Phoenix Lake Redevelopment Project, Dortmund, Germany
Considered widely as a huge success in city planning, the Phoenix Lake redevelopment project, in Dortmund, Germany, can be also seen controversial. It is a good example on how city planning nowadays is driven by economic efficiency. The project's site was an old coal mining industrial area, and the whole neighborhood was degraded. The renovation was sold by its enthusiastics as an opportunity of a new, designed, quality public space, with a central lake surrouded by housings. Hence, high class residential areas were planned in a way to finance the whole project. As a result, the importance of the lake and its surrounding public space was diminished: the whole shore area still nowadays is pressured by the expansion of housing for high income people. This raises the question on how planners can deal with the housing private sector influence on a city's land market?
