The New European Bauhaus initiative is meant to connect the European Green Deal to our built environment. As a creative and collaborative movement, it focuses on building a sustainable and inclusive future for all Europeans. The initiative was started earlier this year and now, in two weeks, it is going to award selected sustainable and circular projects.
What is the New European Bauhaus initiative?
The European Bauhaus supports collaboration across thinkers and doers who want to design our future in a more sustainable and inclusive way. It mingles the worlds of science, technology, and culture to change our perspective on the green and digital challenges we are now faced with.
Through co-creation, the initiative aims to shape our thinking, behaviors, and economies around new ways of experiencing, including by influencing public procurement.
The New European Bauhaus:
- Facilitates conversations between citizens, experts, businesses, and institutions about making tomorrow’s living spaces more affordable and accessible.
- Gathers designers, architects, engineers, and scientists to reinvent sustainable living in Europe and beyond.
- Accentuates the value of simplicity and circularity of materials without compromising the need for comfort in our daily lives.
- Provides financial aid to innovative ideas and products through ad-hoc calls for proposals or coordinated programs, included in the Multi-Annual Financial Framework.
New European Bauhaus pilots
Starting this month, the European Commission will be focused on the implementation of New European Bauhaus pilots, supported by specific calls for proposals. Those will be closely overseen and recommendations will be shared from the first experiments. Furthermore, good ideas will be spread out across Europe and beyond. There will be networking and knowledge sharing, to make pilot solutions available to other regions and experts.
Funding
As the New European Bauhaus is a collaborative initiative, this is also reflected in the delivery mechanisms, the open calls, and the various measures. The support framework will combine budgetary and non-budgetary instruments based on the objectives and the action priorities. Some of the instruments to be used are the cohesion policy, Horizon Europe, including the European Innovation Council or the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, and the LIFE programme.
Partners
The jury was composed of 80 official partners who had to choose between some 2000 applications.
In the end, 60 projects were shortlisted. Among the partners who have joined the sustainability and circularity initiative are organisations such as the Technical University of Munich (TUM), SolarPower Europe, SmartHome Initiative Deutschland e.V., Politecnico di Milano, The Institute of Design Research Vienna (IDRV), Institut für Klimaschutz, Energie und Mobilität, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, German Sustainable Building Council, The Goethe-Institut, FIBREE, the European Youth Forum, the European Investment Bank Institute, the European Environmental Bureau, and the Dutch Design Foundation.
Recognized Pilots
On September 16th, the initiative participants will be given awards based on their particular category. In each of the categories there are two parallel competition strands:
- New European Bauhaus Awards for existing completed projects
- New European Bauhaus Rising Stars for concepts or ideas submitted by young talents aged 30 or less
The winners in each category will receive:
- EUR 30 000 and a communication package for the New European Bauhaus Awards
- EUR 15 000 and a communication package for the New European Bauhaus Rising Stars
Some of the featured categories are:
– Techniques, materials, and processes for construction and design
– Buildings renovated in a spirit of circularity
– Solutions for the co-evolution of built environment and nature.
The initiative also included projects related to our cultural heritage, communities, and living solutions.
To support and join the initiative, or just stay tuned, you can visit the New European Bauhaus website.
