The New European Bauhaus initiative, a think-do tank, calls on all of us to imagine and build together a sustainable and inclusive future that is beautiful for our eyes, minds, and souls. Beautiful are the places, practices, and experiences that are:

  • Enriching, inspired by art and culture, responding to needs beyond functionality.
  • Sustainable, in harmony with nature, the environment, and our planet. 
  • Inclusive, encouraging a dialogue across cultures, disciplines, genders and ages. 

The New European Bauhaus is a think-do tank. “A design lab, accelerator and network at the same time. A creative and interdisciplinary movement, convening a space of encounter to recuperate and revisit sustainable practices from, empower the most inspiring practices of today, and design future ways of living, at the crossroads between art, culture and science.”.

The New European Bauhaus comprises 3 phases:

  1. Design Phase – elaborate a framework, which includes a call for proposals for places to materialize the new Bauhaus concept. The New European Bauhaus will provide methods to generate ideas and insights that can be shared and replicated. The thinkers and practitioners of New European Bauhaus will be interviewed.
  2. Delivery Phase – spread the movement based on design phase outcomes, and implements the pilots from the design phase. A community formed by the participants of the design phase will monitor the pilot projects from the design phase.
  3. Dissemination Phase will focus on diffusing identified ideas and concepts to a broader audience, networking and sharing knowledge between practitioner. The aim is to replicate valuable innovative experiences across cities and rural areas, to enrich the knowledge of. new generation of architects and designers.

The initiative will support new ways of living in buildings that are in harmony with the natural environment and the mitigate climate change.

“Green architecture” or “sustainable architecture” or “green building,” is the theory, science and style of buildings designed and constructed in accordance with environmentally friendly principles. Green architecture strives to minimize the number of resources consumed in the building’s construction, use and operation, as well as curtailing the harm done to the environment through the emission, pollution and waste of its components.” (Ragheb, Elshimy and Ragheb).

According to Reghab, Elshimy and Ragheb, the characteristics of Green Architecture are the following:

  • “Ventilation systems designed for efficient heating and cooling
  • Energy-efficient lighting and appliances
  • Water-saving plumbing fixtures
  • Landscapes planned to maximize passive solar energy
  • Minimal harm to the natural habitat
  • Alternate power sources such as solar power or wind power
  • Non-synthetic, non-toxic materials
  • Locally-obtained woods and stone
  • Responsibly-harvested woods
  • Adaptive reuse of older buildings
  • Use of recycled architectural salvage
  • Efficient use of space”

Examples of Green Architecture:

  • The Edge, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Features: twenty-eight thousand sensors, sensing the behavior of its inhabitants and use artificial intelligence to provide them whatever is needed, specific application makes a schedule for employees to place them in the right place at the right time – people are not sitting in the same office all the time. The building has Solar panel roof and air ventilation, and reuses the rain water.
  • Skanska Offices, Budapest, Hungary. According to Skanska website: “Cutting-edge environmental solutions and green technologies are applied in each and every development phase to minimize the building’s environmental footprint, and reduce its energy use and carbon dioxide emissions.”
  • Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) – Milan, Italy – Architect Stefano Boeri, consists of two skyscrapers with trees planted on platforms, to an equivalent of one hectare of forest. The trees retain CO2 and dust, while and emitting oxygen. They ensure warmth and cooling, and protect people and buildings from exposure to adverse weather.

 

Real scale experiments like these ones endorse the main features that a sustainable physical planning must show.

 

  • Sustainable urban (physical) planning and development shall:
  • encourage a modal shift;
  • allocate road space to walking and cycling;
  • move away from radial transport to provide cycling networks that connect residential areas to the urban core;
  • make more green space;
  • ensure equitable access to key services;
  • grow local, organic and seasonal food in and around urban areas (urban agriculture decreases transport distances and consequently the carbon emissions as well).;
  • apply integrated and participatory approach to sustainable urban development.
  • The principles of the New Green Design, according to Paolo Cresci are the following:
  • ”Designing for Humans and Nature. We must shift from the practice of designing for humans respecting nature to designing for humans and nature combined, generating mutual benefits and shared value. The aim is to value natural capital in our designs and in our cost-benefit analyses.
  • The Redefinition of Boundaries. We must break down the barriers between the traditional segments within which we are used to operating and thinking. This will allow us to evolve the relationships between culture and nature.
  • Human, or historical, time needs to be seen in a biological perspective in order to understand our impact on the planet in this era, the Anthropocene. We must look beyond the traditional design timeframe (project delivery, construction and life cycle) with an eco-systemic approach that takes into consideration not only the object, but also its implications for the natural and social environments. 
  • Embracing Digital Technology. To rise to the challenge of these principles, we must embrace digital technology by using its processes and potential in a conscious fashion to understand and measure impacts and results in advance. Digital technology can help guide our design decisions.”.
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