A new generation of urban areas. Feasibility elements

Many projects of new city districts in Europe have specifically focused on the re-use of large derelict industrial areas. Many are the actions intended to solve the issue of environmental, social and economic qualification. For the purpose of contributing to a definition of innovative tools and processes that may pave the way to sustainable urban re-use projects, the paper proposes the case of Greenwich Peninsula in London. The Peninsula—until the eighties a marginal site, disconnected from the inter-urban network, nameless and de-contextualized from social, economic and urban development, characterized by the presence of gasworks—has become the site of a large long-term urban project, based on the principles of sustainable development and aiming to build a new multi-functional district. After a brief description of the process, the paper focuses on the strategies and feasibility factors that have led to a successful re-use project.