2021-06-30 New European Bauhaus Concept Paper FINAL

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

New European Bauhaus Concept Paper

Presented to the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen

by the New European Bauhaus High-Level Round Table, including:

Shigeru Ban

Francesca Bria

Eszter Dávida

Olafur Eliasson

Gina Gylver

Thiëmo Heilbron

Bjarke Ingels

Michela Magas

Pia Maier Schriever

Alexandra Mitsotaki

Orla Murphy

Sheela Patel

Luther Quenum

Mária Beňačková Rišková

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber

Petr Skvaril

José Pedro Sousa

Hubert Trammer

The NEB High-Level Round Table would like to acknowledge the contribution of Anna Engberg-

Pedersen (Studio Olafur Eliasson) and Andrew Dubber (MTF Labs/studio Michela Magas).

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

Introduction

The goal of the New European Bauhaus Concept Paper is to provide a conceptual framework for

the evolution of the New European Bauhaus

project narrative and to inspire a cultural movement

which can facilitate the delivery of the European Green Deal. The conceptual framework provides

a shell of key visions and actions to be expanded through broader community engagement.

As members of the New European Bauhaus High-Level Round Table we were invited to consider

the focus, scope and nature of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative. We established a series

of visions around the core values of sustainability, aesthetics and inclusion with the objective of

harnessing the power of design, culture and the arts to enable the ambitious change called for by

the European Green Deal objectives: no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050; economic

growth decoupled from resource use; and no person and no place left behind

In defining the scope of the project, our priority was to reframe the ambitions of the original 1920s

Bauhaus movement under the radically different conditions of the 2020s defined by the climate

crisis and thus, the urgent challenges of today’s and tomorrow's generations. Guided by the

European Green Deal objectives, we set a broad scope for addressing our living and built

environments, ranging from the scale of the individual to that of communities and outward to

ecosystems and the planet. Our intentions have been to include both human and non-human

perspectives and rethink our complex relationships with nature; to acknowledge the diverse and

mutable cultural dimensions of aesthetic values that extend beyond beauty and tactile materiality;

to design for empowerment and for diverse abilities, not simply to retrofit accessibility; to not just

repair but to heal, flourish and regenerate by adopting a process of circularity; to redress

imbalance for the vulnerable, overlooked and marginalised, and to enable a just transition towards

the world we want to live in.

In identifying the focus areas for our collective thinking and proposed actions, our position has

been to consider ourselves deeply entangled in relationships with other ecosystems, both human

and non-human, and adopt a more-than-human-centric approach to design and to our built

environment

iii

. For this purpose, we have explored better ways of designing, planning, building

and living together in healthy relationships with the planet, very much inspired by the work of the

members of the NEB High-Level Round Table but also by the work of many other contributors,

including designers, artists, architects, innovators and activists.

In considering the nature of the NEB project, we have observed the extent to which communities

are central to its success. Feedback from our communities thus far underlines a strong desire for

the process itself to be radically inclusive, which necessitates building trust on an ongoing basis.

We therefore consider the nature of the project to be radically inclusive, emphasising trust,

cohesion and convergence.

With the above scope, focus and nature of the project in mind, we developed and implemented

an innovative collaborative methodology to gather the experience and collective intelligence

of the group (see Annex). Over the course of several virtual workshops we shared concerns and

individual perspectives on the living and built environments, and collectively imagined shared

future narratives. Although representing different age groups, countries and backgrounds, we

soon realised that we were on the same wavelength, with complementary and often overlapping

priorities and ideas – including the need for greater diversity, dialogue and outreach, and with

more emphasis on bottom-up approaches. At the same time, we have been mindful of the fact that

we only represent some geographies – within Europe, as well as from other parts of the world –

and some types of expertise, and that more voices and additional perspectives will enrich the

dialogue and ground the NEB ambitions further. For this reason, we envisage this concept paper

as a series of initial visions and actions resulting from our collaboration – a continuous work in

progress which invites and embraces more broader community inputs.

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

1. Visions of the New European Bauhaus

The planetary climate emergency, the current pandemic and a catastrophic loss of biodiversity

have forced us to examine what we take for granted and what we think of as natural or normal. It is

time to act upon ideas that can take us into a sustainable, inclusive and carbon-neutral future.

1.1. Sustainability

The world shares common environmental challenges that must be urgently addressed

according to the particular conditions of each region on Earth.

Addressing climate change must consider the environmental, economic, technological,

geopolitical, social and cultural conditions of each place. Protecting and restoring nature makes

sound economic sense and is our best health insurance

. Scientific evidence and knowledge

should inform concrete actions to achieve carbon neutrality from the micro to the macro scale,

measured by both quantitative and qualitative goals. However, we cannot simply ‘follow the

science’

when such actions concern human behaviour. They must also be framed through social,

cultural and political lenses.

A culture- and design-led approach is an important strategy for the transition to a low

carbon, regenerative and just society.

A culture- and design-led approach unlocks a positive paradigm shift full of pragmatic hope,

grounded visions, actionable ambition and desire for meaningful change. As with other systemic

practices, design provides ways of orchestrating high-level missions with bottom-up actions,

tackling the wicked problems that science cannot cover alone. However, unlike many other

disciplines, design not only drives the co-creation of diverse sustainable instruments,

methodologies and solutions for a just transition, but can help motivate and communicate such

change. Design can help us understand what it feels like to live in a sustainable place - before we

are there. It can provide numerous ways of understanding and communicating how such societies

might function, providing compelling and exciting visions of a possible future, and using vivid

imagery and experiences to produce narratives that will enable us to understand, discuss and

design such transformations. Nourishing an ecosystem of creators, artists and innovators, fostering

alliances of science, technology and the arts, will contribute to innovation centered on

sustainability, human needs, values and democratic principles.

Climate justice is predicated upon radically inclusive

social and cultural relationships and

interactions, both human and more-than-human.

The ambition for a climate neutral, safe and just future for all must include, but also move well

beyond sustainable construction and ecological building materials. Climate justice requires the

committed involvement of social groups and social structures; recognition of the importance of

cultural interactions and relationships; rethinking of public spaces, products and services both

digital and physical; and acknowledgement of the ever-evolving web of sustainable interactions

between people and their living environments.

The built and natural environments should not be treated as separate poles.

Buildings should not be considered as products to be delivered, but rather as cells belonging to

larger systems within entangled natural and built environments that must be nourished, adapted

and regenerated over their life cycles. Buildings are materially drawn from limited natural

resources, they are situated within connected ecosystems, and are embedded and enmeshed into

living environments.

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

Education and lifelong learning are a key to both social and environmental sustainability.

A new approach to learning emphasises the convergence and co-existence of diverse perspectives

around shared local and global environmental challenges. It requires a complete reframing of

traditional learning approaches, which reinforces interdependent social and environmental justice

rather than divides human from non-human, or knowledge domains into distinct categories.

Radically inclusive education is key to creating new incentives for action, changing social

conceptions and behaviours, fusing disparate practices into transdisciplinary approaches, and

transforming the social systems that enable harmful practices against those without a voice, human

or non-human, to new ones leading to greater social and environmental sustainability

vii

Learning-by-doing builds courage, confidence and collective responsibility.

By collaboratively imagining other futures and prototyping solutions on the ground, diverse

communities build courage, confidence and collective responsibility. Carefully curated

environments which create a level playing field for hands-on, goal-oriented knowledge exchange

encourage respect for each other’s knowledge, regardless of age, social, cultural, economic or

educational background. Equally, respectful contestation is an important dynamic, as democracy

includes the right to disagree. Shared respect, ambition and responsibility, as well as careful (and

care-full) facilitation, provide a way of moving forward, built upon such complex interactions

between divergent perspectives.

Cross-domain and multi-perspective transgenerational knowledge exchange is necessary to

build a deep respect for the environment and for each other.

Assembling knowledge and aspirations from different domains of knowledge, from the social and

natural sciences, ecological activism, technological innovation, architecture, design, and art, city

planning and public-private partnerships – recognising both overlaps and inherent conflicts of

interest – builds respect for a broad range of social, cultural and environmental values. An intensive

hands-on multidisciplinary education program that unites experts from the field of culture with

those from science and technology can stimulate new ideas and critical views on sustainability

opportunities and challenges. Deep respect for the complex narratives of places told from the

perspective of different generations, their histories and futures, their cultural projections and

imaginations, can establish a sense of diverse yet shared identities, collective memories and

ambitions, as well as provide spark and fuel for invention. Situated, diverse perspectives and forms

of knowledge can enable the emergence of ideas and innovation from the ground up, as well as

unlock genuine local ownership of places and spaces.

1.2. Inclusion

Inclusion creates a sense of shared responsibility and collective action.

