Kick-off: Project “Building & Living: a platform for networking, synthesis, and transfer” launches at acatech
Munich, 29 February 2024
The project “Building & Living: a platform for networking, synthesis, and transfer” starts its work with the kick-off meeting of the Stakeholder Advisory Board. A project office at acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering will coordinate this work. The platform project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and aims to provide key impetus for the transformation of the construction sector. The focus is on the development of sustainable, affordable, and high-quality solutions.
The building sector currently accounts for around 60 per cent of global resource consumption, more than 50 per cent of global emissions of climate-damaging gases and over 35 per cent of global energy consumption. A sustainable transformation in this area therefore harbours great potential in terms of limiting climate-damaging effects. There is also a need for action because demographic change and changes in working and living habits make it necessary to break new ground.
“The results of our 2023 TechnikRadar survey show that the majority of Germans are ready for more sustainability in building and living. For example, they favour renewable energies, renovation options for greater energy efficiency and sustainable building materials. These are good prerequisites for driving forward the sustainable transformation of the construction sector – in an interdisciplinary manner and together with the general public. This is the aim of the “Building & Living’ project”, explained acatech President and project lead Jan Wörner at the kick-off meeting of the Stakeholder Advisory Board in Munich on 28 February.
Cross-stakeholder collaboration in the conflicting areas of sustainability, affordability, and quality
The aim of the Building and Housing Platform is to provide key impetus for the transformation of the construction sector. The aim is to always keep the criteria of sustainability, affordability, and quality in mind when developing new practical ideas and scalable solutions. Accordingly, the platform promotes interdisciplinary cooperation, facilitates networking between various players in the field of construction and housing, and links distributed knowledge from the social, natural, and technical sciences.
The platform is also intended to contribute to the practical transfer of these solutions by bringing together companies as providers of marketable solutions with the demand side. The results of the dialogue will be fed back to policymakers in the form of policy options and recommendations for adjusting the regulatory framework.
Diverse methods for a high degree of inter- and transdisciplinarity
The project uses a variety of methods to synthesise knowledge, network relevant stakeholders and transfer solutions: in addition to the common meeting and workshop formats, a mapping of existing real-world laboratories in this field in Germany is planned, as well as the use of citizens’ councils. In doing so, solution approaches and central ideas for sustainable building and living of the future will also be mirrored with the needs of citizens.
