Nathalie Roseau: Imagination and the Aerial City

The aim of this thesis is to understand how urban planning and aviation have mutually influenced one another, and how these constant interactions have shaped our contemporary culture. The study begins in 1909, when large-scale public spectacles introduced the invention of powered flight to the public. From this point onwards, the relationship between developments in aviation culture and the field of urban planning would continue to shape a discourse on the city of the future. From this perspective, the thesis demonstrates how concepts such as the ‘aerial city’ or the ‘airport-city’ function as a mirror for the city in the making. By tracing a history of these complex distortions, the research demonstrates that the airport is ultimately not the prototype of a non-place but a specific and concrete space, the result of a complex alchemy that qualifies the assertion that globalisation leads to the homogenisation of urban space.