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