DINAMO FONTS
AIRPORTS AND PROXEMICS
Between 9/11, COVID-19, and bad experiences in airport design. 
Essay for “Psychology and User-centered Design”, Prof. Michael Leube, October 2021.


INTRODUCTION
 Airports constitute some of the largest infrastructure works made by humans; Dubai’s International Airport’s (DXB) Terminal 3 is the second-largest building in the world measured by floor-space (Dubai Airport, 2013), and Istanbul Airport (IST) is designed to accommodate 150 million passengers a year when completed (İGA Istanbul Airport, n.d.). At such a massive scale, accommodating for city locals, tourists, and transit passengers from the other side of the world, airports tend to become  an “in-between” intermediary on the road between two places. 

That intermediary, when viewed from the perspective of a foreign visitor, becomes a “non-place”; as Marc Augé puts it, “a person entering the space of non-place is relieved of his usual determinants. He becomes no more than what he does or experiences in the role of passenger, customer, or driver.”. The experience of a foreign person in a non-place is paradoxical, “a foreigner lost in a country he does not know (a 'passing stranger') can feel at home there only in the anonymity of motorways, service stations, big stores, or hotel chains.” (Augé, 2000) as they are the only places they might be able to dissociate themselves from the current places they are in and think of others. Airports fall in this category; they’re supposed to be places of transience, where the only contributing factor to the experience of the passenger is the airport’s own environment, with as few stressors as possible. However, most airports have not been able to keep their experience positive; overnight stays in Barcelona-El Prat (BCN), exploring the single-roof terminal of Istanbul International (IST) in an overcrowded concourse, or waiting for 6 hours outside the check-in hall of Beirut-Rafic Al Hariri Airport (BEY). Barcelona’s airport closes between 12am and 6am leaving passengers connecting overnight with no amenities to use in the entirety of the two terminals, Istanbul’s has walking times from one side to the other of almost 20 minutes, and Beirut’s suffers from a congestion problem even in off-peak season, all of these “experiences”, which I had done through during the height of the pandemic, exhibit problems of passenger experience and satisfaction. In this essay, I will look at the sources of the problems of bad experience by passengers, how it might affect them, and how it can be solved using spatial design.


9-111 AND SPACE WASTE
 Before 9-11, the experience of airports was completely different from what it was like in 2019. Airports were viewed the same way as bus or train stations; they were public spaces, where access, at least to what is referred to as “domestic airside”, was unrestricted. Airports did have the need for implementing security measures, it was on a limited scale though. However, the highly urgent need for heightened security became apparent in the wake of 9-11, and airports responded reflexively; in the United States for example, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had not existed prior, and it was not incorporated into airport terminal design. Suddenly, airport designers were forced to make adjustments to accommodate TSA screening units with no regard to the use of space or how it would affect the user experience, the main priority was passenger safety then. The demand for passenger safety transformed the air-travel experience into an invasive, time-consuming process that people dreaded to do. Much of that time-consuming process comes from inefficient passenger flow, chokepoints, and bad proxemics in long queues (Kelleher, 2020). 
Airport security used to be almost an invisible process, but now is the center point of the airport experience.


The last, proxemics, which is the study of how humans utilize space, and how it affects behavior and social communication, as well as how it affects them psychologically, plays a major role in the existence of stressors in airports, contributing to a stressful experience, therefore a bad one. Airports that were designed pre-9/11 in the US have not improved their proxemics, whether be it due to the bad optimization for space, or the lack thereof altogether; airports tend to have a very high density of people concentrated at certain chokepoints, with empty space that goes unused that otherwise would help alleviate the problem. Example: JFK’s JetBlue terminal is so much smaller than Singapore’s Changi terminal, both with a capacity of 20 million people yearly. 9/11 introduced the need for extra security to make people feel safe, which made necessary for long security lines where people are crammed. What airport staff are left with is a lot of empty space in the waiting halls near the check-in areas, too many people in a chokepoint at security checkpoints, then more empty space on the “airside”. For experienced travelers who manage their time effectively and know the airport like the back of their hand, this should not be too much of a hassle. However, for the average run-of-the-mill travelers, this can prove to be a nightmare-inducing experience. Airports need to take into account all the different types of people using the terminal; people who arrive too early due to connection errors and have to spend hours waiting in a hall, those who arrive with a lot of suitcases and back up lines on security checkpoints, and the list goes on. Each of these problems can be improved upon by looking at the proxemics of the terminal: In large public spaces, usually the main points of attention which have high traffic are the ones that receive the most attention in their design, whether be it usability or decoration; 
 BEIRUT AND ATHENS
A very nice central food court...
...and a bare-bones gate in ATH.

