De luchthaven als attractie: De ontwikkeling van Nederlandse luchthavenarchitectuur tijdens de beginperiode van de luchtvaart

This article examines the formative role of the ‘place function’ of airports in the architectural and spatial development of early airport terminals. The place function is characterized by facilities and spaces not directly related to air transport but intended for visitors. Whereas existing scholarship often interprets airport typology primarily in terms of technological advances in aviation and the changing operational needs of air transport, this study argues that the emergence of civil aviation in the Netherlands between 1920 and 1949 was also deeply shaped by the ambition to cultivate public airmindedness (luchtvaartgezindheid). Because flying remained inaccessible and too costly for most citizens, airports were deliberately promoted as public attractions, functioning as sites of leisure, spectacle and civic education.

Using Amsterdam Airport Schiphol as a case study, the article traces how the concept of airmindedness informed the design, use and continual adaptation of Schiphol’s first two permanent terminal buildings (1928–1944 and 1949). Drawing on the Schiphol company archives, the archives of Public Works Amsterdam, municipal council records and diverse visual sources, this study shows how the airport’s architecture responded as much to the demands of visitors as to those of passengers and aircraft operations.

The analysis demonstrates that the spatial integration of visitor facilities, such as the inclusion and expansion of terraces, viewing platforms, restaurants for visitors, promenade decks and generous airside glazing, became a defining component of the terminal typology. By the late 1940s, Schiphol’s semi-permanent postwar terminal incorporated this place function from the outset, offering more seating for visitors than for passengers and providing extensive vantage points for viewing airside activities. The article concludes that in the early decades of aviation, airports acquired considerable socio-cultural significance as public venues, and that this meaning directly shaped the architectural evolution of the airport terminal in the Netherlands.