Paesaggio Urbano 02.2013 | Page 122
DO SSIE R
Ricostruzione & Restauro . Reconstruction & Restoration
Londra, trasformazione della Stazione di King Cross. Progetto
di John McAslan & Partners. © Don Davis Photograohy, 2013
London, transformation of King's Cross Station. Designed by
John McAslan & Partners. © Don Davis Photograohy, 2013
By 2050, three quarters of
the world population will be
city-dwelling, especially in
developing countries, where
each month around five million
people leave the countryside
and small towns to move to
the new megacities of this
century just begun.
In Europe, the problem is
a different one: the urban
network has been evolving
over a period of millennia,
and the 20th century has
seen the consolidation of
the urban development of
historical centres and the
new towns created have
always been limited in size.
Even in the case of large
cities, such as London and
Paris, which total more than
ten million inhabitants,
XXIV paesaggio urbano 2.2013
urban development has
often involved separating
an increasingly attractive
historical centre from an
increasingly marginalised
outer zone. And if London has
for decades been following a
plan to integrate its historical
heart and nearby areas,
which have been heavily
renovated in a futuristic and
sustainable manner, France
has only recently begun the
Paris 2.0 programme, planning
new neighbourhoods that
are not ghettos, but sites
for competitive companies
and new activities – from IT
to biotech, from aerospace
to finance. This is a plan to
combine preservation of the
past with development and
sustainable growth, and in
Europe it marks a regenerative
process that has begun in
many cities, from Barcelona
to Leipzig, from Lyon to
Copenhagen, from Bilbao to
Marseilles – just to mention
the more well-known cases.
Here, digital revolution is the
order of the day to ensure the
creation of a new paradigm
to develop the cities of the
future: the smart city. A
large focus in scientific and
cultural debate, the backdrop
to every economic and social
plan, the inevitable pitch in
every political programme,
the smart city plan today runs
the risk of losing the strong
pioneering values of vision
and design, and of slipping
into a morass of the many
slogans that our media-
saturated age consumes with
increasing voraciousness.
In recent years, cities have
increasingly held a central
role, even within the scope
of the large global challenge,
beginning with the climate
change battle. To confirm
this is the multiplication of
national and international
initiatives to promote and
support research centres
for renewable resources, for
energy efficiency, as well as
economic development and
quality of life.
A close connection between
the digital renovation of urban
areas and the subsequent
creation of the smart city
appears the most widespread
today, even though the truism
of identifying digital with
smart – strongly supported
by large IT corporations –
appears to be limitless. The
ways in which citizens come
to live and work in settled
areas are influenced by the
widespread dissemination
of cloud technologies and
wireless networks spread
through our cities, as well
as energy innovation and
new forms of urban and
interregional mobility. In spite
of the pervasive presence
of the Internet and its
communication potential
with no time and space
boundaries, cities continue to
maintain their attractive