provided (fig. 2.4).
The location at the airport offers prestige, good traffic connections and access to service
and conference functions situated at the airport. Until recently, the office buildings with the
total usable area of 175 thousand m2
and industrial buildings with the usable area of about
100 m2
were erected (fig. 2.5). In line with the developer’s assumptions, Flight Forum is to
develop further as a multifunctional urban quarter. In the future, there are plans to erect
a crèche, sports and conference venues and catering services here. A terraced housing estate
is situated right at the complex.
MVRDV: http://www.mvrdv.nl/projects/flight/# [access: 13 November 2013].
After all, such a solution may be considered characteristic of other Dutch urban plans, e.g. of the renowned residen-
tial complex Borneo-Sporenbug where non-standard plot dimensions are used on purpose to make the architects
employ more inventiveness and obtain unique building forms.
5
6
Figure 2.3. Flight Forum panorama —
view from the North-east

48
Figure 2.4. Flight Forum —
urban planning structure conceptual model
Source: MVRDV

49
Figure 2.5.
A. Entrance zone to the office complex
B. One-way access road to individual buildings
C. Cargo Forum
D. Stabilo logistic center
E. Recreation space in front of an office block
A
C
B
D
E

50
2.2. AIRPORT CITY
The “Airport City” model describes multifunctional building complexes, continuing the
additional function development in terminal buildings. This term has become the most
popular for marketing reasons. Airports continue developing the“landside”zone with retail
functions, office complexes, conference and exhibition centers, as well as hotels and places
dedicated to recreation and entertainment. In most cases, Airport City is an integrated
development project carried out by the airport administrators or a planning institution
related directly to the airport.
On his website, aerotropolis.com, John Kasarda presents an overview of projects belonging
to the Airport City and Aerotropolis type. In the up-to-date version (2013), he mentions over
40 operating complexes of that type and the same number of the planned projects7. The
largest complexes worldwide operate e.g. at the airports in Los Angeles, NewYork, Philadel-
phia, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai. In Europe, the Airport City projects are
carried out in such locations as Amsterdam Schiphol, Helsinki — Vantaa, Paris — Roissy —
Charles de Gaulle, Stockholm — Arlanda, Athens Eleftherios Venizelos, Frankfurt — Hahn,
London — Heathrow, Munchen, Vienna, and Zurich.
The term Airport City has become very popular recently, although it may be construed
in a couple of ways. First, this may mean simply a commercial building complex erected
near the airport. In this way, the Airport City name is used as a marketing designation of
airport-proximate developments, e.g. the Airport City business park in Belgrade (fig. 2.7).
Second, the Airport City is a certain business model, where the airport assumes the role
of the land developer or the land and building developer, erecting a commercial building
complex on the land owned by the airport. This is an extension of the commercial activity
of the airport as an enterprise with the developer activity, frequently carried out by separate
entities. In this way e.g. the entity Schiphol Real Estate, established to create commercial
buildings at the airport in Amsterdam, nowadays “performs, manages and invests in com-
mercial real properties near international airports and multimodal transport hubs based on
the experience derived from the native airport and is a leader in this market niche, taking up
comprehensive projects combining the aspects of urban planning and designing, investment
www.aerotropolis.com/files/2013_AerotropolisStatus.pdf [access: 13 November 2013].
7
Figure 2.6. The growing popularity of the Airport
City notion may be evidenced by the popularity of
the Airport City computer game, where the player
becomes a developer of the airport and adjacent
city, just like in the well-known SimCity game.
Source: www.gameairportcity.com

51
process, infrastructure, landscaping etc.”8 In the third meaning Airport City suggests space
of an urban nature, or at least of certain properties of urban buildings. Urbanity, and espe-
cially big cities, is a desirable value nowadays, associated with dynamism, the intensity of
contacts and exchange, active lifestyle, economic development etc. It is worth reminding
here that the English word city has two meanings, i.e. it is a large and important town, but
also the“central business quarter”, i.e.“London City”. In this sense, you may sometimes speak
of“Warsaw City”.
Airport City — large urban planning projects
The Airport City, just like other large urban architectural complexes, has been the subject
of more and more urban planning competitions and creative searches. One of the most
recent examples is the master plan of the Airport City in Qatar, covering the area of 10 km2
between the Hamad airport and Doha city.This competition was won in early 2013 by OMA9
(fig. 2.8, 2.9). The design includes four separate quarters connected by means of a green
transport corridor, parallel to the runways.Those are to be a business and residential quarter,
“aviation campus”and a logistic center.The first phase is to be carried out in 2022 to complete
it before the World Cup which is to take place there.
Some examples of similar projects carried out in Europe nowadays include
Akropolis Rossy — a complex of 13,000 m2
, worth 300 million EUR, erected near Charles de
Gaulle Airport in Paris.The complex is to comprise a congress center for 3,000 people, three
exhibition centers, offices, and hotels.
Dublin Airport City — a commercial complex with the area of 70,000 m2
(including
50,000 m2
of the office space and 20,000 m2
for sales, services, and hotels), planned based
on the master plan designed by HOK.
Airport City Bremen10 — a commercial quarter in Bremen, developed at the airport by the
city authorities, in the areas belonging to the city development offer.
Schiphol Real Estate, http://www.schiphol.nl/B2B/OfficeForRent/WhatWeDo.htm [access: 13 November 2013].
OMAchosentomasterplanAirportCityinQatar, DezeenMagazine, http://www.dezeen.com/2013/03/08/rem-koolhaas-
oma-chosen-to-masterplan-airport-city-in-qatar/ [access: 13 November 2013].
http://www.wfb-bremen.de/sixcms/media.php/1754/big_airport_engl_final.pdf.
•
•
•
8
9
10
Figure 2.7. Airport City Belgrade
Source: © Michael Angelkovich, 2006

