Aerotropolis

Over at archinect, a post on the current situation of certain airports in the world. Out of competitive advantage, select businesses have located themselves around the periphery. The catch phrase is aerotropolis, a city with airport as center, rings of business and support services radiating out from the center. A certain radiant city by Le Corbusier and/or Broadacre City by Frank Lloyd Wright come to mind with visions of utopian cities, built around and with new forms of transportation.

What I'm contemplating is the affect on the design profession. The idea of an aerotroplis opens up a virtual pandora's box of architecture, transportation design, housing, infrastructure, and business innovations waiting to be realized in the physical world. There are ideas already out there, attempting, rather successfully, to implement new visions of "personal" flying devices such as the jetpod.

We've all seen the sprawling highways and office parks extending from aiports. In some cases, such as at O'Hare International in Chicago, it can be nothing less than catasrophic to both the built and natural systems in place. I liken it to the suburbs. As residential real estate has evolved, with modern suburbs being located next to highways for instance, the same has happened. Natural and built systems are compromised for ease of highways usage. What methods worked and what didn't work? How do we handle energy needs?

What happens when we need a short landing pad instead of a driveway adjacent to our homes? What if "mini" airports take the place of driveways all together? If "mini" airports arise, how is housing re-fomulated? Cities such as Memphis , which is already making a splash as a cargo hub, could give us some interesting clues.