LINT Landscape Architecture

Landscape Airport

LINT Landscape Architecture

This project proposes a new airport in the southern part of the Dutch Deltametropolis. The zoning laws around the airport will protect a part of the Green Heart, a sublime, typical Dutch landscape of meadows and sightlines.

At the same time the new airport will be an economic impulse for the area and stimulate the marginalised agricultural economy of farmers in this region.
Observation #1
The Dutch landscape, and especially the Green Heart, is an open landscape characterized by long views, impressive clouds and skies, green meadows
and an ingenious watersystem. In it's artificiality it can compete with sublime landscapes like the ultimate wilderness of the Grand Canyon.
Observation #2
This unique landscape disappears rapidly. It's difficult to use the area for agricultural purposes due to high waterlevels and subsidence of peat. Despite of
many actions taken by the regional and national authorities, this Dutch cultural heritage is already split up by suburban sprawl and forests mainly for
recreational purposes.
Observation #3
The airports Schiphol and Rotterdam Airport cannot expand on their current locations due to growing urbanisation. The expected growth of flights within
europe, mainly because of the expanding Low Cost Carrier (LCC) market (Easyjet and Ryanair), will increase the need for a new airport. A new airport
will strengthen the position of this Dutch economical centre in the continuous competition between European cities.
Soft system of effective borders
Our research shows that the remained openness of the Dutch landscape is often protected by accident. Open areas in the Dutch landscape are often not
found where they are planned. Strangely safety zoning which protects against noise, radiation or smell are very solid bufferzones to keep areas free of
new developments like housing. These “spacemakers” act like non visible soft clouds above areas and are anchored by zoning laws.
Landscape airport
In this project the phenomenon of zoning is used to solve both an economical and a spatial problem. By inserting a new airport into the southern edge of
the Green heart, the soundcontour will protect the area from ongoing suburbanisation and conserve long views through the landscape. At the same time
the airport is an economic impulse for the area.
A cooperative airport will facilitate LCC flights. These LCC airports require only little additional program and will function purely as a basic facility for air
planes.
The landscape will profit from the new airport, located in The Noordplaspolder, a solid claypolder on the edge of the soft peatlandscapes. Important
vistas are marked and fixed by the liquidlike soundcontour which is related to the exact positioning of the three different airstrips of the airport. Spaces
which are covered by these contour cause impressive breaktroughs in the existing urban fabric. Within these areas ‘contourfarmers’ earn money by
mowing advertisements in their meadows, as an extra economic stimulance. By making an extended system of waterways and bicycle paths, this
landscape will not only be a profitable but also an enjoyable landscape for citizens of the Deltametropolis.


Project: Self Initiated
Team: LINT Landscape Architecture
Year: 2010