As a universal principle, inclusion has foundational value to the 21st Century vision of the New

European Bauhaus. Inclusion ensures economic sustainability by making the most of every talent,

also recognising that diversity is understood as a prerequisite for successful invention and

innovation. The NEB initiative must ensure design for empowerment and ability, not simply to

retrofit accessibility or adopt a compliance model of access and inclusion, but rather create objects

and environments that actively welcome all. To avoid elitism and help abolish structural biases, the

New European Bauhaus initiative must create common spaces for interaction, where people from

all parts of our societies find a natural place for expression. Upon this ethical foundation, inclusion

can help build social cohesion and can prevent polarisation and the risk of social unrest.

viii

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

Inclusion demands a global perspective.

The NEB approach to inclusion represents a shift in perspective, recognising both the

interconnectedness of our world and the responsibility to address colonial pasts and their legacies

in shaping our epistemologies and visions today. Rather than ‘letting others in’ to a European

perspective and realm of knowledge production, we must eliminate polarity, reaching out to others

and actively engaging with and learning from experts in other parts of the world, as well as

recognising that our systems of everyday life are enmeshed and connected, rarely constrained by

political or geographic borders. At the same time, we recognise that significant polarities and

inequalities also exist within Europe, with regional cultures defined by differing pasts, and that

these differences must be actively addressed in order to give space to local stories and histories

within pan-European narratives. An empathetic and responsible stance that acknowledges and

addresses local and global histories can be the driver for powerful, inventive and imaginative work

that embraces cultures and visions from different parts of the world. As climate migration increases

in scale, we must recognise a responsibility to accept and welcome people and their cultures,

thereby expanding and enriching European identities.

Inclusion requires more-than-human perspectives.

The more-than-human is that which both includes and exceeds humanity: it represents the many

entanglements of human existence with other living and non-living entities. It recognises that

humans are part of nature and must adopt a more-than-human-centric perspective on human-led

activities, cultivating awareness and empathy for the rich worlds of other species and entities.

Within our systems of conception, production, and dissemination, we can support the ecological

turn toward Earth as a shared space for multiple species and natural systems, defined by

interdependence, and not merely a reservoir of natural resources to be extracted by humans.

Emphasis should be on where we converge, encouraging vital cultural expressions of

diversity.

Inclusive environments such as public spaces and shared infrastructures and services in both urban

and rural areas enable a sense of belonging and shared identity, leading to an ethos of radical

inclusion

. While focusing on what we share and welcoming the beauty that arises in those overlaps

of efforts and ideas, fundamental differences in perspectives, values, power and access must also

be actively addressed. Differences rooted in structural inequality and lack of equal access must be

resolved, whilst expressions of cultural diversity and meaningful difference can be celebrated.

Today’s and tomorrow’s rich diversity must be accepted, stimulated and promoted, whilst our

shared resources, infrastructures, spaces and identities can also be reinforced through dialogue,

co-design, cooperative ownership and civic structures. Art allows for a celebration of diversity and

can explore radical and uncomfortable ideas through dialogue, providing space for ideas to

breathe and for cultures to flourish.

Transformative change must be made affordable to have tangible and positive impacts on

everyday lives.

Transformative change must support those most vulnerable, marginalised, disadvantaged and

whose livelihoods or ways of life may be adversely affected by climate change. Care ought to be

taken so that rules and regulations do not achieve the opposite to the desired effect: leading to

alienation, stigmatization or making people’s everyday lives more difficult. For example, lack of

feasible and affordable alternatives to car ownership leaves vulnerable rural communities at risk of

economic exclusion from the transition towards carbon neutrality.

Here, design has much to offer,

in not only inventing sustainable solutions, but also helping to make them desirable.

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

Both frontier technologies and vernacular techniques must be equally embraced.

Advanced and emerging technologies must be balanced by other locally accessible tools,

techniques and strategies. Nature-based technologies and infrastructures, often drawn from

combining indigenous understandings of technology

xii

, can provide viable alternatives to many

contemporary models. Building circular, adaptive and self-sustainable models for so-called

‘appropriate or intermediate technology'

xiii

can be predicated on small-scale, located approaches.

Carefully designed, such technologies can be locally affordable and governed in sustainable and

democratic ways by local stakeholders, making them powerful, effective, and often producing

richer kinds of value. The New European Bauhaus can thus stand for a richer, more inclusive

conception of what technology is than currently exists within policymaking and industry.

Local communities are some of the biggest innovators in our society.

Inclusion of local communities will be key to affecting broad and transformative decarbonisation.

Deep listening to the aspirations, hopes and concerns of local communities, in embracing their

differences, commonalities and ability to participate in the decision-making process and innovate

at an impactful scale will be essential. True participation, beyond conversation, must involve large

scale processes of participatory democracy (online and offline), and levels of meaningful local

ownership - social systems like school food menus or infrastructural systems like microgrids and

autonomous shuttles. Such systems can not only be designed through participative co-design

processes, but also be inherently participative in their realisation, governance, ownership and

operations. This can help change costly maintenance into valuable care, as well as produce

resilience through diversity.

We need to involve the citizens of the future to build the future and achieve

intergenerational solidarity and justice.

Millions of young people are striving to make a positive impact, including Fridays for Future, Global

Youth Climate Network, EcoUnesco, Young Friends of the Earth Norway and many more. Their

voices must be central to the activities and action of the New European Bauhaus which can function

as a form of exploratory ‘ministry for the future’

xiv

, representing the rights of future generations,

listening to their ideals for how to live, work and flourish together, and working to implement these

ideals into processes of political missions. To design for just futures for generations to come,

changes in patterns of consumption in the industrialized parts of the world must be initiated

immediately so as to not leave young people, their children and grandchildren in deep ecological

debt, having to combat problems that stem from before they were born

The NEB initiative must reflect on the relation between the countries of the European Union

and other parts of the world.

The NEB High-Level Round Table actively acknowledges and celebrates the diversity of cultures.

To counter the tendency to imitate and reproduce Eurocentric design culture, economic strategies

and consumption patterns, NEB ought to embrace diversity in building, design, and innovation

from different cultures and enable them to co-exist based on mutual recognition and acceptance.

NEB should foster cohesion, collaboration and a common sense of belonging among European

countries while at same time it should not regard practitioners from beyond the European borders

as receivers of standards developed within the EU but as respected teachers, experts and sources

of inspiration and knowledge. This openness to diversity needs to balance the possibilities of

creative cultural hybridity with the need to respect cultural heritage and preservation.

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

1.3. Aesthetics

Aesthetic values are not simply inherent to an object, a building or a place, but are

continuously shaped by cultural conditions and dynamic patterns.

Aesthetic values include, but extend beyond, physical beauty and tactile materiality. They help to

convey our diverse yet shared relationships, our cultures and politics, and what we stand for as

societies. They are continuously shaped by, and in turn shape our deep cultural conditions, our

shared identities and ideas. These expanded networks of meaning, through which our notions of

beauty and aesthetic quality arise, also shape fundamental feelings of interconnectedness and

togetherness. Aesthetics provides a shared ground on which to play out and articulate these

deeper ideas, enabling people to express their shared sensibilities or kick against them. Aesthetics

are both the backdrop to everyday life — colouring the mis-en-scéne that frames our everyday

interactions — and the foreground, as culture is, to a large extent, what everyday life produces.

To address the increasingly urgent challenges of today and tomorrow we must dare to

imagine the as-yet-unknown instead of relying on well-known typologies.

The use of natural materials, energy efficiency strategies, circular economy principles, and the

different processes and cultures that they can support, has the potential to stimulate the

emergence of entirely new spatial typologies — different forms of building, of public space, of

neighbourhood, of product, of material production

xvi

. Producing regenerative, non-extractive and

circular materials requires a radical reversal of almost all current manufacturing and building

practices and a sustainable built environment requires a transformation of the whole construction

chain, from the material extraction to the end-of-life of buildings (e.g. through reuse, disassembly

or, as the last option, demolition), allowing for the emergence of a new aesthetic.

Quality of experience contributes to improved health, well-being, and healthy human- and

beyond-human ecosystems.

The aesthetic experience of a musical performance or an art installation, tending the herbs in a

quiet shared garden or being a flaneur in a vibrant public space, or even a well-crafted train journey

or chance encounter in an intriguing side-street, are examples of a heightened quality of aesthetic

experiences. These not only produce meaningful environments, or weave rich patterns of social

fabric, but have been scientifically proven to contribute directly to physical and mental health and

well-being in numerous ways

xvii

. Quality of experience requires recognition of diverse human and

non-human capabilities, and their interaction with harmonious, regenerative and restorative living

environments. High-quality Baukultur, highlighted by the Davos Declaration of 2018, should drive

the development, operation and governance of quality spaces and ecosystems

xviii

The New European Bauhaus notion of aesthetics is not dependent on individual judgement

but emanates from a sense of community and place, of diversity and distinction.