52
Figure 2.8, 2.9. Airport City Doha. (c) OMA, 2013

53
Manchester Airport City11 — an office and service complex at the third largest airport in the
United Kingdom (fig. 2.10, 2.11).
Airport City Stockholm12 — a development plan for the urban quarter, including vegetated
areas, city squares, and building blocks.
Until recently, such complexes were designed at the largest international transfer airports,
while for some time Airport Cities are planned also by smaller airports, including those in
East European countries, e.g. Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Zagreb, and Kiev13.
Airport City Manchester, http://www.airportcity.co.uk/ [access: 13 November 2013].
Airport City Stockholm, http://www.airportcitystockholm.com/ [access: 13 November 2013].
Kiev Airport City, http://www.kievairportcity.com/ [access: 13 November 2013].
•
•
11
12
13
Figure 2.10, 2.11. Manchester Airport City.
Source: © Manchester Airports Group, 2013

54
Düsseldorf Airport City
Düsseldorf airport, situated 7 km northward from Düsseldorf center, is the largest airport
in the polycentric Ren-Ruhra metropolitan area, and the third largest airport in Germany,
serving about 20 million passengers a year.The airport is connected with the city by means
of the motorway and the suburban and national railway. Between the terminals, there is
also a light, suspended rail, i.e. Düsseldorf SkyTrain.
Since 2005, there is the Düsseldorf Airport City14 project carried out in stages at the airport,
in the area of 23 ha.There are plans to erect 250 thousand m2
of commercial, office and sales
area there (in 2016). At present, the following are situated there: a seat of Siemens, large car
showroom of Porsche, congress center, cinema and two hotels. Nearby, there is also a trade
fair seat, i.e. Messe Düsseldorf.
Düsseldorf Airport City, http://www.dus.com/dus_en/airport_city/ [access: 13 November 2013].
14
Figure 2.12. Düsseldorf Airport City —
visualization
Source: Flughafen Düsseldorf Immobilien GmbH.
Immobilienentwicklung Airport City

55
This project is carried out by Flughafen Düsseldorf Immobilien GmbH15 based on the master
plan developed by Swiss design studio VOGT which won the international competition in
200316. The plan assumes a transport network, underground car park and the land division
into development plots to erect buildings from 3 to 30 thousand m2
. The design provides
for a relatively intense building structure, mostly in the form of open blocks. According to
the authors, the leitmotif of the master plan is the connection between the two scales: vast
airport areas and the human scale of workplaces and residence in the adjacent quarter.
The plan was based on the urban space typology: a street, a square and city gardens which
were supposed to define the workplace nature and create a framework for the erected
buildings. In the design, particular importance was attached to vegetated areas which are
to add more friendly nature to the site and ensure convenient pedestrian connection with
the terminal (fig. 2.12).
http://www.duesseldorf-realestate.de/en/home/mipim/exhibit-partners/airport-city.html [access: 13 November 2013].
VOGT, Airport City, Düsseldorf, http://www.vogt-la.com/sites/default/files/1608_AirportDuesseldorf_e-screen.pdf
[access: 13 November 2013].
15
16
Figure 2.13. Düsseldorf Airport City
A. Office buildings
B. Multi-level car park
C. Fuel base
A
B C

56
2.3. AEROTROPOLIS
John Kasarda (2000) proposes the term Aerotropolis as a model of a further development
stage for airport-proximate zones, with new developments around the Airport City, connect-
ed with the airport operations directly or indirectly. Kasarda believes that just like a traditional
metropolis model is composed of a centrally located downtown, or the“city”, and the suburbs
and satellite quarters located around it, Aerotropolis has an airport complex, or the Airport
City, and other complexes of various functions, connecting it with the transport corridors
and complexes located along them, within up to 30 km, of different functions, comprising
entities related to aviation, services for passengers, office complexes, or even housing estates
oriented to airport employees or people who fly very often.
Kasarda suggests a simplified Aerotropolis model, forecasting that although no zone around
the airport will look exactly this way if any location-related restrictions within a given airport
are reduced, the development will take place in a way similar to the proposed model (fig. 2.14).
Figure 2.14. Aerotropolis diagram
Source: John Kasarda, www.aerotropolis.com,
translated by myself

