Redeveloped Battersea Leads London Into the Future
by Zoe Strimpel
Sun, 22 Jun 2008 at 4:46 PM
Perhaps it's the fate of all London's vast, historically industrial spaces: Now it has been announced that Battersea power station is to be "saved" by being turned into posh flats, shops, and offices in a £4 billon ($7.89 billion) overhaul. The redevelopment bug is generally kept at bay in London — there's nothing of, say, the Emirates' fervor for making everything brand-new — and you can still stroll for miles through beautifully preserved centuries-old buildings. But as with the redevelopment planned for, say, Smithfields Meat Market in Farringdon, a little bit of true London dies every time the contractors swoop in for the big bucks.
Still, the Rafael Viñoly-designed project sounds pretty cool. The power station will remain, but a 1,000-foot-high glass tower will be built next door, containing 3,000 homes, malls, a boutique hotel, and a "green" office quarter. The Irish developers decline to call this a "building"; rather, it will be the world's biggest "solar driven natural ventilation system." The office space will be 2.5 million square feet but should use a third of the energy of a conventional office of its size.
If London must hurtle into the future, projects like this are probably not a bad way to do it.
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