Sugarcane(air)fields: the effects of the aerotropolis on the evolution of place

Abstract

Instant urbanism – a description applicable to the proposed new urban form of the 21st-century future city, termed the ‘aerotropolis’. Encompassing strategic performance-based development that is established in infrastructure planning, airport cities are commercially propagated to generate economic growth via the catalytic development of surrounding regions. But to what effect? Synonymous with homotopia, as implied by the sprouting of non-places across the globe, the aerotropolis is associated with globalisation, super modernity, and mobility. Whilst the current age of mobility is characterised by speed, networking, and power; it also entails the interconnectedness of experiences in a time-space continuum, and infers a range of cultural, social, and historical aspects, rich with physical and psychological configurations. In order to probe the aforementioned implications, the investigation will be conducted in and around the site of the Dube Trade port – an aerotropolis located on a greenfield site on the north coast of KwaZulu- Natal, South Africa. The north coast is characterised by an abundant topographical and cultural landscape, manifest in material and symbolic geographies. The region is a vague space in a state of flux and tension, as intensified by the introduction of the aerotropolis, which may exacerbate global networks of flow, accelerated patterns of growth, and instant impact in the region’s development; and/or offer opportunities for the creation of place that counteracts alienation, and encourages the pursuit of meaning via experience, association and belonging; and/or present an in-between condition – an encounter with otherness. Drawing on post-structuralism and phenomenology, the framework of psychogeography will be engaged in order to interrogate the ecological and psychological impacts of the aerotropolis on the evolution of the region. The term ‘evolution’ will be interpreted in relation to the continuum of time and identity; thereby focusing the study on aspects of perception, imagination and memory.