Land of Opportunities. Rigenerazione urbana a Londra

In the last few years, London has undoubtedly represented the cutting edge of urban regeneration, and not just in Europe. In one of the most dynamic global cities on the planet, urban regeneration displays singular characteristics: development procedures and projects, amounts of private investment, speed of construction, architectural forms, relationships among the diff erent actors involved in the process, public strategies and policies that support these processes. The change has primarily involved vacant industrial brown elds and port areas with their surroundings, as well as the city’s most strategic areas located near public transport infrastructure hubs, but aff ected by social and economic decline; more recently it has involved the areas closest to central London. Though many of the projects draw public attention and appreciation, there are clear contradictions that are particularly evident in the two case studies mentioned in the paper: King’s Cross and Battersea, part of the largest Vauxhall-Nine Elms-Battersea project, places where only a few years ago, manufacturing activities and working class housing were prevalent, concentrated between the railroad tracks and power stations. The areas will be aff ected by projects of great architectural value involving a radical change in the existing urban structure. The Battersea area in particular reveals the characteristics of the urban regeneration process now in progress. In an extended 560-acre area, with 4 miles of riverfront, the Planning Framework proposed a high-density mixed-use development scenario, consisting mainly of luxury residences, offi ce space, businesses, restaurants and other amenities. While there is no lack of public spaces and facilities, and developers have attempted a place-making approach to designing public space and integrating the new urban section into the surrounding city, the regeneration of Battersea is provoking a great deal of discontent. Is it possible to modify the regeneration process