The Regeneration of a Naval City: Portsmouth

One of the key themes in contemporary urban design debates is the redevelopment of brownfield sites. It not only refers to the restructuring of specific sites and districts of post-industrial cities, but also to the redefinition of the urban form and its functions in naval urban contexts. Despite being different phenomena, these processes of spatial change fit within major global economic, financial and technological structural shifts. While specialised sites were necessary for the capitalist industrial model of development with regard to production, distribution and transportation; the development of the global economy and ways of communication, particularly since the last quarter of the twentieth century, led them to obsoleteness, frequent dissolution and abandonment mostly in the United States and western European countries. This has often been accompanied by a loss of population and other marks of decline. Not only former industrial plants and dockyards have been affected by these processes, but also significant historic sites associated with military use have been closed after having gone through periods of rationalization. In brief, the decay of these sites in many cities around the world coupled with the economic pressure for their redevelopment offered the opportunity for re-shaping extensive urban territories.