The aim of this thesis is to understand how urban planning and aerial mobility have fed into each other, and how these constant encounters have shaped our contemporary culture. The starting point for the investigation is 1909, when large-scale public spectacles revealed the invention of controlled flight to the public. From that date onwards, the relationship between developments in aviation culture and the field of urban planning continued to shape the discourse on the city of the future. From this perspective, the thesis shows how aerial city and airport-city systems function as a mirror for the city of tomorrow. By tracing the history of these complex distortions, the research shows that the airport is not, in fact, the prototype of a non-place, but rather a specific and concrete space, the result of a complex alchemy that nuances the assertion that globalization leads to the homogenization of urban space.
Thesis defended on January 10, 2008
Doctoral school:
City and Environment