The Commission is launching the NEB LAB: a ‘think and do’ tank to make the New European Bauhaus a reality through concrete and tangible projects. By connecting the initiative’s growing community and sharing ideas, it will bring about beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive changes on the ground.
The launch of the ‘NEB LAB’ starts with a call for Friends of the New European Bauhaus to involve companies and public actors such as regions, villages and cities, more directly in the NEB.
NEB LAB projects starting already include the development of New European Bauhaus labelling tools, work on regulatory framework conditions, and a survey among construction companies, architects, urban planners and other actors to identify barriers for the implementation of NEB projects in the construction and housing sector.
Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, said: “The New European Bauhaus is a growing movement connecting people across fields like culture, education, the arts, science, and architecture to share innovative ideas and embark on beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive projects to improve our daily lives. The NEB Lab provides a central meeting place for yet more of those connections to happen. It will help build the groundwork for more real changes on the ground.”
Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, said: “The NEB LAB is the perfect opportunity to put New European Bauhaus thinking into practice, involve a wide range of stakeholders in developing practical and lasting contributions to the initiative. I invite the growing NEB community to participate and particularly regions, municipalities and other public actors to become Friends of the New European Bauhaus and work together with us for the well-being of communities in European regions and cities.”
The Commission will also announce today the winner of an international architectural contest for a new building housing 400 researchers at the Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Seville, Spain. It is the first competition of its kind explicitly linked to the New European Bauhaus. The site will become a showcase for urban and social connectivity, for wellbeing in the work environment, and for the local and global ecologies and economies of the future. The winning proposal will be announced here around 12:50 CET.
Broadening the community and driving change on the ground
The call for Friends of the New European Bauhaus responds to demand from public entities (such as municipalities), political organisations and companies to be involved in a more structured way in the NEB initiative. It is open from today onwards to entities that pledge their commitment to the New European Bauhaus values of sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusion. The Friends will join an existing community of more than 450 official partners, High-Level Round Table members, Contact Points of the national governments, and winners and finalists of the New European Bauhaus prizes.
Starting with this community, the NEB LAB will act as an incubator to connect people and learn from one another’s experiences. Several NEB LAB projects get underway today:
- A ‘labelling strategy’ project inviting experts, academics, and professionals in sustainability, inclusiveness, and aesthetics to contribute to building a compass and assessment frameworks that will help ensure projects are well-aligned with the New European Bauhaus values;
- An ‘analysis and experimentation’ project to explore how the regulatory framework, from local to European level, can support the development of New European Bauhaus projects. A survey to map the challenges and opportunities practitioners face is open now until 30 June 2022;
- Two ‘innovative funding’ projects: one focusing on crowdfunding and public funding, the other on joint funding with philanthropy. These projects will explore innovative funding solutions for New European Bauhaus projects. Everyone interested in innovative funding is invited to get involved by sharing their thoughts and experiences.
These projects add to the ongoing work to promote the transformation of places of learning, as well as three calls to support citizens, cities, and towns to take the New European Bauhaus project deep into their communities.
Three community-led NEB Lab projects are also underway, with more information on the NEB Lab website from today:
- ‘New European Bauhaus goes South‘ connects six south European counties which join forces to reflect about and improve education through architecture;
- ‘Nordic carbon neutral Bauhaus‘ is an open forum to discuss how architecture, design and art can help achieve a carbon neutral building and living environment in an inclusive manner;
- ‘New European Bauhaus of the mountains‘ seeks to improve the quality of the built environment, and citizens’ quality of life, in rural and mountain areas.
Background
The New European Bauhaus is an environmental, economic, and cultural project, aiming to combine design, sustainability, accessibility, affordability, and investment to help deliver the European Green Deal.
Launched by President von der Leyen in her 2020 State of the Union address, the New European Bauhaus was co-designed together with thousands of people and organisations across Europe and further beyond.
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