NEB-funded projects should encourage highly diverse communities to translate speculative

narratives and thought into practice and shape complex ideas and relationships through

collaborative prototyping in order to create an aesthetic that emerges from a common set of

values

xix

. This can lead to increased acceptance and appreciation of aesthetic choices and

expressions that may differ from one’s own. These values must be described in their own terms

rather than exclusively through translation into quantitative or economic metrics. Such metrics may

allow for comparison and evaluation, but they do not capture the crucial inherent qualities and

meanings of those cultural and aesthetic values. Value recognition of culture and aesthetics

requires new approaches and enabling frameworks.

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

2. Proposals for focus areas and actions

2.1. Design for re-entanglement: create synergies between built and

natural environments and re-introduce natural ecosystems and

beyond-human agency into a holistic design approach

2.1.1. Ecosystems: Adopt a more-than-human design culture

A more-than-human approach means genuinely designing interventions within the context of their

surroundings and its connected, interdependent systems and assemblages. It considers nature not

only through the human lens of conservation, but from the point of view of entanglement,

ecosystems and the rights of nature. This allows for a necessary critical perspective on design

solutions such as geo-engineering, recognising that centuries of it have so far caused dangerous

imbalances to broader planetary ecosystems. Instead, it suggests ecosystemic approaches such as

strategies of afforestation, from tiny forests to wildlife corridors, re-greening the ocean shallows,

reorienting urban spaces around meadows for pollinators, exploring forms of rewilding and other

restorative and regenerative approaches. NEB can powerfully explore the edges of these

territories, beyond neo-conservationist, and into de-colonialised convivial conservation

, Half-

Earth Project

xxi

, and radical indigenism

xxii

movements.

2.1.2. Land use: Adopt a strategic holistic perspective to land use and extractive

practice

The EU needs to take a holistic stance on land use. The current silo approach, separating, for

instance, food production from urban planning, still reflects the functional disentanglement dogma

of the Athens Charter. Instead it should integrate agriculture with biodiversity, but also with rural

planning, infrastructure development, energy management and housing

xxiii

. Since the Industrial

Revolution, the world economy has been driven by the extraction and utilization of non-renewable

mineral resources and by the employment of machines based on the principles of physics, most

notably thermodynamics. As our civilization realizes that only a circular economy with

predominantly regional supply chains is sustainable, the overriding importance of renewable

sources of energy and matter becomes clear. In particular, organic materials must be adopted to

construct the world of tomorrow

xxiv

. The built environment, which is currently the biggest source of

GHG emissions and toxic waste on Earth and extracts huge amounts of mineral resources such as

sand from fragile landscapes, has to be both de-carbonized and de-mineralized. This can be

achieved, to a large extent, by substituting conventional construction materials (such as concrete,

steel, aluminium and glass) by bio-based substances (such as timber) or climate-neutral substances

(such as clay). If properly used, this substitution can even create carbon sinks, i.e. negative

CO2 emissions, and thereby help to undo some of the historical combustion of fossil fuels

xxv

2.1.3. Urban planning: Recognise cities, small towns, villages and regions as engines

for the ecological transition

The smart cities, smart regions and smart countrysides are important engines for facilitating the

ecological transition and sustainable digitalisation. Urban planning should promote sustainable

democratic innovation that doesn’t increase social inequalities. Our cities could be transformed

into a series of self-sufficient archipelagos: the villages, the Dörfer, the borghi, able to minimize

travel while maintaining culture, knowledge and information thanks to digital technology and

access to fast connectivity. The connected countryside, villages, towns and smaller cities,

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

developed through the lens of the New European Bauhaus, could become locales of hopeful

experimentation. For example, the so called 15-minute city model

xxvi

implemented by cities like

Paris, Barcelona and Milan is a model for self-sufficient neighbourhoods in a metropolitan

dimension, where every citizen is able to reach any needed services within 15 minutes on foot.

Equally, clustering of rural towns to better share capacities and resources can provide cross-cutting

benefits and support resilience. The principle of the 15-minute-city should therefore be

implemented in small towns and extend also to smaller rural settlements supported by a digital

infrastructure that collects public data on energy and heat consumption, mobility, water

management, pollution etc. This data can be considered a common good and used to improve

the city and create innovation in full respect of the privacy, security and digital sovereignty of

citizens. As part of urban planning, the digital infrastructure will empower citizens and communities

to make the EU Green Deal a reality.

2.1.4. Built heritage and architecture: Foreground the importance of high-quality

adaptive re-use of built heritage

The connected challenges of demographic growth, densification and decarbonisation, call for

robust policies that encourage adaptive re-use of existing buildings, in order to both protect and

care for the culture of existing built fabric, and equally importantly, to make more effective use of

existing resources and infrastructure. Renovation and upgrade of existing buildings is often

complex and can be slower than new build and thus requires active support to recognise the long-

term benefits of adaptive re-use over replacement. To this end, and augmenting the EU Renovation

Wave priorities, stronger regulatory and fiscal supports for renovation, energy upgrade and

repurposing of existing buildings are required, which take into account qualitative and intangible

culture and heritage of buildings, and that support owners of public and private buildings to keep

them in use. Shared knowledge repositories of best practice adaptive re-use and energy upgrade

should be promoted. Research into the technology and evaluation of high-quality upgrade of

existing buildings (both quantitative and qualitive) needs ongoing development and support.

2.1.5. Construction: Establish standards for evaluating embodied carbon and

operational carbon emissions in the construction of buildings, spaces and

infrastructures

Introduce Carbon Value Engineering as a requirement in new building projects. Buildings can be

evaluated according to embodied energy, linked to material choices, extraction/replacement of

raw materials, manufacturing and logistics, construction technologies, and removal/adaptation/re-

use of a building, and linked by coherent interoperable material passports and smart contracting

systems. They can also be evaluated against operational energy, linked to the usage of a building,

across all its related systems. Carbon Value Engineering strategies for reducing embodied carbon

need to be applied in building design through the entire lifecycle, from conception to

manufacturing and construction, through to the lived experience, operations and re-use. The

introduction of standards for both embodied and operational carbon emissions can be supported

by a Return-on-Emissions (ROE) directive for construction companies to incentivise progressive

removal of carbon emissions from their construction projects. Incentivizing legislation can be

introduced for those who commit to a carbon neutral building to allow for new and innovative

sustainable solutions to be implemented and tested. EU-wide building guidelines can be reviewed

incorporating the best examples from this experimental process and reviewing risk assessment

procedures to incentivize their adoption

xxvii

. Introducing Carbon Value Engineering strategies can

prompt construction stakeholders to raise the bar for the environmental performance of buildings

and stimulate regulators to refine legislation and update or eliminate outdated building code.

Ultimately, NEB can prototype new forms of currency, accounting and value models to incentivise

building projects to remove carbon and greenhouse gases whilst increasing biodiversity and

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

environmental qualities, as well as new forms of construction-related technologies and practices,

opening up significant innovation possibilities.

2.1.6. Dwellings: Encourage regulators, planners and developers to adopt novel green

solutions and holistic approaches to integration of dwellings with natural

ecosystems

The current rules and regulations are the biggest obstacles on the road towards the green

transformation of the built environment. The EU should start a reform process that would render

the building codes and procurement regulations much more favourable for sustainable

construction based on natural materials. Regional and municipal planners must update their

regulations and culture to encourage higher quality design in dwellings and living environments,

covering the entire lifecycle of dwellings from design and construction through to operations,

adaptation and re-use. Regulations must support and encourage the adoption of circular

ecological systems

xxviii

, which include care of their own waste products and recycling by integrating

biological ecosystems. Local energy generation and storage ought to be encouraged and

supported, as well as water saving and harvesting, food production and integrated biodiversity.

To incentivize all new buildings to maximize their environmental performance, public infrastructure

ought to be set for both the supply of energy to the buildings, as well as from buildings which are

energy positive to the grid. This will allow all new buildings to be designed and built with a positive

energy revenue model as decentralized powerplants with a distributed production of heating,

cooling and power. More diverse forms of tenure must be encouraged, recognising the long-term

value of cooperative models of co-design, shared operations and ownership.

2.1.7. Healthy spaces: Design with nature as a force for physical and mental health in

building and environmental design

Our health is strongly influenced by the quality of our designed spaces, environments, products

and services. By designing environmental qualities – daylight, clean air, ventilation, careful sound

design, biophilic design, vistas onto green surroundings, and integrated biodiversity – into our

living environments and spaces, we create better conditions for our health and well-being, both

mental and physical. By designing mobility around active transport, integrated into urban planning

placing everyday needs at-hand, we produce cleaner, greener environments, a healthier

population, and increased opportunity for social and cultural interaction and for ageing with

dignity. An inclusive approach to integrating natural and environmental qualities and finding a

balance between our built and living environments, will contribute to greater wellbeing, more

resilient economies, and richer social and cultural life.

