Guidelines for the design of our living spaces: Code of Building Culture published

Building culture is becoming a recognised goal in the real estate industry: with support from the real estate and housing industry, the Institute for Corporate Governance in the German Real Estate Industry (ICG) and the Federal Foundation for Building Culture initiated and developed the Code for building culturea voluntary commitment for the responsible performance of tasks by companies in the real estate industry.

In its role as project developer, planner, builder, owner, etc., the real estate industry bears particular responsibility for the design of our living spaces. At the same time, building culture values and social acceptance form the basis for economic success. The Codex for Building Culture now supports companies in the real estate industry in assuming social responsibility for the consequences of real estate business activities and for the built results on their own initiative and within the framework of self-regulation. The fact that building culture offers added value for the real estate industry has now entered people's minds - but is not always put into practice. In the survey of the participation process for the code, for example, 98% of the companies surveyed stated that the appreciation of historic properties is seen as relevant or at least relevant to a certain extent - only half of the respondents, however, stringently implement this in practice.

Building culture is always closely linked to process quality, which is why the initiators of the Code for Building Culture were keen to involve the players in the real estate industry in the drafting process. Since a personal discussion of the contents was not possible due to the Corona pandemic, companies in the real estate and housing industry were asked in the summer of 2020 to provide feedback on the draft of the Code for Building Culture by means of an online survey and were thus involved. Scientific support was provided by IREBS at the University of Regensburg.

Prof. Dr. Sven Bienert, Chairman of the Institute for Corporate Governance in the German Real Estate Industry /IREBS Institute at the University of Regensburg, is in favour of this code because: "In times of rising land prices and ever higher building densities, the issue of a "good building culture" is becoming increasingly important. This form of social responsibility will also increasingly concern the real estate industry in the future in the ever more important after-use and conversion - for example of churches that are increasingly coming onto the market."

"Our goal is to make the real estate industry fit for the future," says Karin Barthelmes-Wehr, Managing Director of the ICG. "This includes encouraging the players in the industry to deal with all the requirements of ESG (Environment Social Governance) and to forge new alliances in this regard. For this, the Code for Building Culture we have presented provides a very good basis in the field of planning, development and construction."

Reiner Nagel, Chairman of the Board of the Federal Foundation for Building Culture, emphasises: "The Code for Building Culture now focuses on the responsibility of real estate business activities for the spatial impact of the built environment on us and the resulting consequences, with which companies grow in their building culture competence. As a result, the quality of the built environment benefits from the Code for Building Culture that is now available."

The complete "Code forBuildingCulture" and documentation of the participation process can be found at on our website. It contains the following demands (abbreviated).

Attitude and Values:
- Holistic building culture
- Prudent action in new construction and portfolio development
- Appreciation of already existing building culture

Visions and goals:
- Use stocks
- go easy on resources
- Promoting diversity and mix

Processes and Means:
- life cycle assessment
- quality assurance
- Cooperative collaboration

Supporters of the Codex for Building Culture already include:
- Art Invest
- reason of value
- Landmarken AG
- COPRO Project Development GmbH
- PRIMUS developments GmbH

Source: PM of the Bundesstiftung Baukultur from 17.5.2021

Keywords: DE-News, Communities, Housing policy, Aesthetics / Architecture / Building Culture

Published 22 May 2021

OB-Barometer 2021: Climate protection and mobility are increasingly important for cities

For the mayors of German cities, climate protection and mobility remain the most important topics despite the pandemic. The OB-Barometer 2021 of the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) shows a clear trend change in the topic of inner city development, which is gaining strongly in importance.

Berlin. This year's Mayor Barometer of the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) is dominated by the corona pandemic. It is therefore not surprising that, when asked about the most important topics for cities at the moment, the city leaders most frequently named coping with the crisis and its consequences, at 69 percent. The topics of "climate, energy, sustainability" recorded a renewed increase in importance with 45 percent. If one disregards the special situation of Corona, "climate" is currently even in first place. This policy area already showed a strong increase in importance in 2020, and in 2021 the city leaders rated it as even more important than in January/February 2020. But when asked about the most important topics for the future, 53 percent of the mayors named "climate, energy, sustainability" ahead of mobility (50 percent) and digitalization (37 percent).

The fact that climate protection and mobility are considered so important at the moment and with a view to the future underlines the great importance that city leaders attach to environmental issues. "The exciting question of whether Corona will push the issue of climate protection into the background or raise additional awareness seems to have been decided in German cities. The mayors want to develop their city into the future in a climate-friendly way and with adapted mobility," comments Difu Institute Director Prof. Dr. Carsten Kühl on the results of the current Mayor Barometer 2021.

The OB-Barometer 2021 reveals a clear trend change in the topic of "inner city development". Here, the city leaders see a strong increase in importance both now and in the future: The topic has gained attention in recent years due to the increasing online trade. The Corona pandemic has massively intensified this trend: more and more shops are closing, more offices remain empty since many people work from home offices, and the cultural scene has also had to move into the digital space - many city centres are losing their quality of stay. The inner cities are facing a huge upheaval, which poses great challenges for the municipalities. Helmut Dedy, Chief Executive of the German Association of Cities, says: "We need more diversity, beyond retail. That's why the cities are working on new concepts for city centres and district centres: we want more space for encounters, greenery, culture, sport, crafts and housing. For this to succeed, we need a federal city centre funding programme."

Digitization continues to be one of the top issues, but has not gained renewed importance at the municipal level. This is presumably due to the requirements and already made experiences and changes during the corona pandemic. The topics of smart city, housing and finance continue to be among the most important current fields of action. The financial situation of the municipalities is not given greater urgency, which could be due to the fact that the cities assess it roughly the same as in the two previous years due to fiscal compensation measures of the federal government and the states. "However, it is also clear from the results of the survey that the assessment of the financial situation is a snapshot and will not automatically be so for municipalities in the future. Mayors cite the loss of tax revenue as the second biggest challenge in the corona crisis. And fiscal policy is the policy area where municipalities are second most likely to demand better framework conditions from the federal and state governments," says project manager Dr. Beate Hollbach-Grömig.

The topic of corona measures and corona consequences will soon lose its explosiveness in local politics, according to the assessment of the city leaders: More than two thirds of the city leaders name the topic as an important field of action at the moment, but among the important topics for the future, "Corona" is only in second to last place.

According to the OB-Barometer 2021, the mayors' wishes have changed only slightly with regard to the fields of action in which they would like better framework conditions from the federal states, the federal government or the EU: The wish for support in the field of digitalization has gained in importance (71 percent). This is presumably mainly due to the bottlenecks that became apparent during the crisis - for example, in the transmission of data from health offices, the possibility for administrative employees to work from home, or in the digital infrastructure equipment of schools. The next places are taken by the fields of action finance, housing policy and transport, in which the weightings have shifted only slightly. Compared to previous years, there is continuity in the "broad lines" of municipal policy - and the desired improvements in the framework conditions for local work.

Detailed results, graphics, charts and photos of the OB-Barometer 2021 and the previous year's evaluations are available on the Difu website:

www.difu.de/16644

Source: DIFU-PM of 19.5.2021

Keywords:
Procurement, DE-News, Renewable, Climate protection, Communities, Mobility, City