Urban decline to green paradigm: learning from Dessau

ABSTRACT Following reunification after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the eastern German city of Dessau lost population and entire industrial sectors to the more dynamic economies of western Germany, leaving behind a glut of vacant and derelict properties. Dessau’s planners proscribed their demolition, replacing them with a greenway surrounding neighbourhoods as water does an archipelago that has substantially increased biodiversity but has failed, despite the city’s encouragement, to attract community support. This paper explores what adjustments might be necessary for the archipelago model to be more readily adopted by other shrinking cities and new urban developments worldwide.