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BassoonHero t1_iufivy7 wrote

Reply to comment by TrShry in ELI5 Why are airport ceiling so high? by TrShry

There's a lot of psychology that goes into architecture. A lot of things are the way they are because they make people comfortable.

Airports have to have large spaces — at least in two dimensions. The third dimension could be short without sacrificing function (other than perhaps ventilation), but it would feel cramped and oppressive. It's no different from a big-box store — a lot of them have higher ceilings than they'd otherwise need, simply to make it feel comfortably spacious.

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GravitationalEddie t1_iugkr40 wrote

I have a feeling the fact that many people in the airport are about to spend, or just spent who knows how long in a cramped space, has something to do with the psychology of airport architecture.

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BassoonHero t1_iuglqb1 wrote

That could well be; I don't know. But you see the same kinds of design in any large indoor space designed for a lot of people, not just in transportation terminals: shopping malls, ballrooms, big box stores, and so on.

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