European cultural heritage seal awarded to Werkbund housing estates
Published
On 31 March 2020, the European Commission awarded the European Heritage Label to the Werkbundsiedlungen in Stuttgart, Brno, Wroclaw, Vienna and Prague.
From 1927 to 1932, 6 European Werkbund housing estates were built, which tested the industrialization of building through prefabrication and at the same time new forms of social coexistence:
1927 Werkbundsiedlung Stuttgart, Weißenhofsiedlung
1928 Werkbundsiedlung Brno, Nový Dům (New House)
1929 Werkbundsiedlung Breslau, WUWA
1932 Werkbundsiedlung Vienna, currently being revitalised
1932 Werkbundsiedlung Neubühl, Zurich-Wollishofen
1932/33 Werkbundsiedlung Prague, Baba
The Werkbund housing estates have had a significant influence on the development of architecture in the 20th century. They form a European cultural asset of exceptional standing and are still the subject of intellectual and design debates today; they exemplarily reflect the political-social developments and ruptures of the 20th century in Europe. In their entirety, the Werkbund housing estates are outstanding testimonies to the common roots of modernity.
A cross-border network, initiated to a large extent by the state capital Stuttgart in 2013, is intended to ensure the preservation of the settlements and to convey the significance of the emergence of modern architecture as a joint European achievement.
CONFERENCE OF THE MINISTERS AND SENATORS RESPONSIBLE FOR URBAN DEVELOPMENT, CONSTRUCTION AND HOUSING IN THE FEDERAL STATES (ARGEBAU)
At their meeting in Weimar on 24 and 25 September, the building ministers of the federal states adopted resolutions on social housing, the use of ecological building materials and the digitalisation of the building permit procedure.
The EU's plan to become involved in the area of public housing promotion within the framework of the new "InvestEU" fund was critically assessed. The Federal Government was therefore called upon to advocate a modification of the programme so that subsidies are only granted if the provisions of regional, national or federal subsidy regimes are observed, in particular if a rent and occupancy obligation is provided for. The Chairman of the Conference of Building Ministers, Thuringia's Infrastructure Minister Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff, said: "It remains an important task to create affordable housing in Germany. The federal government must continue to provide at least the same level of funding. To make faster progress, we would need more money in the system. The EU's commitment is therefore to be welcomed in principle. But we must ensure that the money also reaches social housing, and we agree that this can best be done through the established funding programmes of the Länder."
Anne Katrin Bohle, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Building and the Home Affairs, explained: "The creation of affordable housing continues to be a top priority. Two years ago, we put together a unique package of measures with the joint housing offensive of the Federal Government, the federal states and the municipalities. The results are extraordinarily successful: all the central resolutions of the Housing Summit have been implemented or are on their way. We have thus set a decisive course and can look back on good results. This is reflected in particular in the encouraging figures for building completions and building permits. At the end of February 2021, we will draw a final conclusion together with the federal states and municipalities at a balance congress." Hamburg's Senator for Urban Development and Housing, Dorothee Stapelfeldt: "Germany needs more affordable housing. With the amendments to the law formulated in the draft bill on the Building Land Mobilisation Act, we can come a good deal closer to our goal of building 1.5 million new homes, which was set at the 2018 Housing Summit, also in terms of a land policy geared to the common good. A speedy implementation of the draft law is therefore expressly to be welcomed from Hamburg's point of view. What we are currently concerned about is the structural change in our inner cities, which has been greatly accelerated by the Corona pandemic. Here we must now effectively support the municipalities. The Ministers of Construction ask the Federal Government to commission the BBSR with a study to analyse the developments in the inner cities in order to create a good basis for decisions.
In addition, we are setting up an open-state working group under the leadership of Hamburg on the 'development of inner cities' at the level of the state secretaries." Ina Scharrenbach, Minister for Home Affairs, Municipal Affairs, Building and Equality of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia: "With the resolutions we are laying the foundations for future building policy. The promotion of public housing construction, the use of ecological building materials and the digitalisation of building permit procedures are central building blocks. The common goal of the Federal Government and the Länder: The creation of affordable housing and this as quickly as possible. Especially in the current situation, we notice how important it is to have a home that meets the needs of each and every individual. Even though Corona has dominated the headlines in recent months: Housing is a fundamental part of the public's basic needs. That is why we will not let up in our efforts to further improve the framework conditions for developers and investors in order to further boost housing construction. Because more housing is the best protection for tenants against rising rents."