2.1.8. Forests: Adopt an ecosystemic approach to forestry management

A broader adoption of sustainable building materials such as wood requires careful considerations

of provenance and resource management. Recent scientific evidence strongly suggests that in

order to make the wood industry sustainable, forestry management and land use must be

regulated according to ecosystem principles

xxix

. Much forestry management is currently oriented

around extractive production methods rather than biodiversity generation or carbon

sequestration. A deeper understanding of ecological forest systems, but also of timber processing,

transport and manufacture, would support regenerative forestry that fosters biodiversity, carbon

sequestration, climate responsive design and a long-term sustainable construction ecosystem, in

which timber has an important role to play. A holistic circular land use and construction ecosystem

map is needed to plan for sustainable forest management and ensure resilience to unavoidable

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

climate change, preserve a maximum of pertinent biodiversity and deliver sufficient organic

resources for the modern bioeconomy worldwide.

2.1.9. Farm2Fork: Co-design land use and food production systems and practices that

regenerate soil, reduce methane emissions and prevent pollution of water

courses

Use the CAP Reform window

xxx

to co-design a new relationship with nature and food, recognising

the importance of healthy food, preventing food waste, healthy soil and water, biodiversity

regeneration, halting mass extinction events, preventing excessive land-use, as well as diminishing

opportunities for resilient, diverse farming. Small farms are essential to rural culture and life, and

key to the stewardship of land and biodiversity for future generations. Shifting from intensive to

regenerative farming can harness design skills to ensure the process is inclusive and fair.

Reorienting food around both human health and planetary health — not as a zero-sum game trade-

off but a cooperative and enriching act — will mean radical reforms in land use, culture and

economy. NEB can explore, articulate and communicate the value of these transformations.

2.2. Design for spatial and social justice at the core of the transition to

climate-neutral societies

Design and implement an urgent strategy for those whose lives and livelihoods are already

threatened or diminished in quality because of lack of access to clean water, clean air, safe and

comfortable housing, education, democratic institutions and basic human rights. Include support

for new spatial structures for urban farming, peri-urban farming, and local loops of regenerative

agriculture in rural environments, in order to create new jobs, new cultures and practices, and

ensure health and well-being not just of humans, but also of plant, animal and water ecosystems.

2.2.1. Affordable/sustainable housing: Prioritise high quality positive energy

affordable and sustainable social housing

Design systemic approaches to enabling diverse bespoke local housing rather than standardised,

universal models and elements. Leverage the possibilities of digital design and fabrication (design

tools, co-design and participation tools, interoperable systems and standards, material passports

and smart contracts) as well as the potential of local crafts, self-build, cooperative design and local

resource pools. This balance of high-tech and lo-TEK

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with local community/resources and

industrial backbone, can unlock new innovation dynamics. Design and architecture approaches

must start by understanding our diverse ways of living together — past, present and future — and

build planning, procurement, construction and operational models around these emerging

practices. Planning for life-time housing and ageing-in-place must provide multiple options for a

changing and diverse demographic profile.

2.2.2. Resilient infrastructures: Design diverse resilient infrastructures for energy,

water, waste, mobility and communications, with those most vulnerable, human

and non-human, at the centre of the process

Design critical public infrastructures of local energy generation and storage, health care,

education, water supply, drainage, waste management, public transport and communications to

be reparable and resilient to sudden and unexpected change, such as that experienced during the

global coronavirus pandemic or other climate-related events which will become the norm under

the conditions of accelerating climate change. Systems that cater at their heart for those who are

most vulnerable, can be more robust, and those built around distributed and diverse models can

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

be inherently more resilient. Due to advances in new technologies, as well as older nature-based

infrastructures, there are new possibilities for super-local forms of infrastructure — diverse, flexible,

adaptive, located, resilient — that were previously harder, inflexible and centralised systems out-of-

sight. These new possibilities open potential for more innovative, resilient and sustainable forms

of local ownership, engagement, care and maintenance of critical infrastructures. Such

infrastructures can be increasingly nature-based, whilst also taking advantage of contemporary

digital and material technologies, and incorporate the vulnerable non-human living environment

into the heart of infrastructure thinking and practice.

2.2.3. Infrastructure and energy justice: Seek out and change existing rules that

perpetuate and support wealth inequality

Review and challenge unjust existing structures that reward, incentivise or enable wealth

inequality. Incumbent and inequitable interests and structures must not prevail over urgent actions

that support justice, diversity and sustainability. Evaluation methods often favour large

organisations or wealthier stakeholders. For example, energy efficiency measures based on W/M

give preferential treatment to those in large houses over those in smaller homes which use more

energy per square meter but less per whole house and much less per inhabitant; the evaluation of

the quality and CO2 emissions of timber and new material production favours large, more

centralised suppliers

xxxii

; design and distribution of infrastructure and mobility systems lacks

evaluation tools for alternative nature-based solutions. NEB can help envisage and prototype

entirely new approaches to infrastructure driven by concerns of social justice and resilience,

producing insights for design, but also broader engagement and desire for change.

2.2.4. Radical accessibility: Design radically accessible public spaces that encourage

healthy physical activity by all mind and body types

A true diversity of public and shared spaces can emerge from a systematic redesign of planning

processes and cultures, as well as participative design methods, new forms of understanding,

measurement, and appreciation, driven by new objectives and grand ambitions, combining health

with climate and social justice. Designing a place for wellbeing is a complex challenge, which

requires a holistic understanding and careful curation of spaces, buildings, living environments

and infrastructures combined with local cultures. For instance, NEB can explore and make tangible

how we reorient around active transportation and healthy mobility. Solutions must challenge

traditional notions of ‘ability’ by going beyond accessibility compliance and instead designing for

interactions by mindsets and bodies of all types

xxxiii

based around deep participation cultures.

2.2.5. Sustainable mobility: Prioritise sustainable smart mobility options

Spatial policy must regulate development to prioritise smart mobility options of walking, cycling,

and public transport. NEB solutions may consider the interplay between mobility technologies and

re-planning of our living environments and services; retrofitting our streets as public spaces rather

than car parks; or incorporating climate resilient green and blue infrastructures. Cities, towns,

villages and regions should prioritise support for public spaces which enhance the quality of

pedestrian mobility, followed by cycling, public transport, and private cars as a last resort. Direct

and indirect subsidies for cars and car parking should be removed. Public transport should be

made more affordable, reliable, regular and accessible. Strategies to replace air travel with rail and

alternative sustainable modes of transport should be developed and supported by appropriate

transportation infrastructures.

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

2.3. Increase the capacity for communities to adapt to new realities by

shifting from an economy of growth to an economy of belonging

A sense of belonging increases when we create a space for common understanding. The aim of

the New European Bauhaus is to make solutions, design processes and knowledge inclusive in

origin, enriched by interaction, informed by engagement and desirable by design. Culture and art

are decisive fields of action for a process of transformation of society and can carry the vision and

future narrative. Broad awareness and access to culture for the whole of society should be

promoted ambitiously, to develop shared experience, activating and energising our public spaces,

and building capacity towards fundamental and transformative behavioural changes.

2.3.1. Regional hubs: Support local and regional communities as one of the most

valuable innovators in our society

Develop new local hubs and support existing ones that support the decentralisation of knowledge

production. Recognise the potential that local and regional ecosystems have to invent and create,

to change and adapt rapidly, and to experiment with new methodologies and technologies in ways

that are grounded in local needs and environments. With social justice, climate resilience, health

and wellbeing and diverse inventions in mind, local communities are the key actors in both process

and outcome. They are both keepers of traditional knowledge and the creators of new patterns of

living. NEB can stand for deep participation, in both people and places: technology is best

developed in context, its application shaped directly by human engagement, just as the rich

diversity and dynamics of local environments across Europe with their specific resources like

materials and food, will unlock significant innovation.

2.3.2. Small players: Empower a diversity of small players and micro-organisations

through support to the commons

Empower small organisations, community groups, citizen associations and micro-organisations by

actively supporting the commons of cultural and natural resources which those communities can

access

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. Design enabling instruments to ensure access to common resources and thereby boost

innovation potential, build resilience, and support inclusion across cities, regions and villages.

Small players are the life blood of innovation and make up the vast majority of the cultural and

creative sector. Access to a well-supported commons can enable individuals, community members

and small organisations to self-organise, become agents of change and leaders of a movement.

