What will it take to build the New European Bauhaus?
“Beautiful, Sustainable, Together”. These are the values – and aims – of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) movement, an initiative set out by the European Commission to bring to life the European Green Deal. Inspired by the post-World War I Bauhaus movement, the NEB aims to bring together architecture, design, innovation, science, and art to build places, practices and experiences that will bring sustainable solutions to the climate emergency.
But what will it take to build this New European Bauhaus?
To date, much of the work to establish this movement has been driven from bottom-up approaches, with communities and innovators at a local level taking the lead in finding sustainable solutions to local problems. However, a vote in September by MEPs showed widespread support for dedicated funding and criteria to scale the movement in the upcoming years.
As Climate KIC, alongside other KICs and partners, we’ve been helping to grow and scale these bottom-up projects through several programmes that combine funding with mentorship and opportunities for collaboration with peers. Through the EIT Community New European Bauhaus initiative, we’ve been supporting innovative climate projects that bring fresh opportunities to longstanding local problems. From supporting refugees to integrate through art, to reinventing abandoned spaces into useful spots, these projects exemplify NEB values in practice.
Our New European Bauhaus Hackathons – taking part across September and October this year – are a chance for early stage ideas to be worked on in a rapid and collaborative environment. Winners are also given the opportunity to win EUR 10,000 voucher to test and prototype a solution in a New European Bauhaus Makerspace, supporting them to turn their solution into concrete goods or services.
At the end of September, we held “INNOVEIT Berlin: Building the New European Bauhaus“, an event to bring together cross-disciplinary experts and entrepreneurs to ask what it would take for the New European Bauhaus movement to succeed. Par of EIT’s INNOVEIT series, what came through loud and clear throughout all discussions was the need for collaboration, openness and creative thinking to allow the New European Bauhaus movement to flourish and succeed.
One of our startups, Jebbia, pitching at INNOVEIT Berlin. Photo credit: Linus Lintner Fotografie.
“How can we turn the New European Bauhaus into creating a better world? We can do that by facilitating a variety of stakeholders to come up with a common vision and mission around the built environment”, said Torben Klitgaard, founder of BLOXHUB and Designing the Irresistible Circular lead. This sentiment was echoed by keynote speaker, Prof. John Schellnhuber, Director Emeritus of Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), who pushed the need for an integrated response if we are to reach some form of climate restoration in the coming years. Approaching innovation in an interdisciplinary way is key to any innovations thriving, and this was the golden thread that ran throughout the startups pitching round (watch back from 2:33:00). From solutions for car parking spaces that also convert CO2, to solving the energy crisis by making plants part of the energy system, siloed approaches are no longer good enough if we want to see systemic changes that bring us closer to a climate-just future.
As Heinrich Arnold, EIT Governing Board member, said, “you need to bring together all the ingredients because if you don’t, you can’t make transformative change”. We look forward to being that facilitator to allow beauty, sustainability and inclusivity to flourish across Europe.