ABSTRACT
The image of the lighthouse, that plucky outpost perched on a vestigial afterthought of rock, is often one of isolation. Taking form and function as a starting point, disciplinary areas such as Design History and Archaeology reveal that the lighthouse sits within a whole genealogy of material relatives, ranging from the earliest of hilltop beacons to recent–and increasingly invisible–technologies of surveillance and communication. Liverpool Airport's control tower-cum-lighthouse performed many of the same functions as the lighthouse design on which it was based. The beacon, combined with the radio transmitter, served to guide aircraft into the airfield and to warn others of their presence. Just as a lighthouse was designed to be seen, the control tower took advantage of its architectural prominence, using other lights to signal instructions to distant aircraft. The lighthouse was eventually wished away.