This is the line just to cross the first security check to access the check-in counters in BEY.


Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos (ATH) has a well-designed food-court area at the entrance of its’ international airside zone, but the farthest gates seem like they have gotten their last refurbishment in 2001, when it opened. That difference is understandable; everyone entering the airside will have to pass through this single connection point to get to their respective gates at which they presumably would not have to spend so much time. While this might not seem like a solvable issue of dead space, other airports can use such space to their advantage. Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport in Lebanon -aforementioned- has a problem of people having to wait standing up for hours to simply get to check-in, for the lack of a waiting space, or people cutting in line and invading personal space. Having been stuck in that situation, I cannot think of a person who traveled through the airport without having complained about the long crammed lines; Bad queuing lines that intersect or interfere with each other due to proximity can have a bad psychological impact on the person, and queues in general violate  the principles of proxemics of intimate, personal, social and public space; Edward T. Hall, the anthropologist who coined the terms in 1963, describes them as the distances between individuals that allow for different levels of interaction (see figure below). 
Hall’s proxemics chart.


A queue forces people to eliminate their four proximal zones on two sides usually (back and front), as they are not in control of this elimination. A solution to this would be creating distance intervals at which people can stand, so there is a conservation of at least one of the spatial proximal zones. In the Beirut example, the airport could make use of the entrance area -which is essentially a massive walkway ring that connects on the other side to the underused check-in hall- for a security line, or to move the check-in hall so the security checkpoints can be expanded. Such revamping of space eliminates the need for airport expansion, as the airport increases the efficiency of the user experience without having to add an extra space to provide for a better service, or a better waiting experience. A great example of how space was utilized to the airport’s advantage is Berlin’s now-defunct Tegel Airport (TXL), formerly Berlin’s major international airport until 2020; the airport’s hexagonal shape meant that the walking distances between the entrance and departure gates could be as little as 30 meters, with each individual gate having its’ own security and passport control checkpoints, eliminating a long walking and waiting process that might be seen in other comparably-sized airports (von Gerkan & Marg, n.d.). Such a use of space allows for a better handling of passenger flow. This goes without saying that such changes will most likely require more funding for the reconstruction of certain parts and the addition of people to the airport’s workforce (e.g. security officers, check-in employees etc.), for which the airport has to be able to justify such costs.
 
TXL (rest in peace), note the very very short distance between the outside (right) and the boarding gates (left). 


COVID-19 AND SANITARY SECURITY
 The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 ushered in an added layer to the problem of bad use of proxemics at airports due to social distancing and more complex security. Before the pandemic, airports saw an improvement of terminal space use, brought on by the construction of new terminals in which it was taken into account, more so than airports in the immediate post-9/11 era. However, the COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary to have another layer of security - a sanitary control one. Right at the start of the global lockdown, this might have not seemed like much of a problem design-wise; demand for air travel had plummeted, with airports reporting 85% less traffic, essentially freeing up a lot of space usually occupied by passengers to use for the additional facilities for thermal screening and performing PCR tests while still allowing for the smaller number of passengers to maintain their social distancing. The problem, however, showed up when air traffic rebounded to higher levels, closer to those of the pre-pandemic era; airports found themselves faced with higher passenger volumes that still needed to socially distance themselves, without enough space to actually do so, as it was taken up by the social distancing measures such as closing off chairs and restricting access to food courts. Airports went from ignoring proximal personal space in queues to placing unmatched emphasis on it. 

There arises a problem that designers did not face in the aftermath of 9/11: When the need for extended security arose, airport space planners were able, perhaps after several years of trial and error, to accommodate the changes in passenger flow and user experience for flying, but they knew that the security measures were long-term; essentially, any changes they would make would remain in place for as long as the airport is commercially viable, and they would not have to make overhauling changes in the short run. However, the pandemic’s continuity in the long term is too uncertain for designers to make decisions regarding the incorporation of sanitary security measures into their designs, rather than keeping them as short-or-medium term solutions. This uncertainty makes for a strain on the passenger experience; Normally crammed in long wait lines or forced to undergo invasive searching, now passengers are also faced with potential COVID tests, thermal screening, without having the option to find a zone to relax, over fears of spreading the virus. airport design will have to make use of space to eliminate chokepoints and places of high occupancy, trying to balance it out with under-utilized areas, and enabling for a better experience through passenger amenities that would draw their attention. An issue still lies in more crowded areas, such as departure gates, where chaos ensues without the proper implementation of safety protocols; designers will have to work on another layer other than physical space, to create a solution such as a virtual queue, stricter boarding groups, more staggered intervals of boarding etc. 
To continue looking at Beirut’s airport, it suffers from the lack of distancing and queuing at baggage reclaim, due to placing the sanitary control unit in a very inconvenient location between passport control and baggage carousels, which increases the time needed by a passenger to leave the arrivals area by more than half. People are crowded into a very small area, with usually one person taking data for a whole plane-worth of passengers, as well as a nurse doing COVID tests for the same number of people. A very tedious process that ends up causing more unnecessary for the average traveler through BEY, including a lot of transiting Syrian passengers going on to Syria who have been on a flight for quite a long time, and are probably very exhausted, then are still forced to go through this process.

