Rafael Viñoly Architects have unveiled some spectacular new plans [click thumbnail, right] for the proposed future of the derelict Battersea Power Station, an icon for Pink Floyd fans due to the cover of 1977's Animals album.

The masterplan for BPS – a Grade-II listed, large former electric power plant along The River Thames – aims to create a mixed-use sustainable development offering commercial and retail functions as well as residential, cultural, and event spaces interspersed with community facilities and a zero-carbon energy plant for the adaptive reuse of the power station itself. Thankfully, the iconic historic structure of the Power Station functions as the focal point of the site's regeneration; other plans have seen the possibility of the towers coming down. Completion looks to be in the year 2020.

We have, of course, seen a multitude of different plans over the years, including a Warner Bros/Planet Hollywood backed scheme in 1997 which seemed most promising, but all have floundered. Will this new scheme, beautiful though it is, be the exception, and breathe new life into the old girl? Time, as ever, will tell...