Could old airports become housing?

The housing shortage is one of the most important topics in architecture at the moment. It is encouraging people to explore innovative ideas that could help deliver more homes. A new one is to redevelop old airports. We want to have a look at this today to see if it could be viable.

Inspiration

Airports are vital pieces of infrastructure, connecting the world and allowing people to travel for work and leisure. They can also be essential for trade. However, some close for one reason or another. It can leave a massive piece of land unused. Could this space become housing? Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA), known to many as Robin Hood Airport, is the inspiration for the idea. It has a long history, beginning life as Royal Air Force airfield RAF Finningley from 1915-1995. The closure of Sheffield City Airport brought an opportunity to turn it into a public airport. It became DSA in 2005 and would offer various services from different airlines during its time until closure in November 2022.

Housing

While there are plans to reopen DSA, including a new 125 year lease and the City of Doncaster Council beginning work to appoint an operator, there was another interesting idea. A group of architects, Alma-nac, envisioned turning the site into housing. It said there could be as many as 15,000 homes. The crucial thing with airports is they offer large buildings, massive open spaces with flat land, and good transport links. All of these factors make them fantastic for new housing estates. Old terminal buildings, hangers, sheds, and other structures could become homes or community spaces. Redundant aircraft could even be repurposed. The idea definitely has merit and would be far better than old airfields sitting abandoned. It would be more useful to redevelop them to create communities. This would also help to protect other land such as Green Belt sites.