Waiting for hours at border control...
...only to have to do the same for a mandatory COVID test in BEY.

There are some potential scenarios that may arise in the next few years in regards to space use and airport design, and how the problem can be fixed; the first, which is a return to pre-COVID air traffic driven by the significant reduction in COVID transmission levels. In this situation, all the temporary design solutions made to accommodate the COVID measures do not have to be converted into long-term ones, therefore eliminating the need to incorporate them in future airport design. The second less optimistic possibility is the continuation of the pandemic for long enough for designers to require a more efficient incorporation of measures, similar to what had happened past 9/11, which would mean a reduction in the overall satisfaction in the passenger’s experience, although it may result in a more streamlined process. A more plausible theory is the birth of a “new definition for personal boundary that will force airports to adapt”, as put by Scott Gorenc, studio design director at Corgan’s Aviation Studio (Christou, 2020). After COVID, people most likely would not want to go back into crammed queues and standing too close to each other (when forced to do so), despite social distancing measures being eventually rescinded. Taking a look at the proxemics of “the new normal”, it can be seen that the social distance is taken over by personal distance, in the sense that most people would not want a stranger standing in such proximity closer than 6 feet, or 1.5 meters. In any case, airports will have to learn to adapt with the future scenario outcomes, and continue trying to evolve their space solutions to improve the flow of passengers in the airport. 

CONCLUSION










BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Airports are some of the most complex design projects to be created on earth, as so many factors play a part in deciding on design solutions; passenger capacity, wealth and culture, security needs, passenger diversity, and many more. Some solutions have required their revision as they had ignored or did not address a certain problem in the design of the airport that might have led to a worse experience on the side of the passenger, who encountered stressors and long queues eliminating any personal distance limits for their safety. Such problems, caused earlier by the increased demand for airport security in the wake of 9/11, and now by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, can be solved by re-examining the use of space in airports, as well as how proxemics play a role in defining the passenger’s experience there. 


Augé, Marc. (2000). From Places to Non-Places. In Non-places: Introduction to the anthropology of supermodernity (pp. 103–106). essay, Verso. 

Christou, L. (2020, September 3). Will COVID-19 change airport design forever? Airport Technology. Retrieved November 17, 2021, from https://www.airport-technology.com/features/airport-design-covid-19/. 

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von Gerkan, & Marg. (n.d.). Blueprint for the future: The airports Berlin-Tegel and Berlin Brandenburg: GMP ·. Archello. Retrieved November 17, 2021, from https://archello.com/project/blueprint-for-the-future-the-airports-berlin-tegel-and-berlin-brandenburg. 


Glusac, E. (2021, September 7). The trouble with airports, and how to fix them . The New York Times. Retrieved November 17, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/07/travel/airport-design.html. 


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Kelleher, S. R. (2020, June 18). The future of airport design after COVID-19, according to an airport architect. Forbes. Retrieved November 17, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2020/06/18/the-future-of-airport-design-after-covid-19-according-to-an-airport-architect/?sh=66e0c7413919. 


Lloyd, J. (2018, February 22). Utilization of dead space in airports . Aviation Pros. Retrieved November 17, 2021, from https://www.aviationpros.com/aviation-security/article/12367680/utilization-of-dead-space-in-airports. 


Mooi, J. (2014). TRANSFORMING BORDERS: Transforming the Airports Built Environment Through Environmental Psychology, Proxemics and Therapeutic Design. Curve | Carleton University Research Virtual Environment. Retrieved November 17, 2021, from https://curve.carleton.ca/system/files/etd/f56006c6-82c0-4572-8435-f7cef1a2d5f4/etd_pdf/da8d085faf2e32b131772276602db0f2/mooi-transformingborderstransformingtheairports.pdf.