Nature as a cure for repairing the relationship between humans and space: the Phoenix-see case in Dortmund

The contribution intends to present and critically analyse some effects produced by the urban regeneration process of the Phoenix-See area in Dortmund (Germany). It investigates how the morphological and functional reconversion, together with the partial renaturalisation of a large industrial area, contributed to the transformation of the urban landscape and its ecological and social resignification. The objective is to evaluate the therapeutic and regenerative potential of the area by linking the transformation and renaturalisation of previously sealed and compromised soils with the promotion of health and wellbeing, contributing to the restoration of environmental and social equity in an urban context previously marked by territorial inequalities and environmental pressure. The object of investigation is the Phoenix-See case study: a large-scale urban regeneration project with significant territorial impacts, implemented through the reclamation of a disused industrial site (approx. 240.000 m²) and the creation of new green and blue infrastructures composed of an artificial lake, ecological corridors, green areas, public spaces, and buildings for residential, commercial and tertiary use. The project represented a restorative intervention and symbolic ‘rehabilitation’, healing the environmental and social fractures of a contaminated industrial area and returning it to the urban and metropolitan system with a renewed ecological and public function. Starting from the reference literature and the presentation of the regeneration process, a spatial analysis will be conducted by comparing pre- and post-intervention environmental indicators (soil, air, water quality, biodiversity) to interpret the ecological changes induced by the transformation. Particular attention will be paid to identifying and evaluating the Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) adopted, in relation to the health benefits generated. The proposed analysis highlights the specific impacts of a major urban regeneration project, showing how Phoenix-See represents a model of intervention able to repair compromised territories, restore ecological balance and generate more equitable, resilient, and community-oriented urban spaces.