Research Project AdNEB „Advancing the New European Bauhaus” | Umweltbundesamt

Special Issue in Discover Sustainability (Springer): Call for Submissions by April 2025

With the Collection „Transformative Knowledge for Urban Sustainability: Envisioning, Enabling, and Realizing Change Under the New European Bauhaus“, we would like to showcase integrated, systemic, and actionable research for sustainable urban transformation in line with the New European Bauhaus principles. We invite papers that (i) contribute to understanding intertwined environmental, social, and technical dynamics influencing the transformation of urban systems and (ii) reflect on strategies to govern these interlinked transitions toward more sustainability, livability, as well as health and well-being for all. This includes research on integrative and innovative conceptual or strategic approaches, on policy and planning instruments as well as the work of change agents throughout all levels of governance and society. More information here.

Backgrounds and Aims

The AdNEB project “Advancing the New European Bauhaus: Sustainable Mobility and Resilient Urban Spaces for a Better Quality of Life” is an in-house research project of the German Environment Agency (UBA). It is inspired by the European Commission's New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative. This initiative aims for the transformation of construction methods and the existing building stock in Europe to achieve climate-neutrality by 2050. The New European Bauhaus wants to establish a creative meeting place where future ways of life can be ecologically designed while incorporating art, culture, social inclusion, science and technology in an inclusive manner. Central to the initiative is the question of where and how we will live in the future. How will it be possible to develop urban spaces to be ecologically sustainable, socially inclusive, health-promoting and desirable places to live? The EU initiative sets a focus on built structures and related questions such as the transformation of existing structures, sustainable construction materials and energy efficiency.

AdNEB aims to provide a conceptual, methodical and interdisciplinary contribution to the idea of the New European Bauhaus for urban spaces. For this, the current focus of the NEB on construction in urban areas will be expanded to additional dimensions such as green and open spaces, health and well-being, climate change adaptation, environmental justice and active and sustainable mobility. The project specifically examines how we can deal with pertinent challenges in order to adapt urban spaces to improve the quality of life.

The project will:

• examine the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on inner cities and open spaces,
• evaluate data on health and the living environment in Germany with particular focus on social disparities,
• address the multifunctional built and landscape structures and their potential for climate adaptation,
• examine opportunities for sustainable mobility and participation of the public in living laboratories and
• create a crystallization point for a transformation of global construction methods

The aim is to contribute to the socio-ecological transformation of cities by bringing together the numerous research strands of the German Environment Agency on these overarching issues in this project. As a result, the project should contribute to the creative interdisciplinary NEB initiative on a European level and thereby show pathways to an appealing common ecological future.

Work programme

The AdNEB project will run from March 2022 to September 2025. The work is divided into five work packages (WP):

WP 1 further addresses the approach of the New European Bauhaus through a concept of “triple inner urban development”, which implies the connection of construction-oriented inner urban development with the future improvement and expansion of green spaces and transport transformation. At the same time the activities look at additional perspectives on sustainable urban development, including those gained from the spatial changes experienced by the coronavirus pandemic.

WP 2 focuses on relevant research on resilient, sustainable and health-promoting urban development. This considers a specific focus on environmental justice in urban settings, on the health-promoting aspects of active mobility and on climate adaptation strategies, including the concept of the sponge city and the blue-green infrastructure (water and green spaces in the city).

WP 3 sets out to analyse the role living laboratories can play in the transport transformation and promote sustainable mobility. It looks at the goals of inclusion and participation in the context of the European Mobility Week.

WP 4 aims to make central contributions to the implementation of construction within the context of the New European Bauhaus initiative on a scientific and political level with German and European partners.

WP 5 serves as a cross-thematic synthesis by bringing together the various objectives and thematic strands of the project and formulating conclusions and supporting decision-making for the transformation of urban spaces. This work package supports the attainment of climate neutrality, a high quality of life and adaptable, healthy and resilient structures.