"Cities must be robust and unfinished"

Fabienne Hoelzel is an urban planner and architect. In collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, she is working on a development plan for the Makoko fishing settlement in Lagos, which was threatened with demolition. In this interview, she describes how initial ideas were developed and how all local stakeholders were integrated into the project. Now the first "hot spot" is being built in Makoko - a neighbourhood center that will act as an incubator with a biogas plant to produce electricity and help establish local organizational structures in the form of a cooperative. Hoelzel was on site and reports on the initial successes of the farmers.

Fabienne Hoelzel has had a lot of experience with slum upgrading projects: In Brazil, she worked for the government in the official program to improve living conditions in favelas. What applies in Brazil also applies to Lagos: "Structures in cities must be robust and unfinished," says Hoelzel, explaining why such conditions make sense and why megacities have the potential to become centers of innovation despite many supply problems and often great poverty.

The interview was conducted by Jelena Nikolic.