2.3.3. Hybrid skills: Enable spaces for transversal conversations to foster new, hybrid

roles

Create spaces, contexts, platforms and services for interdisciplinary and transversal conversations

that allow for the emergence of new roles that can support thriving local communities. These

spaces allow for the development of necessary competences and skills, share best practices

between knowledge domains and provide a platform for new business models, new societal

models, and cultural expression and exchange. Engage with public administration at the local and

regional levels, building capability for meaningful local participation, and help to create spaces for

co-creation between local authorities and communities. Such spaces can be digital and physical,

and manifest themselves at all scales. New forms of expertise, competencies and abilities arise

from hands-on co-creation and conversation between representatives of different disciplines and

participants from diverse backgrounds. Helping to subtly reorient the culture of local government

towards participative co-design practices could be a key NEB agenda, led through collaborative

prototyping, events and capability building.

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

2.3.4. Youth activism: Support activism among young people in order to promote world

citizenship for youth

Recognise youth as core to the New European Bauhaus and give them a voice and the means to

make a change and augment citizenship of their own neighbourhood, city, or country. For

example, we endorse the Norwegian tradition of governmental support for youth green activist

high-school organisations

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and encourage implementation of the programme across all EU

member states. NEB could encourage working with youth environments, such as using school

catneens to reimagine and reinvent food systems and cultures across Europe.

2.3.5. Transgenerational justice: Design for transgenerational justice and

intergenerational interaction

Design spaces that prioritise children and older people, following the 8-80 principle. Such spaces

will tend to work well for other generations too, producing places to loiter and reflect, to socialise

and interact, to grow and play, places that are safe and free from traffic, as well as places of wonder

and delight. These can include quiet spaces and accessible interfaces, diverse material palettes

and green/blue infrastructures, communal areas and areas of contemplation. Environments built

equally for the youngest and oldest citizens will afford respect, foster engagement and curiosity

and bridge generational divides. Such principles will also work well for shared infrastructures, such

as mobility, energy, water and waste, as well as local digital platforms for participation,

engagement and operations. These environments will also have sustainability built in as a result of

the long term and cross-generational thinking underlying their conception.

2.3.6. Capacity building: Create a network of accredited NEB initiatives, buildings,

places, projects or designs that achieve the core aims of the New European

Bauhaus

Reward projects and initiatives that directly address and achieve the three core aims of the New

European Bauhaus with a NEB credit or quality mark. This public recognition will allow

organisations, institutions and groups to lead and incentivise others to act, resulting in a virtuous

circle of change. The barrier to entry should be low enough to enable true diversity of possible

projects, and significant effort should be made by NEB to reach out beyond the ‘usual suspects’

and typical circuits. The quality criteria should be high, to engender truly meaningful accreditation

for both peer group respect and citizen appreciation.

2.4. Innovation and learning-by-doing as a key part of new models of

design education at all levels within Europe and beyond

In addition to innovation, knowledge-sharing networks for climate-responsive and socially-just

design education are needed at all levels in order to shape adaptation in regional and local

contexts.

2.4.1. Education curricula: Introduce distributed and connected New European

Bauhaus design curricula

Develop and introduce NEB design education curricula for schools, universities, community

education and lifelong learning. This action positions the New European Bauhaus as both a driver

and central pillar for the burgeoning pedagogical shift in design education towards climate

responsive and socially just design. Develop and support existing regional hubs of research,

learning, teaching and knowledge sharing, and the training of trainers, with a focus on unlearning

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

established practice in order to re-learn. Reshape design education to focus on innovation that

questions and reworks the complex relationships between design and consumption from the

perspective of rethinking-reusing-recycling. Rethink and rewrite the previously dominant

discourses in design education and work to support hands-on learning connected to local spatial

and material traditions, as well as practices of care, maintenance, repair and reinvention.

Connected, trans-national and inclusive educational methodologies must form part of the delivery

of these curricula

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2.4.2. Hands-on prototyping: Prioritise the learning-by-doing principle of collaborative

prototyping as a basis for inclusive problem solving

Create hands-on learning opportunities for students to encourage engaged, outward looking,

collaborative practice, consciously learning with, learning for and learning from. For example, with

regard to equality in education, our colleague Shigeru Ban has said: “The buildings (schools) of

the New European Bauhaus should not be only in one location, but everywhere in the world. We

can build classrooms with locally available materials by students and people of the community. It

can also be part of their education”

xxxvii

. Prototyping and participation practices should be

stimulated by NEB within public procurement, building, space and infrastructure design, and

governance redesign. These learning-by-doing actions can close the gap between education and

practice and ensure that participative learning, co-design and engagement does not just take

place in the school environment, but in the street, in the piazza, in infrastructure projects, right

across our living environments

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2.4.3. Re-learning fundamentals: Re-learn how, when and whether to build

Research and re-learn building design, repair, and adaptation for re-use in order to decouple from

carbon and greenhouse gas intensive materials. This action must include a radical reorientation

around building, re-building, and un-building

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, focusing on adaptation and retrofit as much as

new-build, particularly given the renovation wave agenda within Europe’s existing building stock,

which comprises the vast majority of our continent’s living environments. The Bauhaus was a

building programme, ultimately leading to vast amounts of extractive practices; the New European

Bauhaus may be a re-building and un-building programme, reoriented around re-learning and

regenerative growth. Bio-materials, recycled materials, renewable materials will all need to play

their part in a new construction ecosystem, alongside new design cultures reoriented around

retrofit, as well as knowledge of digital material passports and traceability systems for tracking the

use and re-use of materials.

2.4.4. New education paradigm: Establish a new dominant discourse and outcome for

education

Over the long term, develop and implement curricula, pedagogical material and classroom

resources modelled upon NEB principles of sustainability, inclusion and aesthetics. Introduce

‘world citizenship’ as a central pillar and organising concept for primary education programmes

and incorporate design thinking and problem solving as integral across a broad range of subject

areas at all education levels. Situate climate justice, biodiversity, inclusion and societal wellbeing

in art subjects, sciences, history, media studies, geography, social studies, physical education,

citizenship, computing, and languages. Include NEB principles within assessment criteria.

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

2.4.5. The Year of NEB Education: Declare 2021/2022 as the academic year of the New

European Bauhaus in education

Invite all schools to introduce the three New European Bauhaus principles as a supplement to

existing curricula. At the conclusion of the year, a continent-wide sharing and showcase of

innovation and design ideas by students of all ages could be organised, and promising ideas

rewarded and supported. In design schools, proposals and solutions by the students of art, film,

fashion, graphic design, product design, digital design, architecture, engineering would

contribute to a transformative year in education which would have a lasting impact. This can be

linked to the NEB accreditation programme, as a strand focused on education, with a similar

balance of openness and inclusion and meaningful curation and appreciation. In addition, the

programme could recognise the work of students outside of art and design who have successfully

incorporated NEB principles in their subject areas.

2.5. Enable adoption of frontier technologies while reinvigorating

vernacular knowledge and local production

Emerging technologies have a role to play in connecting people and place, data and things, and

they work as a powerful source to re-factor and enrich our living environment made of local

traditions, crafts and economies. For centuries now, modernity was tantamount to separating

ecosystems from humans and to replacing natural entities by artificial ones. Guided by the more-

than-human-centric approach, we can now blend superb evolutionary innovations (such as wood)

with the most advanced inventions of modern science and technology (such as artificial

intelligence), leading to what might be called the cyborganic age

, where Hi-Tech meets No-Tech.

Design practice must deeply embrace tools to support and integrate design simulation and data

analysis, as well participation and engagement platforms, alongside environmental, cultural and

aesthetic interests, recognising both the potential and very real limits of a data-driven approach.

Culture, as the heartland of digital innovation, provides an ideal environment to play out these

themes.

2.5.1. Data spaces: Create a NEB Data Space for data-driven supporting technologies

for the Green Deal transition of the construction sector

As part of the EU Data Spaces, including the existing Green Deal data space

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, the establishment

of a New European Bauhaus Common Data Space – a ‘Datahaus’, produced by the NEB

programme - would allow research focus on core supporting technologies for the Green Deal

transition of the construction sector, including Life Cycle Management and AI-assisted cognitive

twins for the management of sustainability targets. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and the application of

circular economy principles are crucial to assess and mitigate the environmental impact of building

construction. These should include digital material passports, from production and extraction to

use and re-use, as well as extending interoperable standards covering BIM (Building Information

Models) and CIM (City Information Models) fully reoriented around NEB goals. Considerations

must include increasing the energy efficiency of data centres and provisions to extend the

operating life of smart devices. Equally, opening up citizen participation in co-design, and the

learning-by-doing co-building methods will require new arrays of well-honed digital tools, and

learning and support functions. There is an urgent need to research and develop user-friendly as

well as stable and standardised tools to measure LCA, that allow for the incorporation of such

methods in any design practice and the right comparison of results. By considering the life cycle

of buildings as a design driver, a new (circular) tectonics might spontaneously emerge, embracing

new materials and construction/adaptation practices as well as new design and construction logics

(e.g., design for disassembly and re-use).

