8:08 min., 12.07.2010, image video
Project Info: http://sdg21.eu/db/muenchen-riem
Keywords: DE-News, Movies, Movies 4 to 10 Min, News Blog Bavaria
8:08 min., 12.07.2010, image video
Project Info: http://sdg21.eu/db/muenchen-riem
12/2011: Foundation stone laid for the 10 square kilometre ecology park in Qingdao, China www.detail.de/...
11/2011: Grants for integrated neighbourhood concepts and refurbishment managers: New KfW funding programme "Energy-efficient urban refurbishment". The pilot phase for the integrated energy neighbourhood concept was launched on 15 November. The new KfW programme "Energy-efficient urban refurbishment" is intended to develop and implement measures to increase the energy efficiency of buildings and infrastructure, in particular for heat supply in the neighbourhood. For 2012, 92 million euros are available from the special "Energy and Climate Fund".
11/2011: BUND Yearbook 2012 "Ecological building and renovation" Published
The 244-page, full-colour booklet combines ecological building principles and practical tips for all phases of construction or renovation - from planning and financing to implementation with appropriate building materials and technologies and furnishing. Written in an easy-to-understand and clear style, with many examples and practical suggestions, it offers an all-round service for building owners and renovators. Reading sample (pdf) Order directly for EUR 8.90 (plus EUR 2 postage) from: www.ziel-marketing.de
10/2011: Passive house residential complex with 155 flats in Austria
In Eisenstadt, the capital of Burgenland, the largest passive house complex in the Austrian province to date is being built on the Kirchäcker site: www.detail.de/...
9/2011: Gardening in the centre of the city. Christa Müller: "Urban Gardening - On the return of gardens to the city"
"Until recently, most urban planners reacted patronisingly to
urban mini-farming." How thoroughly the tide has turned
The book "Urban Gardening", which the journalist
and crime writer Susanne Billig for Deutschlandradio Kultur in a
in a revealing 7-minute conversation.
www.dradio.de/dkultur/sendungen/kritik/1532625
9/2011: Climate protection in municipalities. The practical guide was funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and compiled by the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) in co-operation with the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (ifeu) and the Climate Alliance and is now available in a fundamentally revised version. The guide (514 pages, loose-leaf collection in a folder) can be ordered from Difu for a nominal fee of EUR 14.40 and is available to download free of charge as a PDF file:
www.leitfaden.kommunaler-klimaschutz.de
9/2011: Funding programme launched for energy-plus homes
The Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS) has launched a new funding programme for model houses that meet the so-called "Plus Energy Standard". Around 1.2 million euros will initially be available for this programme in 2011. The programme supports developers who construct buildings that produce significantly more energy than is required for their operation.
www.forschungsinitiative.de
8/2011: Documentation of the "Ecovillages and Sustainable Living" Conference in Portugal from 7-11 July 2011 of the Global Ecovillage Network Europe:
7/2011: DGNB certification for sustainable urban neighbourhoods
The criteria for sustainable urban neighbourhoods were developed over the course of a year. More than 10 urban neighbourhoods are now on their way to a DGNB certificate. In October, the DGNB will present the first awards in Munich at the Expo Real commercial property trade fair.
www.dgnb.de/...
6/2011: Topping-out ceremony for the 8-storey timber house in Bad Aibling: Topping-out ceremony after 4 weeks of assembly on 10 June 2011 in the zero-energy city in Bad Aibling:
www.huber-sohn.de/...
Keywords:
DE-News
The city of Frankfurt is initiating the largest urban development project of recent decades: In the northwest, 550 hectares of current agricultural land between the Frankfurt districts of Niederursel and Praunheim and the neighboring towns of Steinbach and Oberursel are to be turned into a neighborhood with up to 11,400 apartments.
It will be interesting to see whether sustainability criteria will play a role in the new district. Frankfurt is well positioned in the energy sector, but in the other areas I see a need to catch up compared to other municipalities.
