https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1592-1078
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ABSTRACT
This paper offers methodological reflections on the use of design as a method in Copenhagen Airport. It investigates situational passenger flows and practices in relation to airport design before and during the implementation of design interventions, evaluated using ethnographic field studies and tracking technology. It draws conclusions through the conceptual framework of design as a method and presents implications for future research in airport design and passenger flows.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank CPH for its support during the process of evaluating and implementing the design interventions, particularly the following departments: Operations Concepts & Passenger Solutions, Master Planning, Operational & Business Analysis, Business Insights, Security Services, Facility & Asset Management and Airport Sales. In addition, I would like to thank Ditte B. Lanng for her valuable feedback during the process of writing this paper and developing the design interventions; Shelley Smith for her valuable advice during the process of developing the design interventions; Cecilie B. Christensen for sharing her design intervention experiences and support; and the journal reviewers for their critical feedback. Finally, yet importantly, I would like to thank Ole B. Jensen and the AirCiF team and project for their support and constructive feedback during the process of implementing the data collection.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. This paper is part of a doctoral research project (2017–2021) titled “Becoming a Passenger”, which explores the situational passenger experience and airport design at Copenhagen Airport during the process of becoming a passenger (when passengers on the move interact with the airport’s built environment). This is done from a mobilities and design perspective, with the aim of designing airport spaces that do not solely focus on efficiency, security and profit (which are relevant for airports to function) but also consider the human and social life of the airport. This research is part of a four-year project (2017–2021) called Airport City Futures, whose aim is to investigate Copenhagen Airport from an aeromobilities perspective to analyse the challenges and changing aviation market conditions that threaten its hub status (see Lassen, Jensen, and Larsen Citation2017).
2. The use of design (interventions) is part of a methodology that combines traditional methods, tracking technologies and design methods to explore situational mobilities (see Jensen et al. Citation2020 for a theoretical grounding). Design (as a method) is used to analyse the areas of focus, orchestrate a different set of methods, and elaborate design iterations through the implementation of 1:1 scale design interventions for altering mobile situations.
3. Aeromobilities studies the socio-technical implications of air travel and aviation in society and people’s lifestyles.
4. Originally coined by Gibson ([1979] 2015), the term “affordance” refers to what the environment offers to the animal (119).
5. Originally coined by Gernot Böhme, an atmosphere is understood as the qualities of the built environment perceived by the subject that result from the interplay and interaction between the subject and the environment (Thibaud Citation2017).
6. Jensen and Lanng (Citation2017, chapters 1 and 3) explore the notion of affordance as a key concept to investigate the materialities and alternative possibilities of dynamic interactions between people and the designed built environment of the so-called mundane and overlooked spaces of mobilities (in their case, parking lots, tunnels and crossing areas in Aalborg, Denmark) (18). “It [the concept of affordance] forces us to push our study of these materialities beyond their visual formal and symbolic qualities and towards their doings in hybrid socio-technical networks” (55). The notion of atmospheres from the mobilities design perspective refers to the situational qualities of the urban environment as being constantly shaped and reproduced by the different flows of people and things (87). “Atmosphere sets the lived, multisensorial world on the agenda of urban mobilities design; it forces us to push our understanding of the physical materialities beyond their solidity and beyond their functional affordance, to their situational affective qualities” (88).
7. As mentioned, this paper is part of a doctoral research project; therefore, several site visits (ethnographic field notes, mapping and photos) and analyses were conducted (from March 2017) before the data collection shown in this paper.
8. The airport has an organization called the Space Commission, in which board members from different departments in the organization evaluate design projects that concern future expansions and renovations. They make sure that the implementation of these projects does not affect the operation of the airport, commercial activities, or safety and security demands.
9. The design interventions were approved two weeks before their installation in CPH. This period was deliberately established to have the minimum possible time to manufacture, prepare and install the interventions.
10. Xovis sensors track people’s flows in real-time without compromising their identities. Xovis data graphically shows people as dots moving through the space and statistically presents the number of people present and the time they spend in the areas of particular processes (for example, in passport control) – see Xovis (Citation2020). These sensors are installed in Copenhagen Airport and are used to optimize operational activities (e.g. number and distribution of staff and activities) in the areas of processes, such as check-in counters and Passport Control, according to the probabilities of flows (expected number of passengers per day and hour) (CPH Analyst, personal communication, 12 April 2018).
11. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays of weeks 34 and 36, other areas of focus were observed at the airport. Therefore, there was no special reason for selecting these particular days for the ethnographic studies; it was done for practical reasons to observe different areas and conduct the studies in this period.
12. Falck is a company that offers services to passengers with reduced mobility.
13. The service staff have cleaning trolleys, long garbage carts, mini carts that transport passengers with reduced mobility, and luggage cart trolleys. These staff move around the area during operational hours (according to the flow and peak hours) to maintain and clean the areas. They usually stop temporarily to put trolleys in the right places, collect garbage, and embark and disembark passengers with reduced mobility.
14. The grey dots represent passengers who were tracked but not counted since they were moving in the corridors but not going through an area of process (e.g. boarding control). The red and blue dots, respectively, show passengers who were departing from and queuing to go through Passport Control’s manual or biometric check-in counters. Therefore, they were tracked and counted.
15. It is assumed by this researcher that the new (brighter) atmosphere created by the light of the balloon influenced the commercial potentiality of this area.
16. According to the Operational and Business Analyses Department, the airport uses the statistics to predict the daily number of passengers and organize the distribution of staff and the availability of the check-in counters and other areas accordingly (Business Analyst, personal communication, 18 April 2018).