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

2.5.2. Data-assisted design: Strategically reposition design in light of affordances of

data-driven systems

Current digital tools can facilitate assessment of performative criteria such as daylight, shading,

noise, air and water qualities, biodiversity health, comfort, user appreciation, energy, water, waste,

and related services such as shared mobility which are essential to maximizing opportunities for

passive design techniques. Yet digital tools are rarely used coherently and at widespread scale,

and have never been used systemically, capturing all aspects required to address the NEB agenda

and the Green Deal goals behind it. Business models must be reinvented to prioritise the

performance, rather than extraction, exploitation and construction aspects of the lifecycle of

buildings and spaces. New forms of systemic models based around multiple pools of interoperable

data, must be brought together in ways that aid the buildings themselves, considered increasingly

as autonomous systems, and to support the humans and non-humans that live there. Hence, these

systems must be legible, malleable, adaptable and explicit about their performance impacts. In

addition to data used for optimisation, affordances of frontier technologies can enhance cultural

and social interactions. For example, public data-enabled cultural heritage buildings or bicycle-

sharing schemes can be considered a user interface with citizens, either literally or

metaphorically

xlii

. Cultural practices, like the gaming sector, have enormous experience that can

illuminate ways in which these touchpoints can be better articulated, understood and synthesised

under a NEB umbrella. Another example is that narrative can be considered part of the product

aesthetic: data allows to track and trace each individual product through the virtue of its unique

use and resulting product narrative including its long-term, environmental impacts, re-

appropriation and reuse.

2.5.3. Combine digital with vernacular: Enrich the impact of frontier technologies with

vernacular knowledge

Vernacular knowledge and local production are key to reducing extractive practices in favour of

regenerative practices, producing meaningful exchanges within living environments, leading to

greater care, maintenance and diverse cultural expression, whilst also radically reducing the

environmental impact of transportation. Local crafts can thus be reinvigorated while digital

production technologies – for instance, the combination of local resource loops with fabrication

and robotics – may be explored to support local production and adaptation of components

designed elsewhere. Equally, technology can support local economies to be more resilient by

enabling local products to be sold globally, if oriented around platforms that support local,

independently owned design and production. Renovation and new construction benefits will

emerge from coupling crafts and industrialised modes of production; together, they assure

customization as well as mass production logics. In addition to the traditional construction market,

there is a trend of natural construction, which has been developing in an organic way for several

decades, basing its development in accordance with the protection of natural resources and the

environment. Local efforts and looking for solutions in ecological niches, while unlocking the

potential of innovation based on traditional techniques reinforced by the potential of modern

biotechnology, should be based on a fast path from research, prototypes to tests, creating new

standards and regulations. Thanks to public funding, local research solutions and technologies

should be widely disseminated and not restricted by patent solutions that can delay and block

access to developing countries.

2.5.4. Multiplicity of perspectives: Include actors and systems that challenge

anthropocentrism

Embrace the notion that the more-than-human approach to design allows us to shift our

perspective away from anthropocentrism and towards views that are offered by other species and

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

other environments, including all available technologies regardless of which part of nature was

used in their construction. Lo-TEK approaches, and forms of ‘radical indigenism’ that understand

nature-based technologies, alongside de-colonialised design practices, offer huge potential for

innovation, when seen as part of a palette alongside frontier technologies. This allows for future

inclusion of new actors, practices, and systems that are currently undiscovered, beyond our reach,

not yet invented or still in development.

2.5.5. Technology procurement: Incentivise sustainable digital and technological

solutions

The current EU financing programmes and public tenders should include environmental standards

and give preference to green technology and environmentally-friendly products. This would shape

markets towards a green direction. Public IT tenders should include ethical digital standards to

preserve citizens’ digital rights and their data sovereignty, openness and interoperability. For

public building works in the EU, the construction budget and operating costs should be calculated

based on e.g. 30 years of operation, allowing for increase in construction spending if there is a

case for a 30 year return on investment on the deployment of technologies which reduce the

building’s carbon footprint. This will allow public projects to take a long-term holistic perspective

and provide economies of scale for the necessary technologies, eventually driving implementation

costs down and allowing more developers to implement the relevant technologies and materials.

2.6. Integrate the bottom-up innovation and experimentation with top-

down policy making

Top leaders and policy makers need to value their role as one of support and guidance for local,

distinct, diverse, bottom-up initiatives. A culture of support at the highest level can ripple outwards

to be inclusive and empowering with dedicated instruments which support experimentation and

implementation on the ground, and integrate the collective intelligence of citizens in the decision-

making process. This bottom-up approach allows those directly affected to participate in the

definition of challenges to be tackled as well as to propose the most suitable local solutions.

2.6.1. Circularity in policy: New European Bauhaus to inspire both high-level missions

and grassroots experimentation

The key role of the NEB High-Level Round Table, the NEB partners and funded actions, is to

provide well documented use cases, inspiration, access to ‘next practice’ and on-the-ground

expertise for both high-level policy missions as well as grass roots experimentation and replication

of effective solutions. Policy instruments must include meaningfully funded actions and genuine

open engagement with active support for execution and implementation nurturing profoundly

interactive learning processes and cultures. In turn, results from grass roots experimentation can

feed best practice into high-level missions, thus creating a virtuous cycle.

2.6.2. Experimental labs: Initiate and empower Living Labs and collaborative

innovation ecosystems

Grand challenges derived from NEB principles can encourage and support new interdisciplinary

thinking, designing and making in collaborative innovation labs and experimental learning labs

including the European Network of Living Labs

xliii

. Labs allow and encourage participants to

explore holistic sustainable systems spanning multiple dimensions: environmental, social, cultural,

economic and political. Concepts and prototypes can be validated in testbeds and in real-world

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

settings through experimentation and feedback loops. Publicly funded research can be included

in labs as part of innovation toolkits to seed rapid technology transfer, and early-stage ideas can

be supported to take innovative designs and nascent teams to the next level of development,

market testing, public partnerships or commercial deployment.

2.6.3. Driven by missions: Adopt a mission-oriented approach to encourage moonshots

Mission-driven programmes are an effective strategy to promote deep and long-term

collaborations that engage a variety of participants and disciplines, and to create the connection

between the lab and the street, pulling research closer to the ground, and giving people and

places a toolkit that includes ‘next practice’ research, invention and innovation

xliv

. Participants are

encouraged to respond to grand societal challenges and as-yet-unsolved design and technology

ambitions for the systems and infrastructures of everyday life, involving, for instance, the

production of healthy sustainable food systems, healthy buildings and places, green vibrant

streets, locally sourced non-extractive energy loops, but also the development of new tools (e.g.,

life-cycle analysis; carbon positive logistics) and materials.

xlv

2.6.4. Equity in funding: Ensure that funding mechanisms cater for small players

Smaller organisations evaluate risk and incentive in very different ways from large corporations. To

motivate and enable small players, it is necessary to construct agile mechanisms that contribute to

outcomes with precise yet adaptive cashflow conditions, injections of energy and insight that prop

up the project at the right time, and ensure momentum without barriers, facilitating partnerships

and relationships that extend reach and ability while ensuring just attribution to those who have

contributed to breakthroughs. To achieve this, NEB must turn its good intentions into a radical

redesign of all the typical bureaucratic touchpoints around European Commission programmes —

the application processes, forms, procedures, human and digital services. A people- and place-

based redesign process will deliver great insight into how to construct other EU initiatives to follow

and create a just alternative to winner-takes-all innovation by the ‘usual suspects’ with additive

value building.

2.6.5. Inclusion in implementation: Include funding implementers and policy makers in

participatory activities

Involve representatives from local administration, regional policy makers and funding

implementers as part of grass roots activities with a vested interest in outcomes and results. This

must include collapsing all aspects of governance around a people- and place-based systemic

perspective, recognising that all these layers combine on the ground. Hence NEB must engage

with local municipalities and national funding agencies, stakeholder groups and community

groups, and their attendant policies, processes and touchpoints. These are the actors that will

enable or disable NEB agendas, and as such must be seen as key to an open and participative

approach. A powerful collaborative two-way relationship must be constructed between NEB and

local implementers, as part of co-creation processes and enabling on the ground activity. Whilst

working with those that are willing is a good starting point, NEB co-creation communities should

not ultimately consist solely of enthusiastic practitioners and experts who know how and want to

contribute. Communities of policy makers, implementers, cynics, doubters (through lack of

information/knowledge) need to become part of the creation of outcomes. Their actions should

contribute to the delivery and quality of results. As a design-led entity, NEB cannot simply add to

the complexity of funded programmes and support initiatives on the ground by catering for how

funding and policy entities happen to be organised; it must also engage with streamlining and

realigning these flows of value around the realities of people and place.