57
Kasarda shows that there is a synergy effect in Aerotropolis, consisting in multiplying the
benefits thanks to the combination of various functions, connected with the airport directly
or indirectly, or the application of the Aristotelian rule that “the whole is much more than
the sum of its parts”. Multiplier effects result primarily from the economic ties between
different activity types, but may be strengthened thanks to the appropriate, optimum
planning of infrastructure and shaping spatial structure to ensure the effect is “econom-
ically efficient, aesthetically pleasant, as well as socially and environmentally sustainable”
(fig. 2.15, Kasarda, 2010).
Describing his model, Kasarda points out that although the former Aerotropolis development
used to be organic and spontaneous, in the future those areas should be carefully planned
and designed, including e.g. the following components:
convenient transport by expressways and fast rail lines;
separate lanes for lorries to reduce traffic jams;
reduced road traffic at the sites of particular functions at an optimum distance to the airport;
spatial segregation of industrial and logistic functions from services, office complexes, and
passenger service;
location of residential zones to minimize the impact of noise and pollution emitted by the
airport;
•
•
•
•
•
Figure 2.15. A diagram of synergy between the
airport and the airport-proximate zone in Aero-
tropolis according to John Kasarda
Source: John Kasarda, www.aerotropolis.com,
translated by myself

58
predominance of function clusters over the strip arrangement, ensuring isolating vegetation
between individual complexes;
sense of local identity of the place and facilitating orientation by employing distinct, iconic
architectural forms;
arrangement of residential complexes, where the airport personnel and frequent travelers
will live, as multifunctional quarters with a comprehensive range of local services, designing
buildings and public spaces in a human scale, ensuring the sense of neighborhood and
local community;
overall space shaping based on the sustainable development and eco-friendly rules.
Generally speaking, those requirements seem rather obvious. They can be recapitulated
with a statement that the airport-proximate zone development should take place in line
with good practice and rules of shaping urban architectural complexes, including the con-
temporary paradigm of a compact city, compliant with the sustainable development rules
(as described in sub-section 1.2).
Kasarda refers the model of Aerotropolis primarily to larger airports in the U.S. (e.g. in
Atlanta, Dallas, Miami or Washington) and in Asia, e.g. in Hong Kong (Sky City), Singapore,
Kuala Lumpur or Incheon in South Korea (Air City), where a new, cutting-edge eco-city
Songdo is also erected near the airport. According to Kasarda, the Aerotropolis examples
in Europe include Amsterdam-Schiphol, Frankfurt, Helsinki-Vantaa, Paris-Charles de Gaulle,
and Stockholm-Arlanda.
•
•
•
•

59
Amsterdam-Schiphol
The airport is situated about 9 km to the South-west of Amsterdam center, on the level of
3 m above sea level, on Haarlemmermeer polder. The airport was erected in 1917 and has
been constantly extended and modernized since then. At present, it takes the fourth place
in Europe with respect to the number of passengers (close to 50 million in 2011).The airport
has one, very large terminal connected with numerous departure lounges (fig. 2.16) and six
runways. The airport can be accessed by a motorway and railway.
The Amsterdam airport is one of the first where the airport-proximate zone development
was first carried out in a coordinated way. As early as in the late 1980s, the Dutch spatial
development policy emphasized the significance of developing the land at the two major
national hubs, i.e. the harbor in Rotterdam and the Schiphol airport (Schaafsma, 2010). De-
velopment planning and performance is carried out by a separate entity, i.e. Schiphol Real
Estate. In the 1990s, the notion of “Airport City”was introduced into the marketing strategy,
developing the service, office and industrial functions. At present, around the airport, there
are more than 600 thousand m2
of office space and about one million m2
of industrial and
warehousing space, situated in several complexes (business parks, Aerospace Exchange,
Cargo Word etc.). The centers of the entire zone are Schiphol Plaza, a service and commer-
cial complex in the terminal, possessing a direct connection with the railway station, and
Schiphol Centre, or a business park situated right at the terminal, together with two hotels.
The complexes are intensely developed, and the building frontages and vegetated areas
offer urban nature to the streets (fig. 2.17).
Figure 2.16. View of Schiphol Centre when per-
ceived from the multi-level car park.
Leftward, construction of the new Hilton hotel.
To the right — the air traffic control tower

60
Figure 2.17. Schiphol Airport —
view towards the air traffic control tower

61
The airport area attracts all sort of functions which can benefit from this convenient location.
Besides the strictly commercial buildings, attention is attracted by a large, grey building
surrounded by a concrete wall (see photo on page 37).This is one of the largest deportation
centers in the Netherlands.The building was erected in 2012, and the decision to build it was
made after a fire of the temporary deportation center at the airport, during which eleven
illegal immigrants detained there died. Importantly, the location near the airport, improving
efficiency, is convenient also for such functions. It is characteristic of the Netherlands that
there is a bike track leading to the building.
Figure 2.18. View of the airport from the apron
A street along the Schiphol Centre complex
B. Schiphol Centre viewed from the access to the
airport. Vegetated land with a retention pond
C. Densely erected office buildings at the airport
A B C

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