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Airports are such wonderful buildings! Particularly the interiors. I just love the juxtaposition of say, the food court, next to the convenience store, next to the rows of seats by the boarding gate. The fact that it announces itself so overtly as an artificial, constructed environment makes it somehow comforting in a way. Where else are you going to find so many functionally disparate services packed into such a tight space? The closest thing would be a shopping mall, but mall interiors are usually so spacious that they take on quite a different ambiance (I love malls too, but for somewhat different reasons). Airport hallways are just the right size in my experience - narrow, but not too narrow.
As for the exteriors, it depends heavily on location, but many airports are accompanied by large parking lots, and I'm a big fan of huge parking lots that just seem to stretch on endlessly like a concrete ocean.
This is probably why I find it hard to take seriously the claims that the modern world is uniquely deficient in beauty. I have an aesthetic experience every time I step outside - usually, they're at least somewhat pleasant.
I wish I had your aesthetic sense, only I don't because I actually enjoy almost everything BUT airport architecture. Maybe I wish I had both our aesthetic senses?
I'm that fuckin autist that climbs down the service ladder to look at the bottom of the culvert and go "Wow! Big concrete pipe! Amazing!"
I can't agree with you on the stripmall/parking aesthetic, though. I think it's the fact that it they are built without any consideration for anything, not even for cost. They are actually usually way more expensive than they need to be, both over the long term and the short.
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