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

ANNEX

Methodology

During the concept phase of the project members of the NEB High-Level Round Table (HLRT) were

faced with a challenge: how to work democratically, online, and get results in the shortest possible

time on tight deadlines. We designed a custom method building on the shoulders of our peers,

basing our process on the Pecha Kucha format devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham who run

an architecture studio in Tokyo. The format encourages visual storytelling of the presenter's ideas

in a short time with very focused and concise messages

xlvi

We evolved this format further to solve our challenges specifically for an online co-creation

environment. Instead of 20 slides delivered by one person, each of the 18 members of the HLRT

was tasked to deliver 3 concepts with great clarity in just 1 minute. This resulted in up to 54 ideas

delivered in just 18 minutes (the length of a TED talk) with equal contribution by each member.

The resulting collection of idea visuals was then mapped on the Miro board according to their

conceptual, visual and semantic links.

Figure 1: The NEB Values Framework derived from mapping the fundamental values highlighted by HLRT

members during the first experimental collaborative Pecha Kucha presentation.

The NEB Values Framework

The first concepts addressed our common values around the ideas of sustainability, inclusion and

aesthetics. We mapped the results and identified strong synergies as well as two very strong

themes linking the co-created content. One is a line of respect – respect for the environment, our

cultural heritage and nature. The other is a very strong line of justice uniting values such as

equality in education, collaboration and catering for those most in need.

In mapping core values, the social dimension has shown to be dominant. On the top right (Figure

1), a strong cluster surrounds the concept of Equality in Education. This includes ensuring access

to education by the broadest communities with a variety of accessible tools and means. It also

highlights knowledge transfer, the importance of understanding and human empowerment.

Closely linked to equality in education is the notion of collaboration and Strength in Communities,

including respect for each-other's knowledge, sharing of skills, and celebrating diversity and

participation. Social inclusion is further highlighted in women's collectives taking ownership of

their rights to a roof over their heads, health and transportation, treating neighbourhoods as

partners and demonstrating people's natural tendency to help each other. The human qualities of

empathy, balance, ensuring breadth and depth of actions, as well as courage and responsibility,

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

grow from the initial narrative thread which is unified by a powerful diagonal Line of Justice. As

human qualities build, stemming from embodied and local engagement, and with the inclusion of

people’s full sensorium and imagination, so do a sense of responsibility and respect for the

environment, openness to natural processes, patience and delight, adaptation and care. Only with

a strong identified diagonal Line of Respect for the spirit of a place, cultural heritage and natural

environment, can one establish a sense of identity, memory, positivism, and engage in creativity

and imagination.

Figure 2: Mapping of the NEB desirable outcomes

The HLRT vision for the NEB outcomes

Our second series of concepts focused on the desirable outcomes for the New European Bauhaus.

Here again we identified strong synergies and uniting themes: a strong cluster around the idea of

learning by doing, a central area focusing on rules for a just transition, and building onwards

with a variety of ways to instigate change, including engaging the imagination, aiming for

moonshots and stimulating behavioural changes.

Starting at the top right following the map of values, education takes centre focus with several

images which illustrate Shigeru Ban's projects for self-built schools with locally available renewable

materials by communities and students working across religious groups in Sri Lanka and China.

Workshops, connected and shared learning spans across borders with people from outside the

EU as partners and teachers. New schools and new skills are important outcomes, listing a series

of new roles and discovery of new human virtuosities. Communities taking ownership of hands-on

learning processes complete a diagonal united by the notion of Learning by Doing, for example at

example, at Fawaka Entrepreneurship school programmes, where children and teens start their

own social enterprises, responding to a real-world sustainability challenge. Supporting structures,

guiding principles and rules which do not privilege the richest lead to tangible spatial justice and

sharing of the principles of resilience with the Global South. A charter or declaration and

celebration of grassroots initiatives leads to tangible impacts in this central area which implies the

need for Rules for a Just Transition. The map builds outcomes by setting NEB objectives for the

transformation of the built environment and a mission-oriented NEB competition. Consideration

of the natural resources and the engagement of imagination leads to moonshots which recognise

complexity, interconnectedness and interdependence and contribute to a civilisational shift

reconnecting mind, body, heart and spirit, and re-attuning us to Earth, to what it offers us and to

its limits in terms of sustaining growth and supporting a growing number of people. A changed

mindset and a new vision build a powerful diagonal around the notion of Instigating Change by

bringing about systemic and behavioural changes.

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

NEB at scale: the human dimension, the community perspective and the scale

of the planet

Our final round of co-creation looked at sustainability, aesthetics and inclusion, through the

lens of different scales: the human scale, the scale of places and communities, and the scale of

the planet. Members were then invited to place each of their slides on a matrix, from these two

perspectives of scale and values. Once again, we detected meaningful patterns and narratives,

which have been translated into our concept document.

Figure 3: The NEB Matrix mapping Inclusion, Aesthetics and Sustainability against three dimensions of scale:

people/human relationships, places/communities, and the planet.

Immediately evident are strong clusters between i) people and places and sustainability; and

between ii) people and places and inclusion. Aesthetics feeds through these and connects to them,

derived from and founded on the idea of inclusion and community. A third clear cluster can be

seen at the crossover between the planet and sustainability.

Connections between sustainability and inclusion became evident at the scale of people and

places, demonstrating the importance of action the local scale to positively impact people, places

and their communities.

Active and engaged education – learning through doing – connects strongly with sustainability in

the matrix, evidenced through the recognition of the importance of starting young, but also of

passing on skills, deep knowledge and the wisdom of older people and their experience.

Tools and toolkits for education were noted as important across all three scales. These included

digital tools but also pointed to traditional skills as well as the need to provide the tools that enable

learning from and with communities. The sharing of local knowledge with broader communities

and need for multidisciplinary approaches was highlighted. Access to tools and toolkits was seen

as enabler for learning and knowledge creation through prototyping.

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

Inclusion, across the matrix, connects very strongly to people in all their diversity, who infuse almost

every slide: people in collaboration, in conversation, in negotiation, co-dependent on each other

and on the planet; people sharing a common responsibility to care for it.

Zooming out to the scale of the planet, there is a link to the importance of cities and towns, but

also to nature, and to forming a new relationship with nature that sees the world from the

perspectives of non-human species.

Finally, at the centre of the matrix members note the importance of places where people meet, the

agora, the public space, and the value of these for our communities, as a place to negotiate our

relationship with the planet and with each other.

For more information about the New European Bauhaus initiative, its actions, events, and shared materials, see

https://europa.eu/new-european-bauhaus/index_en.

For more information about the European Green Deal objectives, actions and timeline, see

https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en

iii

Multiple visions are offered on the subject of a more-than-human approach to design. To paraphrase Anab Jain: In a

more-than-human-centered approach to design we consider ourselves as deeply entangled in relationships with other

species, both human and nonhuman. (

http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/more-than-human-centred-design/

)

Thomas Wright offers: "More-than-human design is a conceptual articulation that stimulates action by designing for

impact beyond humans." (

https://uxdesign.cc/more-than-human-design-rethinking-agency-and-sustainable-practices-

926d580d5311

)

Iohanna Nicenboim and Elisa Giaccardi

approach the subject from a data and intelligent agents perspective: “More-

than-human Design is a new way of researching and designing that looks into the creative possibilities of data enabled

Things and intelligent agents.” (https://iohanna.com/More-than-human-Design)

Sala, E. (2020) The Nature of Nature: Why we need the wild, National Geographic.

Venki Ramakrishnan, 2020. Following the science: https://royalsociety.org/blog/2020/05/following-the-science/

Martin Dempsey’s and Ori Brafman’s “Radical Inclusion” is a concept for resilient leadership which recommends to

“Listen, amplify and include (which results in learning), coupled with a bias for action”. In the post-pandemic era, this

approach becomes even more pertinent.

Dempsey, M. and Brafman, O. Radical Inclusion: What the post-9/11 world should have taught us about leadership.

Arlington, VA: Missionday; 2017. [Google Scholar]

vii

More about the challenges to be addressed by education can be found in More-than-human design: rethinking agency

and sustainable practices (https://uxdesign.cc/more-than-human-design-rethinking-agency-and-sustainable-practices-

926d580d5311)

viii

See for example, Revitalisation de Centre-Bourgs https://www.cohesion-territoires.gouv.fr/revitalisation-des-centres-

bourgs

Martin Dempsey’s and Ori Brafman’s “Radical Inclusion” is a concept for resilient leadership which recommends to

“Listen, amplify and include (which results in learning), coupled with a bias for action”. In the post-pandemic era, this

approach becomes even more pertinent.

