The project has been developed by Villeroy & Boch in cooperation with Luxembourg City, which owns part of the land. The latest of a long line of adaptations has incurred the displeasure of the Mouvement Ecologique.
Big boxy buildings, built ever higher to fit more people, not much greenery, no links to the surrounding neighbourhoods, insufficient bike infrastructure are some of the points Blanche Weber, president of the Mouvement Ecologique, raises in her complaint.
Higher density should not be achieved at the cost of lower quality of life, she says. Every time the project is amended, the density is increased, mostly by reducing the green areas. But these are important, says Weber: “For one thing, they help reduce temperatures, and we know how it can get in summer, especially in built-up areas. [...] But we also need green areas to allow people to spend time outside. How we longed for nice places outside during the early days of Covid, to get out of the house and have somewhere pleasant to spend time.”
Both the neighbourhoods of Rollingergrund and Mühlenbach have no real “town centre”, and the Villeroy & Boch site would have been ideal to provide this: “There are not that many places outside in Rollingergrund and Mühlenbach. This would have been an opportunity to link these neighbourhoods, make them more attractive with a central space where people could meet. A good link to Limpertsberg has also been repeatedly requested.”
Luxembourg City sadly lacks a clear guideline regarding urban design, says the Mouvement Ecologique.
