+ From: "Architexturez." <interface.services@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
+ Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 21:40:21 +0530
| is it just me or there is something really
| JG Ballard in here?
Rise of the Aerotropolis
As competition shrinks the globe, the world is building giant airport-cities. They look monstrous to American eyes--and that could be a problem.
From: Issue 107 | July 2006 | Page 76 | By: Greg Lindsay | Photographs By: Nikolas Koenig
The name wasn't terribly auspicious: Nong Ngu Hao, the "Cobra Swamp." But the location, a mammoth piece of ground in the sparsely settled landscape between Bangkok and the southern coast, was nearly perfect. Thailand's leader at the time, the visionary-if-dictatorial field marshal Sarit Thanarat, had chosen this spot to build his country's bridge to the 21st century, in the form of a gleaming international airport. It would be a long time coming.
The field marshal died suddenly in 1963, and the airport was postponed for decades; meanwhile, Thailand's neighbors either eviscerated themselves or else offered up their cities as the First World's factories. By the time the 21st century actually came into view, the field marshal's democratically elected heirs watched enviously as the Dells, Seagates, and Motorolas of the world parceled out pieces of their sprawling supply chains across Indochina, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs for lottery-winning cities such as Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
But before the end of this year, on a still-soggy tract that now lies at the creeping border of Bangkok's suburbs, a new $4 billion mega-airport will finally open, forming the heart of a nascent city. When it's finished, the erstwhile Cobra Swamp, now Suvarnabhumi (the "Golden Land"), will pump more than 100 million passengers a year through its glass portals, about as many as JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark aiports combined. Within 30 years, a city of 3.3 million citizens--larger than Chicago now--will have emerged from the swampland.
....
When you stand there, the airport peeking out from behind the overpass suddenly seems an optimistic symbol. It makes as much sense--and probably more--for the people of Detroit to orbit a new global portal as it does for them to cling to some frayed and decrepit version of Jane Jacobs's ideal. It's an opportunity for the city to start fresh, to recast itself in our networked economy's own image. It's a chance that Detroit, of all places, can ill afford to miss. The rest of us had better take good notes.
con'td...
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/107/aerotropolis.html
| JG Ballard in here?
Rise of the Aerotropolis
As competition shrinks the globe, the world is building giant airport-cities. They look monstrous to American eyes--and that could be a problem.
From: Issue 107 | July 2006 | Page 76 | By: Greg Lindsay | Photographs By: Nikolas Koenig
The name wasn't terribly auspicious: Nong Ngu Hao, the "Cobra Swamp." But the location, a mammoth piece of ground in the sparsely settled landscape between Bangkok and the southern coast, was nearly perfect. Thailand's leader at the time, the visionary-if-dictatorial field marshal Sarit Thanarat, had chosen this spot to build his country's bridge to the 21st century, in the form of a gleaming international airport. It would be a long time coming.
The field marshal died suddenly in 1963, and the airport was postponed for decades; meanwhile, Thailand's neighbors either eviscerated themselves or else offered up their cities as the First World's factories. By the time the 21st century actually came into view, the field marshal's democratically elected heirs watched enviously as the Dells, Seagates, and Motorolas of the world parceled out pieces of their sprawling supply chains across Indochina, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs for lottery-winning cities such as Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
But before the end of this year, on a still-soggy tract that now lies at the creeping border of Bangkok's suburbs, a new $4 billion mega-airport will finally open, forming the heart of a nascent city. When it's finished, the erstwhile Cobra Swamp, now Suvarnabhumi (the "Golden Land"), will pump more than 100 million passengers a year through its glass portals, about as many as JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark aiports combined. Within 30 years, a city of 3.3 million citizens--larger than Chicago now--will have emerged from the swampland.
....
When you stand there, the airport peeking out from behind the overpass suddenly seems an optimistic symbol. It makes as much sense--and probably more--for the people of Detroit to orbit a new global portal as it does for them to cling to some frayed and decrepit version of Jane Jacobs's ideal. It's an opportunity for the city to start fresh, to recast itself in our networked economy's own image. It's a chance that Detroit, of all places, can ill afford to miss. The rest of us had better take good notes.
con'td...
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/107/aerotropolis.html
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Partial thread listing:
- [in-enaction] types: Ballardism (!): Rise of the Aerotropolis, Architexturez. (2006-07-23)
- [in-enaction] types: Greer of Libraries..., Architexturez.
- [in-enaction] types: Information Age Factories [ Googleplex ] (image), Architexturez.