The Passenger terminal in urban airports as “Third Space"

The public local character from am illustrated reading of the transformation processes in Congonhas and Santos Dumont Airports

Abstract

From a historical-urban reading of the system formed by Congonhas and Santos Dumont airports, this paper aimed to study the interface between ‘airsid’ and ‘landside’ in urban (or central) airports passanger terminals and their potential for convergencies bwtween public and private, or fast and slow uses, as local scale urbanity inducting ‘third-spaces’, in a critical position to the notion of aerotropolis frequently tied to the new peripheral large airports. It started from the problem that, although contemporany with each other and sharing complementary vocations, their role in the air connections network took distinct directions, which originated different – or even contrasting – urban relations. The theoretical-empirical methodology, which covers bibliographic review, project analysis and iconographic research (and reading) of the spaces, digitally, seeked to compare both cases, so understanding whether or how the city appropriated themselves or seeks to claim a friendly relationship from these equipments.