The European Union is moving ahead with its goals to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least net 55% by 2030 while increasing climate resilience. It also strives to shift to a circular economy, work towards its zero-pollution ambition, and to protect and restore biodiversity, in line with the European Green Deal goals. The New European Bauhaus (NEB) has been a part of this agenda for the past three years. It is contributing to reducing GHG emissions and embedding circular economy principles in several strategic areas, including the built environment. It is also leveraging the power of culture, art and creativity for the green transition.

The built environment is a central part of our daily lives. On average, Europeans spend 85 to 90% of their time in buildings. Overall, buildings are responsible for about 40% of the EU’s total energy consumption and for 36% of its GHG emissions from energy, as well as for a large share of air pollutant emissions^[1]. Half of all extracted materials end up in the construction sector, while construction and demolition waste accounts for more than a third of all water consumption and waste generated in the EU. Spatial planning also affects transport distances to access buildings and can thus impact the amount of noise and GHG emissions from transport. Buildings also have significant impacts on nature and biodiversity. Urbanisation and construction often lead to habitat loss and fragmentation, disrupting ecosystems and displacing wildlife, resulting in biodiversity loss. Moreover, pollution and light emanating from buildings can also affect and disturb wildlife. Furthermore, the built environment needs to be made more resilient against natural (climate-extreme events; pandemics) and man-made hazards (cyber threats; terrorism).

At the same time, innovation in the construction sector spreads slowly. Renovations are still too expensive, too slow, and often of insufficient quality, resulting in renovation rates that are too low. The roll-out of heating and cooling decarbonisation is also progressing at an insufficient pace. And buildings are inefficiently used – 38% of buildings in the EU (28) are under occupied, with a rate higher than 60% in four, and higher than 50% in seven Member States^[2]. Design for adaptability to changing household sizes, for shared facilities and for multiple use can help use available buildings more efficiently, thus reducing the need for new construction.

There is also a lack of awareness of circular and innovative approaches amongst the different actors of the construction sector, and it is challenging for public institutions to widely apply more sustainable and climate-resilient practices, in line with the EU Adaptation Strategy^[3]. There are not enough incentives for such practices, in a market that remains very attached to low costs in the short term. Consequently, sustainable, circular and innovative construction materials and design solutions are rarely widely available, accessible or affordable. Yet, circular economy approaches could lead to reductions of waste and of up to 60 % in the materials-related GHG emitted^[4].

On the supply-side, the EU Emissions Trading System carbon price and carbon cap, combined with the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, will lead to a strong reduction of the embodied carbon in key construction materials. And on the demand side, designs and construction of buildings with very low life cycle GHG emissions, including through sustainably sourced materials that store carbon during the life span of the building, can make a strong contribution to reaching EU-wide climate neutrality^[5]. As the built environment is an integral part of people’s daily lives, this reality affects many citizens who live in buildings that may be old, non-resilient, non-sustainable, polluting (e.g. due to outdated solid fuel (coal, wood) heating), and excessively energy and resource consuming, with consequences on the health and well-being of occupants and others. This affects particularly the less wealthy, especially in absence of targeted public support to restore buildings. The built environment thus has a huge potential when it comes to the reduction of GHG and air pollutant emissions, saving of resources, sufficiency^[6], climate adaptation, disaster resilience, and improved health and well-being. This while also embedding culture and arts in the solutions being developed. Last but not least, the transformation of our built environment should address questions of affordability, power and responsibility: the determining factor for many households is the short-term economic cost of the transition.

The Destination New European Bauhaus would operate at the level of neighbourhoods and communities for three reasons.

First of all, because some results can immediately be implemented, seen and felt at the neighbourhood and community level. Neighbourhoods are understood here as the comprehensive residential systems, in rural, peri-urban or urban areas, where people live, socialize, and find services to meet some – or most – of their daily needs. Neighbourhoods offer a territorial fragment, a community at the level of which different policy areas can be merged using a holistic approach^[7]. Solutions to make neighbourhoods more beautiful, inclusive, sustainable, circular, secure and climate resilient can be used as proof of concept and later scaled up or replicated in other contexts. Over the past three years, the NEB has functioned as a living laboratory developing new methods and approaches thanks to research and innovation to drive concrete transformations and accompany both targeted local actions and a wider, radical change of mind-sets.

Second, in line with the Renovation Wave^[8], the NEB reflects the close link between, on the one hand the circularity and renovation of the built environment, and on the other hand, with the social and cultural dimension of places. The way we shape our environment is an expression of culture, cultural heritage, arts, identity and diversity. The NEB takes into consideration those social and cultural dimensions.

Third, neighbourhoods and communities are the first to feel the quick impact of change and the urgent need for action. The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly changed working, consumption and social habits and, consequently, people’s interaction in the built environment. The pandemic also boosted practices of solidarity, reciprocity and cooperation, especially in neighbourhoods with greater social vulnerability. The rise in global temperature levels, increasing frequency and scale of extreme weather events, such as heat waves and droughts, floods, forest fires, and tempests impact and destroy people’s homes. At the same time, ageing societies represent a demographic trend that is likely to shape neighbourhood and community patterns in the future. These challenges underscore the need for responsive and adaptive infrastructures that address the new situation and reflect the specificities of the place/territory/community. They also underline the importance of supporting a strong social fabric that helps society to face those challenges and highlight the importance of spaces for sociability and interaction that strengthen community bonds and strategies for coping with emerging challenges. For instance, innovative infrastructure and public spaces should be envisioned to be inclusive of and accessible to people of all ages, commensurate with their specific needs and capacities, including through the integration of technology and smart environments. The need to pay greater attention to the built environment and its social impact and relevance for the community is evident. Yet, there has been scarce research on the new dynamics affecting the relationship between sustainable transformation, the built environment and the society.

