Airports and HST Stations as Nodes of Centrality for a New Age

Changes in territorial and urban mobilities play a vital role in addressing the challenges of environmental crisis. The studio will explore long-distance transportation modes as a new frontier for developing the urban future.

At the territorial scale, the high-speed train is more efficient and sustainable up to a range of 600-800 kms. Beyond this, the plane is the fastest system. The right choice of means of mobility may reduce the harmful greenhouse effect and global warming.

It is important to note that the right combination of long-distance transportation modes (HST and plane) can ensure the high-level accessibility required by an innovative economy and may reduce the negative impact of the wrong choice of modes of travel.

The studio will explore how this form of intermodality can be implemented, outlining different factors that determine the urban form of the airport and its districts in different cultures and its complementarity with other high-performance mobility systems, like the HST.

It is important to remember that this reflection is set in the context of the climate change being produced by the use of fossil rather than renewable fuels.

Added to this is a critical discussion of the circuit between industrialization and urban development that prevailed in the 20th century, which is now leading us to rethink the relationship between production and consumption in order to find more just, responsible guidelines. This emerging new age is the field outlined by the research to study new paradigms of integrated mobility and the relationship of urban territories with natural spaces that must be taken as the basis of work to be explored.

The research will select key paradigm examples of intermodality from different scopes (international, regional and local) to understand its urban influence. The Studio will test some urban design strategies to explore the construction of exciting urban districts for working, living, leisure and new forms of exchange.