Lewisham council last week gave outline planning permission for a scheme that will see five blocks of the estate demolished.
The local community action centre has described the plan as "a grotesque waste of resources", compared with the £1.4m cost of refurbishment.
The estate, on the Thames riverfront in Deptford, was designed by the Greater London Council 's design department and commended by the Civic Trust as an "impeccable scheme".
Lewisham council sold the blocks slated for redevelopment to Hyde Housing Association last July. Under the association's scheme, designed by BPTW Architects and Quantity Surveyors, the existing 222 flats in three- and eight-storey blocks would be replaced by 251 flats in blocks up to 13 storeys high, blocking views from the rear of the estate.
The planning application was also opposed by DOCOMO, the pressure group on modern architecture.
The council's planning committee approved the application by a majority of six to three with one abstention, after the council's deputy mayor, Gavin Moore, spoke in support of the scheme.
However, resident Malcolm Cadman dismissed the deputy mayor's speech as "political interference". Cadman described BPTW's design as "undistinguished" and, in association with Nicholas Taylor, a housing expert and member of the planning committee who voted against the scheme, is writing to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, requesting it to review the design.