All topics of the Destination New European Bauhaus aim to make the European construction sector more climate friendly and climate-resilient – through circularity and regenerative approaches for sustainability – as well as more competitive while also ensuring that the built environment contributes to restoring natural ecosystems and improving social cohesion, as well as people’s health and well-being. By adopting the New European Bauhaus’ integrated approach that brings together sustainability, inclusion, and aesthetics through the active participation of citizens and the integration of arts and cultures in transformation processes, the Destination will contribute to developing a new generation of solutions, closer to people and their needs.

By involving people from diverse backgrounds with different needs through accessible participatory practices, topics will also aim to connect the green transformation with local democracies. This can help restore citizens’ solidarity and trust in democracy and avoid a “geography of discontent”, a phenomenon showing that places stuck in a development trap and where citizens feel left behind are faced with disengagement and discontent in the long term^[9]. This can also contribute to address some of the negative effects of digitalisation on society such as fake news and disinformation.

Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway contributing to the NEB, and more specifically to one or more of the following impacts:

• The construction ecosystem is more sustainable, less polluting and more circular through the development of innovative and regenerative designs, architecture, bio-based materials and approaches that are adopted across the construction value chain and included into public and business decision-making. The construction ecosystem also becomes more climate-friendly and climate-resilient through the development of solutions for faster, cheaper and better renovation for zero-emission and energy-positive buildings, for more efficient use of buildings, designs using low-carbon and carbon-storing materials, and solutions. Cutting-edge technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), are integrated and applied with arts, architectural and design sciences at the service of a more regenerative and circular construction ecosystem.
• The trust of citizens in the green transition and democracy is increased through participatory processes and governance models that balance public and private interests. This is achieved by using insights from Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), social innovation, and by looking at how arts, culture and design can further amplify the transformative potential of those practices and models.
• Innovative funding and financing models are developed and applied to increase investments in the revitalisation of neighbourhoods. This would involve exploring tailored and innovative funding and financing models that mitigate the perceived risk of solutions for the built environment that combine environmental sustainability (towards climate neutrality, zero pollution and circular economy) with other aspects that increase their acceptance, such as accessibility, affordability, aesthetics and cultural relevance (e.g. identity, cultural heritage, sense of belonging) with the final goal to increase well-being in a cooperative society.
• Wider social acceptance of the green transition and related solutions is supported by the creation of meaning through the contribution of the creative, arts and cultural heritage sector. The expertise of stakeholders from the cultural and creative sectors assists companies and policy makers in addressing challenges associated with the green, digital, and social transitions.

These research components will also be supported by transversal actions to connect them, build synergies, and foster knowledge sharing and learning as well as to support monitoring and evaluation of progress.

R&I activities under this Destination will complement and ensure synergies with activities supported under several Horizon Europe partnerships, in particular: Built4People, Circular Bio-based Europe and Driving Urban Transition. Synergies will also be ensured with the Horizon Europe Missions, in particular the Climate-neutral and smart cities Mission and the Adaptation to climate change Mission. Opportunities for collaboration and synergies should also be explored and, as appropriate, pursued with other relevant initiatives such as the European Urban Initiative of Cohesion Policy, the Covenant of Mayors and past and ongoing relevant projects funded by Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, such as STARTS, as well as with other EU programmes such as LIFE-CET, LIFE-Circular Economy, URBACT, Green City Accord and European Green Capital/Leaf awards.

[1] Over 60% of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions come from the residential, commercial and institutional sector (see https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/dashboards/necd-directive-data-viewer-7).

[2] Eurostat (2018), Overcrowded and under-occupied dwellings - Products Eurostat News - Eurostat (europa.eu)

[3] COM(2021) 82 final

[4] https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/climate/cutting-greenhouse-gas-emissions-through/cutting-greenhouse-gas-emissions-through

[5] The EU's 2050 Roadmap for whole life carbon of buildings is planned for the first quarter of 2024.

[6] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines sufficiency as ‘a set of measures and daily practices that avoid demand for energy, materials, land, and water while delivering human well-being for all within planetary boundaries.'

Sufficiency interventions in buildings include the optimisation of the use of building space, repurposing unused existing buildings, prioritising multi-family homes over single-family buildings, and adjusting the size of buildings to the evolving needs of households.

[7] The NEB Compass provides guidance on the NEB holistic approach (https://new-european-bauhaus.europa.eu/system/files/2023-01/NEB_Compass_V_4.pdf). A range of EU-funded projects are implementing this approach. For instance, two on-going waves of NEB lighthouse demonstrators are expected to illustrate how the NEB holistic approach can deliver the deep transformation needed to accelerate the green transition on the ground. Other EU-projects are working on operational impact models to support the implementation of NEB principles on the ground (e.g. CrAFt –(https://craft-cities.eu/)) as well as for holistic urban planning and for assessing the (co-) benefits of it (e.g. Re-Value (https://re-value-cities.eu/))

[8] COM(2020) 662 final

[9] For more details, see ‘The geography of EU discontent and the regional development trap in Europe’

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