Urban Regeneration Example : Battersea Power Station in London

Regeneration of useless space

 As time progresses, the places that once played crucial role for decades sometimes have fallen into the scourge of the city. However, when redeveloping these spaces, the reminiscences of the past occasionally serves as a strong points enhancing the value of space. There are variety of 'rejuvenation projects' that are born again as completely new spaces from double-binded one.

 Recently in London, a project is underway to regenerate the entire thermal power plant that once provided power to the entire city. Battersea, which was built in 1939 in London's Wandworth District, had served as London's main power source for about 45 years until the shutdown of the power plant in 1983. It was left untouched for over 20 years. 

▲ Battersea Power Station (Image Credit : What's On)

 In 2004, the city of London set up a development plan for this area. At that time, the land price itself was so high that it had a difficulty attracting investors. In the end, Malaysian real estate company 'SP Setia Berhad & Sime Darby Berhad' and the City of London were gathering strength to start development plan.

 This large-scale renewal project maintains the values so-called "stories", such as the history, philosophy, and cultural values inherent in thermal power plants. And the development is ongoing without touching the external shape of the power plant. 

▲ Ongoing construction of Battersea (Image Credit : The Architect's Journal)

 This space creates a retail space of about 132,000㎡ and will be completed in 2020. Cushman & Wakefield's London's director said "This place will be a ultimate destination: iconic, entertaining, creative place at the heart of London. It will be reborn as London's leading entertainment, cultural and commercial center.

 In the meantime, in order to prevent positioning overlap with other leading commercial facilities in London such as Bond Street, Kings Road, Covent Garden, Soho, and Oxford Street, the project adopts a 'resort' concept that includes shopping, dining, entertainment, music and art. 

 Battersea case breaks the real estate formula about the ground floor. This place focuses on the vitality by providing participatory contents that give enjoyments at the ground floor, namely a music hall, a kitchen and a culture studio. This is to maintain the charm of the building and to increase the value in the long term rather than raise the rent profit.

▲ Bird Eye View (Image Credit : Battesea Power Station)

 Of course, the city does not ignore the rental income at all. They created a separate retail street in the main space and deployed large retail brands such as Forever 21, Gap, H&M, Zara and Hall Foods. Thanks to innovative blueprints, even giant tenants like Apple have decided to move into this place as Apple campus and London headquarter.

The power plant will house a total of 1,200 households including hotel, mall, library, and leisure facilities. Due to the excellent location competitiveness of Battersea, the US Embassy and the Dutch Embassy were also scheduled to move in. Subway line connected to Waterloo station is also expected to open in 2020 which will increase accessibility.