Any suggestions for real airport cities?

[sylverflyer]

I'm tapping away on this game and my wife looks over amused and bewildered. "You are at this all day for a living and you're now playing it as a game?"

So I'd love to make this professionally rewarding too! I design airport cities around the world, for real, and would be interested to know what this community thinks of airport cities. Are they something you encounter often in your lives? Do you see them becoming more important to you? What would you like to see them include? What could change about them for the better? Do you live/work in one now? (I live right next to Hong Kong airport by the way) Why might they be good/bad for our communities?

And yes, what was I playing when I first got into city planning and urban design? you guessed it: SimCity.

 

[Blackcloud]

Interesting question.
Can you define what you mean by Airport City? I think of airports and their surrounding support structure or do you mean something like ICN (Incheon)?

 

[sylverflyer]

Not to get too serious in an essentially fun game forum , but if this is interesting:

A lot of people are trying to define or brand airport cities beyond the basic logistic and warehouse support surroundings. And airport authorities are doing what we're doing in the game, collecting revenue from development that might otherwise belong in the city (I hadn't though of a bridal store, but wedding pic vacations are big business in Asia!). Plus paying for the likes of Foster-designed new terminals ain't cheap!

So I'm looking at the latter... i.e. New Songdo for ICN. In Hong Kong we have a 9-hole golf course, an arena for concerts, a number of hotels, an outlet shopping centre, hospital and public swimming pool, IMAX theatre, and of course residential complexes (one of which is home for me).

Schipol's a prime example where companies seem to have left Amsterdam's traditional downtown in favor of offices next to the airport (I'm sure our many Dutch friends on the forum may have some opinion!)

Game note: It'd be cool if the game introduced rail to connect to our neighbours, and that increased the productivity of our income earning pieces...

 

[Aero]

I will have to think about this answer! every month im once or twice on a airport, so ive seen a few in the last 10 years!

 

[Blackcloud]

Interesting after a bit of thought at lunch here are a few ideas.
What type of airport, eg. end of line spoke or hub (including regional) If hub then you would want a number of facilities that can service this type of passenger and what residents that you are trying to attract eg. shopping mall, recreation facility (although I think a movie theatre is pointless for transfer pax as you are/will be in a tube with nothing to do but watch movies for hours), conference facilities, hotels and restaurants (terminal food can be quite good but very expensive), open green space (taking children out after being confined in a tube or house).
If businesses are to be attracted then good public transport links (that do not charge an obscene surcharge like SYD), in fact if office/commercial tenants are to be promoted then definitely public transport connections, food outlets, retail, gymns and green spaces are definitely required or workers will feel isolated.
Of course this is much easier in a greenfield development but can be done brownfield if the planning done correctly.