{"id":5231,"date":"2022-07-25T06:36:45","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T06:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.aertecsolutions.com\/aeropuertos-genericos-y-espacio-basura\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T10:19:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T10:19:34","slug":"generic-airports-and-junk-space-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aertecsolutions.com\/en\/blog\/aeropuertos-genericos-y-espacio-basura\/","title":{"rendered":"Generic airports and junk space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">La carencia de identidad, planificaci\u00f3n o el exceso de tecnolog\u00eda son caracter\u00edsticas de muchos de los aeropuertos actuales, lo que los hace, en esencia, insostenibles.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is a general trend in the <strong>how contemporary airports are solved<\/strong>. This trend, which is demanded by most of those responsible for building and operating airports, <strong>has a direct impact on sustainability<\/strong> of these and has, in a very high percentage of cases, much more to do with mass consumption as a concept than with the transport infrastructure itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This trend generates \"junk space\". Y <strong>junk space\" is unsustainable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Generic airports<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few years after the Stansted Airport terminal, designed by <strong>Norman Foster<\/strong>another great architect, the Dutch urban planner <strong>Rem Koolhaas<\/strong> acu\u00f1\u00f3 el t\u00e9rmino \u201cespacio basura\u201d (junk space) para definir el rumbo que estaba tomando el dise\u00f1o de la arquitectura en nuestras ciudades. Es curioso c\u00f3mo Koolhaas se preguntaba en ese momento si \u201c\u00bfson las ciudades contempor\u00e1neas iguales que los aeropuertos actuales?\u201d Y es que hace casi 30 a\u00f1os se daba por supuesto que los aeropuertos, salvo honrosas excepciones como la de Stansted, se estaban convirtiendo en algo \u201cgen\u00e9rico\u201d. No importaba d\u00f3nde est\u00e9n, son todos iguales. <strong>When there is no identity, what is left is the generic<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As\u00ed pues, \u00bfqu\u00e9 son los aeropuertos gen\u00e9ricos? \u00bfQu\u00e9 caracter\u00edsticas \u2014habitualmente\u2014 definen los aeropuertos que solemos visitar por ocio o trabajo? En mi opini\u00f3n, son el resultado de combinar estos tres<strong> concepts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lack of identity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lack of planning<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Excessive technology (to make up for lack of identity)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By means of this post, I propose to sketch out these ideas in a light way<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lack of identity<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">Un aeropuerto carece de identidad \u2014cualquier edificio en realidad\u2014 cuando\u00a0<strong>is not subject to the place that hosts it<\/strong>.<\/span> Esta es la raz\u00f3n por la que, cuando viajamos, vemos soluciones id\u00e9nticas en lugares completamente distintos. Y dado que el mayor s\u00edntoma de sostenibilidad es la \u201clocalidad\u201d, los aeropuertos que no tienen identidad son insostenibles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, that is sustainability. <strong>Acting locally, with global awareness<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This lack of identity, moreover, is exacerbated by a <strong>over-consumerism<\/strong>. The only activity that seems important is shopping.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lack of planning<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">El aeropuerto gen\u00e9rico es tambi\u00e9n fruto de la falta de planificaci\u00f3n. Parad\u00f3jico, puesto que se hace un esfuerzo ingente en redactar planes maestros que \u201cmarcan\u201d el crecimiento de los aeropuertos. Pero redactar un plan no es suficiente ni eficiente \u2014en toda la extensi\u00f3n de la palabra\u2014 si posteriormente no somos capaces de adaptar ese plan a las necesidades emergentes. Encontrar un equilibrio entre las necesidades presentes y las demandas futuras es clave para el \u00e9xito de la planificaci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, it is common for one layer to be \"mercilessly\" built on top of another, without respecting the pre-existence that legitimises a previous effort. It is a perpetual process of adjustment, of multiple choice, that <strong>systematically abandons and demolishes what no longer works<\/strong>. It is a problem of global unawareness and generational selfishness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Excessive technology<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A consequence of the two previous ones and which has a direct impact on the way generic airport architecture is conceived. The fact of designing without taking into account the singular features of the site, its culture and especially its climate, results in a <strong>problem solving through technology<\/strong>. There is, we could say, a provincialism of the mechanical. Grey matter is abandoned, in the certainty that everything can be solved by technological gadgets. That is why the generic airport is always air-conditioned. It is always air-conditioned. In fact, this is often one of the most costly chapters, in energy and economic terms.  