Published Today: Aviationland by Mark Crinson

Aviationland is the first critical study to examine how a major international airport takes shape on the ground, and what that means for the landscape around it. Focused on Heathrow airport, it traces how the area has been formed and reformed by overlapping systems of architecture, infrastructure and enclosure, from the common land of Hounslow Heath in the eighteenth century to the global transport hub of the present day.

The book explores the different forces that have shaped the airport’s environment: the remaking of landforms, the design of terminal buildings and the surrounding sprawl of hotels, schools, factories and business parks. At the same time, it shows how the Heathrow area has been moulded by wider shifts in energy, mobility and the economy, and how the airport has in turn left a lasting mark on its surroundings, both materially and ecologically.

Mark Crinson is emeritus professor of architectural history at Birkbeck (University of London). He is the author of many books, including Shock City: Image and Architecture in Industrial Manchester (2022). His books have won the Spiro Kostof Prize (2006) and the Historians of British Art Prize (2014 and 2024). He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2023.

Aviationland: Heathrow and the Making of an Airport Landscape is available to purchase now.