Ecological Airport Urbanism: Airports and landscapes in the Italian Northeast # 01

By their nature, use, form and size, airports are often considered as spaces extraneous to the landscape and difficult to integrate into the local context. Yet airport infrastructure is playing an ever more important role in local development, modifying not just the aspect, but also the social structure, economy and environmental quality of the surrounding area. Infrastructure on this scale benefits society as a whole, but the environmental effects are a particularly heavy burden on the communities directly involved.
How is the landscape modified by air transportation? What is meant by “ecological airport urbanism”? Can the landscape and airport infrastructure be integrated following ecological criteria? How can an airport be integrated into the local context? What design devices can be used? How can we combine today’s technological requirements with the need for unforeseen new functions in the future? In the future, how might disused airport infrastructure possibly be “recycled”?
This study aims to make an initial contribution to research on the airport system in North East Italy in relation to current landscape transformation dynamics.