EXPANDING THE CITY CORE
 

White City constitutes a large gap in West London’s urban fabric. Bounded by motorways on two sides, the long, linear site is close to the dense residential neighbourhoods of Notting Hill and Shepherd’s Bush and is well served by public transport. The BBC’s new Media Centre, with 8,000 professional workers is nearby, while one of London’s largest shopping centres is under construction at the southern end of the site. White City is identified by the London Plan as an opportunity area for regeneration, creating a step-change in the scale and density of development in this “forgotten” urban landscape, currently occupied by a loose array of industrial sheds and commercial buildings. A consortium of landowners has appointed Rem Koolhaas of OMA to redevelop the 17.4 hectare site providing up to 15,000 new jobs and 3,000 new homes.

In an attempt to stitch the site back to the city, the masterplan envisages three clusters of dense development, with open spaces that branch out into the surroundings. Besides local gains, the important question to ask for White City is its future role as a key employment node for London: its ability to respond to the growing and shifting needs for office space and the possibility to create a synergetic interaction between the “office economy”, creative industries and other sectors in the diverse urban economy of contemporary London, together with housing and social facilities.