Building with wood After the amendment of the model building code last year laid the foundation for wood to be used for load-bearing components with higher fire protection requirements, among other things, the focus was now on the use of ecological insulation materials and further follow-up amendments. The conference reaffirmed the importance of sustainable ecological building materials as a comparatively simple contribution to protecting resources and the climate. However, combustible building materials can become a safety hazard if used incorrectly. "We do not want the good reputation of ecological building materials to suffer as a result of damage caused by inadequate safety precautions," said the Chairman of the Conference of Building Ministers, Thuringia's Minister of Infrastructure Prof. Dr. Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff. It is therefore important that the model timber construction guideline, which describes the details for the use of wood, can be put into force quickly. Further findings that should enable even more extensive use of wood are expected from various ongoing research projects.
At least 18 million birds die each year from bird strikes on glass. It is more than disconcerting that the 100,000 to 200,000 victims of wind energy are discussed so intensively, but the main causes of bird deaths are not.
"Glass kills non-specifically, i.e. potentially all bird species, because it is obstructed at almost any flight altitude. It kills birds regardless of species, age, sex and time of day. Studies from the USA prove this. Of course, one can say that birds that occur often ("common species") are naturally affected often, birds that occur rarely not so often, but this is only due to the number of birds present. Many bird stations regularly have glass bird strike victims from a wide variety of species: birds of prey, woodpeckers (even very often), songbirds, woodcocks, migratory birds, site-faithful birds... simply everything ... up to a stork where the collision was even observed live," says Dr. Judith Förster, project manager of the BUND NRW project "Avoiding bird strikes on glass".
Two other major causes of bird population decline:
The number of insects has already decreased by up to 80% in some areas of Germany and this of course also has an impact on bird life. Birds such as swallows or swifts live on insects. Insects are particularly important for a large number of small birds in the rearing phase. The massive and alarming global and nationwide insect mortality is depriving (not only) swallows, swifts and bats of their food basis and leading to a massive decline in populations. When an important part of the food base disappears, this has extreme effects on all species at the bottom of the food chain. The lobbyists of the agro-poison industry have a massive (and well-organised) interest in ensuring that this does not become an issue.
The loss of nature and habitats and the increasingly intensive agriculture in the context of globalisation and free trade pose a particular threat to birdlife.
Solar Energy Promotion Association of Bavaria (SeV) organises the competition for architecturally and technically sophisticated solar energy systems for the 7th time, with prize money of 27,000 euros
The utilisation of solar energy in and on buildings is a key issue in the context of energy-efficient construction. Solar technology systems should be a natural part of innovative building envelopes as well as components of energy-efficient refurbishment.
The task is to find adequate design realisations for these technical innovations. By integrating solar energy systems into roofs and/or façades in an architecturally and technically sophisticated way, architects can increase awareness of the connection between buildings and solar technology among building owners and the general public and thus help renewable energies to become more widespread.
To increase acceptance and further spread the topic, the SeV is organising the "Building-integrated solar technology 2017" architecture prize.
All architects, owners/operators and solar technology companies - private or commercial, industrial or public - with at least one solar system (solar electricity and/or solar heat) that forms an integral part of the building are eligible to participate worldwide. Commissioning, i.e. the verifiable first energy supply of this system, must have taken place in the period from 1 January 2014 to 30 June 2017.
The closing date for the competition is 31 July 2017.
The first prize is endowed with 15,000 euros, a further 10,000 euros are earmarked for recognition prizes, and an additional 2,000 euros will be made available for a student project.
We use cookies to optimize our website and services.
Functional
Always active
Technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a particular service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that have not been requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access, which is solely for statistical purposes.Technical storage or access used solely for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary consent from your Internet service provider, or additional records from third parties, information stored or accessed for this purpose cannot generally be used alone to identify you.
Marketing
Technical storage or access is necessary to create user profiles, to send advertising or to track the user on a website or across multiple websites for similar marketing purposes.