Dempsey, M. and Brafman, O. Radical Inclusion: What the post-9/11 world should have taught us about leadership.

Arlington, VA: Missionday; 2017. [Google Scholar]

Here we can look to the EU S+T+ARTS programme for precedent https://www.starts.eu/

Caulfield, B., Benoduto, R., Carroll, P., Transport disadvantage and car dependency in Rural Ireland

(http://www.tara.tcd.ie/handle/2262/91824)

xii

Julia Watson, Lo-TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism (2019)

xiii

Schumacher EF, Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered (1973)

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

xiv

Stanley Robinson, K. The Ministry for the Future, 2020. The Ministry for the Future is a science fiction novel that follows

a subsidiary body, established under the Paris Agreement, whose mission is to advocate for the world's future

generations of citizens as if their rights are as valid as the present generation's.

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kim-stanley-robinson/the-ministry-for-the-future/9780316300162/

‘Intergenerational solidarity and the needs of future generations’, 2013, a report by the UN Secretary-General.

xvi

For instance, the waste-to-energy plant merged with public space sports activities in Copenhagen by BIG. As there

are already non-human robotic typologies (data centres and automated big warehouses, for instance), it is useful to refer

to constructions that support non-human forms of life, too (by Andrés Jaque and the Office for Political Innovation,

among others).

xvii

The pandemic has brought an increased awareness of the importance of beauty and aesthetics for wellbeing. An

example is a recent paper by Cabedo-Mas et al, on the effects of music on the Spanish population during the COVID-19

crisis:

Cabedo-Mas A., Arriaga-Sanz C., Moliner-Miravet L. (2020). Uses and perceptions of music in times of COVID-19: a

Spanish population survey. Front. Psychol. 11:606180. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8024569/)

As one of the examples from the public press, the Guardian newspaper has advocated for the recognition of the

contribution of the arts to health and wellbeing: https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-

network/2017/oct/11/contribution-arts-make-health-wellbeing.

xviii

See the Davos Declaration on High Baukultur, endorsed by ACE (2018): https://davosdeclaration2018.ch

xix

Sebastian Olma advocates for a shift from the notion of "contemporary aesthetics" which is linked to conspicuous

consumption, to the "poetics of performative defiance", or the creative process of the enactment, the experience, testing

or prototyping, accompanied by constant questioning. Olma, S., 2018. Art and Autonomy: Past, Present, Future.

V2_Publishing, Rotterdam.

Bram Büscher and Robert Fletcher, The Conservation Revolution: Radical Ideas for Saving Nature Beyond the

Anthropocene, 2020. https://convivialconservation.com/

xxi

Edward O. Wilson, Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, 2016. https://www.half-earthproject.org/

xxii

Julia Watson, Lo-TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism, 2019. https://www.juliawatson.com/

xxiii

Such an integrated perspective has been discussed in quite some detail by the recent report "Rethinking Land in the

Anthropocene: from Separation to Integration" by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU 2021).

xxiv

The real obstacle in introducing on a wide scale the natural materials is the requirement to develop product

specifications for all cases of their use. To get rid of that, natural materials such as straw, hemp or agricultural waste

should be treated as new sand, lime, steel or cement. Standards of their use should be developed at a fast pace, just as

previous generations used their advantages on the basis of the established rules of social trust. (Information from the

consultation with Cezary Czemplik from Polish Society of Natural Construction)

xxv

The transition to bio-based value creation will open up a new perspective on global development: The geographical

distribution of mineral resources (such as oil and iron ore) on Earth is highly heterogeneous, resulting in huge

comparative disadvantages for many countries, not least in the Global South. By way of contrast, most areas of the African

continent abound in biological resources. If the latter are not used for domestic burning (as currently done), but

employed effectively in the context of an emerging bioeconomy, countries like Kenya or Ghana can become competitive

champions of the international markets.

xxvi

https://www.15minutecity.com/

xxvii

An approach to risk assessment that builds on Technology Readiness Levels is Market Adoption Readiness Levels,

developed by the Connect Advisory Forum. It adds three further assessment parameters: the level of risk, numbers of

potential early adopters, and data yield.

xxviii

I.I. Gitelson, G.M. Lisovsky, R.D. MacElroy, 2003. Manmade Closed Ecological Systems, Taylor & Francis, London and

New York (2003) [Google Scholar]

xxix

Recent scientific evidence shows that he most connected tree on the forest floor, the so called “mother tree”, is key

to resilience and regeneration. Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, 2021,

Alfred A. Knopf. Also: https://mothertreeproject.org/team/project-leads/suzanne-simard/

xxx

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/cap-reform/

xxxi

Julia Watson, Lo-TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism, 2019. https://www.juliawatson.com/

NEB Concept Paper NEB High-Level Round Table, 30 June 2021

xxxii

Regulation which insists on complex and expensive digital technologies can damage local craftsmen. This problem

takes place, for example, in the timber industry where excluding the traditional methods of testing the quality of wood

offers inadvertent preference to those based on expensive computer programs which are not affordable for the local

sawmills, thus forcing them to send their wood to the big centers.

xxxiii

Obourn, Milo W., Disabled futures: a framework for radical inclusion, 2020. Temple University Press, Philadelphia.

Obourn’s “Disabled Futures: A framework for radical inclusion” opens up possibilities for imagining alternate and more

radically inclusive futures in which all of our identities, experiences, freedoms, and oppressions are understood as

interdependent and intertwined.

xxxiv

Examples of commons as shared ressources ran by communities of citizens not privately/publicly owned : Park Slope

Food Coop (a Supermarket: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Slope_Food_Coop), Rail Coop (a Railway project:

http://www.onthecommons.org/about-commons), and Habicoop (Housing project: http://www.habicoop.fr/)

xxxv

Nature and Youth – Young Friends of the Earth, Norway. https://nu.no/english/

xxxvi

Two examples of how this is already happening can be seen in NEB Goes South (https://www.up.pt/neb-goes-south/)

and Anthropocene Architecture School (https://linktr.ee/AnthropoceneArchitectureSchool) as well as the burgeoning

design justice movement within education and practice.

xxxvii

Examples from Shigeru Ban’s practice can be seen in the “Hualin Temporary Elementary School” that was built in

response to the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in China, or the Paper Nursery School in Yaan:

http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/works/2008_hualin-temporary-elementary-school/index.html

http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/works/2014_PaperNurserySchool_Yaan/index.html.

xxxviii

Design-led mission-oriented innovation approaches, such as those led by Vinnova in Sweden, around reimagining

streets and school food systems, are learning-by-doing in ‘real life’, ensuring that that idea of life-long learning is also

'life-broad’, dissolving the artificial walls between pedagogy and practice. https://www.vinnova.se/en/m/missions/

xxxix

2021 Pritzker winners Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal (and others) provide good examples:

https://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/anne-lacaton-and-jean-philippe-vassal

Orive, Gorka & Taebnia, Nayere & Dolatshahi-Pirouz, Alireza. (2019). A New Era for Cyborg Science Is Emerging: The

Promise of Cyborganic Beings. Advanced Healthcare Materials. 9. 1901023. 10.1002/adhm.201901023.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adhm.201901023

xli

For more information about the Common European Green Deal data space see the recent related initiatives:

https://inspire.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/inspire2020_greendataspace_green_deal_data_space.pdf

xlii

This example of using data-enabled public buildings and infrastructures as an interface between governments and

citizens was adopted in the recommendations of the G7 ”Innovation 7” in 2017.

xliii

The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) lists 440 registered lab sites across the EU and globally with a potential

reach to millions of people (https://enoll.org). MTF Labs manages a global community of around 8000 innovators of all

backgrounds and has run a nomadic series of innovation events, including week-long, High-Level curated residential

labs across Europe and around the world for almost a decade (https://mtflabs.net).

xliv

Promoted by the US Government, the Solar Decathlon Competition aiming at

designing and building high-

performance, low-carbon buildings that mitigate climate change and improve our quality of life through greater

affordability, resilience, and energy efficiency. Students and researchers from different disciplines and countries around

the world, develop a comprehensive and hands-on work that ends with the building of 1:1 scale functional built

prototypes that are visited and assessed by the public.

https://www.solardecathlon.gov/

xlv

For moonshots to really add value, the challenge needs to be defined very clearly, it needs to address a problem that

we don't know how to solve yet and be a solution that has the potential to unlock a wider change / shift. Good examples

at https://50breakthroughs.org)

xlvi

https://www.pechakucha.com