In many cases, complicated cooling plants are designed to feed numerous huge air-conditioning units, in order to imitate inside the building the climatic conditions that exist outside at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Junk space<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are of course examples that, through their intelligent approach, fly above this generalised picture. But, unfortunately, it seems that they are not very common. In fact, <strong>this generation to which we belong is the generation that has built the most in history<\/strong>. And for the most part, what has been built is \"junk space\". A space that we can conclude is characterised by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Reemplazar la jerarqu\u00eda por la acumulaci\u00f3n y la composici\u00f3n por la adici\u00f3n. M\u00e1s y m\u00e1s; m\u00e1s es m\u00e1s. Parece estar pensado para la saturaci\u00f3n y la congesti\u00f3n, para que reine la acumulaci\u00f3n y la ambici\u00f3n del \u201cm\u00e1s\u201d por encima de todo.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ser interminable, no estar nunca cerrado. Hist\u00f3ricamente, la renovaci\u00f3n y la restauraci\u00f3n se produc\u00edan despu\u00e9s de per\u00edodos muy largos de tiempo. Ahora somos testigos y participantes de ese proceso, tal es la volatilidad de lo que construimos.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Giving consumption a leading role capable of altering our habits and the way we perceive the world. Shopping centres, for example, manage to blur the boundaries between the traditional categories of landscape, urbanism and architecture.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">En el pasado, las infraestructuras eran mucho m\u00e1s severas, ten\u00edan una pureza casi monumental, objetivo original de la arquitectura moderna. Ahora, sin embargo, abrazan con entusiasmo al \u201cespacio basura\u201d. Estaciones y aeropuertos se abren como mariposas de acero, convirti\u00e9ndose en verdaderos paradigmas de este concepto.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following this pattern, <strong>airports, \"never finished\".<\/strong>Instead of reusing and repurposing their old terminals, they deform them beyond recognition, demolish them to rebuild them on the same site or shamelessly take more space, abandoning them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cajas de cart\u00f3n yeso que esconden preciosos artesonados. Cintas mec\u00e1nicas dispuestas sobre un suelo compuesto de retales \u201cde suelos\u201d. Lo que antes era recto se retuerce en artificios cada vez m\u00e1s complejos. Giros, vueltas, ascensos y descensos, que tratan de esquivar antiguas disposiciones, son los que incluyen el t\u00edpico recorrido desde la entrada por el lado tierra hasta la puerta de embarque de un t\u00edpico aeropuerto contempor\u00e1neo. Y como jam\u00e1s nos cuestionamos lo absurdo de estos desv\u00edos forzados, nos sometemos d\u00f3cilmente a estos itinerarios que, en realidad, \u00fanicamente buscan un \u00fanico fin: pasar junto a infinidad de mostradores de productos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Koolhaas's own words, if we don't avoid it, <strong>junk space\" will kill us<\/strong> because, while half of humanity pollutes to produce, the other half pollutes to consume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>La carencia de identidad, planificaci\u00f3n o el exceso de tecnolog\u00eda son caracter\u00edsticas de muchos de los aeropuertos actuales, lo que los hace, en esencia, insostenibles. Existe una tendencia generalizada en el modo de resolver los aeropuertos contempor\u00e1neos. Dicha tendencia, demandada por la mayor\u00eda de los responsables de construir y explotar aeropuertos, impacta directamente sobre la [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":5232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,35,39],"class_list":["post-5231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-arquitectura","tag-planificacion-y-diseno-aeropuertos","tag-terminales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aertecsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aertecsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aertecsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aertecsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aertecsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aertecsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12573,"href":"https:\/\/aertecsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231\/revisions\/12573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aertecsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aertecsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aertecsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aertecsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}