This study deals with conflicts of interest between cities and airports that are increasing due to the liberalization of the European aviation market and the growth of international air travel in Germany. Since the 1990s, economic and policy actors have been planning and implementing the expansion of the German airport network. For these actors, airports are more than infrastructure; they comprise global business centers, renowned corporations, important places of work and economic drivers of cities and regions.

Urban planning and design support the expansive development of airports, and view them both as a commission and an opportunity. These disciplines formulate modern concepts for new kinds of airport-friendly cities that exist spatially separated from and independently of cities, and serve the purposes of air travel accordingly. However, achieving such economical-political goals in terms of planning, space, construction and design is delayed or fails due to the increasing complexity of urban realities. The expansion, construction and transformation of airports leads to resistance among neighbors, communities, and environmental organizations. They criticize the increase of air travel, nighttime airport operation and aviation noise, as well as the enormous space consumption, exploding costs, CO2 emissions and the risk of aviation disasters. The planning and development of airports takes decades until completion, and airports are losing more and more acceptance within civil society.

Against this background, the author's research offers insight on the interface between cities and airports from the perspective of urban planning and design disciplines. It posits that airports in Germany need to (re-)integrate with cities in a stronger way, and therefore require a relational conceptualization, planning and design process. To pursue this thesis, to research its field of interrelations and to discuss the respective roles of actors, the study focuses on an airport that is spatially integrated into its city, the City Airport of Hamburg. Based on a social theory oriented research approach, the study describes the related integrative transformation process from a co-evolutionary and interdisciplinary viewpoint with regards to the key actors involved, their interests and actions in time and space.

About the author

Rainer Johann (born 1972), Dipl.-Ing., M.Sc. studied architecture in Cologne (2000) and urban studies in Delft (2003). Urban planning and design collaboration with ASTOC Architects & Planners in Cologne, UrbanUnlimited in Rotterdam, and De Architekten Cie. in Amsterdam. Member of the "Tussenland" think tank of the Netherlands Institute of Spatial Research in The Hague and co-author of the research publication under the same title (2003–04). Guest professorship at the Institute for European Urban Studies at the Bauhaus University in Weimar within the visiting academic program of the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung (2007–08). Since 2008 research and teaching associate in Urban Planning and Quarter Development at HafenCity University (HCU) Hamburg, under the supervision of, Prof. Dr. Michael Koch. Doctoral studies within HCU's international doctoral program, Forschungs- labor Raum (2007–11). Since 2003 freelance research, planning and design activity as urbanist in cooperation with economists, architects and planners across Europe.

www.rainerjohann.eu