Further information on the construction site:
www.immobilien-zeitung.de/1000043938/frankfurt-will-neuen-stadtteil-auf-550-ha-bauen
Keywords:
News Blog Hesse, Quarters, Settlements, XXL settlements
Düsseldorf, 2.3.2020. The federal government can give new impetus to public housing construction in Germany in the short term and thus help to ease the acute housing shortage in many large cities. The key to this are three federally owned companies that flexibly support Länder and municipalities in the development of construction projects and the construction of new housing: First, a consulting company that provides planning capacities to cities and municipalities. Secondly, a land fund that helps municipalities nationwide financially and conceptually to acquire building land and finance infrastructure. Thirdly, an investment company that strengthens the equity of municipal housing companies through financial participation. This is shown by Prof. Dr. Sebastian Dullien, Scientific Director of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) of the Hans Böckler Foundation and Prof. Dr. Tom Krebs of the University of Mannheim in a new concept for an Federal initiative "Future Housing.*
The initiative is primarily intended to ensure that more housing is built. Other goals are: a stronger social mix in cities, the promotion of ecologically sustainable construction and a reduction in construction costs. "These goals can only be sensibly achieved by centralising certain elements of housing construction," the economists write. However, the close cooperation of the federal companies with the local administrations and housing associations would also incorporate the special expertise on the ground. The initiative could "start practically immediately with relatively small volumes", the economists write - and already achieve "a noticeable increase in public housing construction in the initial phase." According to the researchers' calculations, around 90,000 additional flats could be built in the short term with ten billion euros in federal funding. In the medium term, the model would be scalable as desired, depending on how many flats are needed in the coming years and decades.
The demand for new buildings is estimated to be at least 330,000 flats per year in Germany by 2030. However, only about 285,000 new dwellings were built per year recently. "New housing construction in Germany must therefore be further increased to meet long-term demand," the researchers write. "This should actually argue for a massive expansion of public housing promotion, but until recently the opposite was the case." This becomes particularly clear when looking at the stock of social housing: While there were still 4 million social housing units in the early 1980s, today there are only 1.2 million. Every year, about 80,000 social housing units are no longer subsidised and only about 25,000 new ones are built. "The housing shortage has negative macroeconomic consequences because people cannot realise their productivity potential," write Dullien and Krebs - for example, because they have to reduce their working hours if long journeys from the surrounding areas are necessary. "In addition, segregation and ghettoisation occur, which impairs educational opportunities."
According to Dullien and Krebs, the federal companies can solve bottlenecks that, in the view of many experts, massively hinder the necessary large-scale new construction of affordable and high-quality housing at the same time. For example, after many years of staff cuts, many municipalities have too few skilled workers in their building administrations to process applications quickly or to develop building areas. Financially weak cities and municipalities sold building land in their ownership to the highest bidder for a long time, who then often built mostly high-priced flats. Municipal housing associations remained far below their means in many cities.
The consultancy would support municipal administrations in the development of housing and district projects. Such projects are often highly complex and require the participation of many experts: engineers, urban planners, property developers, economists, cultural scientists, humanities and social scientists, geographers and landscape architects all have to work closely together. In addition, complicated financing questions have to be answered and public relations work has to be done. In many cases, the municipalities are overwhelmed by this. A company at the federal level that specialises in the development of residential neighbourhoods could make its expertise available when needed - similar to what the city of Hamburg, for example, has practised at the state level with the founding of HafenCity Hamburg GmbH. This company - a wholly owned subsidiary of the city - has taken care of the planning and management of the HafenCity district.
One of the prerequisites for a housing policy oriented towards the common good is that land remains in public hands. The land fund is intended to provide the financial means for this. Thanks to the fund's support, municipalities could afford to keep or even buy building land instead of leaving it to investors. Currently, pre-emptive rights at the municipal level are often not used because the municipalities either lack the money to purchase the land or lack the funds for public use in the near future. In addition to financial contributions, the land fund could also contribute land from federal property and organisational know-how.
The equity fund would strengthen municipal housing societies financially by increasing their equity and support municipalities or Länder in establishing public housing societies. Although many municipal housing societies have recently expanded their construction activities, some are still holding back on new construction in order not to lower their equity ratio too much. Low equity ratios lead to higher financing costs for construction loans. Increasing equity with funds from the equity fund would ease the situation for public housing societies.
According to Dullien and Krebs, the three federal companies should be legally independent entities that are wholly owned by the public sector. In addition to the usual supervisory bodies, there should also be a scientific advisory board made up of representatives of professional associations and the scientific community. The capital stock of the companies would essentially be financed by the federal government. Financing these companies through loans would be a "financial transaction" for the federal government and would therefore not fall under the rules of the debt brake. The federal corporations could also raise money through external financing.
*Sebastian Dullien, Tom Krebs (2020): Wege aus der Wohnungskrise, IMK Report No. 156, March 2020. Düsseldorf
pdf download:
www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_imk_report_156_2020.pdf
Keywords:
DE-News, Research, New books and studies, Quarters, Settlements, Housing, Housing policy
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has recently Happiness declared a national objective. But that's not all. Bhutan has also set itself the goal of producing only organic food. This means that Bhutan, alongside DenmarkThe United Kingdom is one of the first two countries in the world to have this task on its agenda.
Read more on Horizonworld
Keywords:
Lifestyle / Consumption, Transition Town, Environmental policy