Ref. Code: WS03
Chair: Ellie Mavroudi & Elena Mussinelli
Duration: 2.5h
Organization: ENVI-Reg Observatory ( Politecnico di Milano) & Cluster of Bioeconomy and Environment of Western Macedonia (CluBE)
New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative aligns with the EU’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, integrating aesthetics and sustainability inspired by historic Bauhaus movement. This workshop explores the key concepts of NEB – sustainability, inclusiveness, aesthetics and social engagement – identifying crucial skills for upskilling the workforce in nature-based solutions (NBS) for urban regeneration. The workshop, using the World Café method, aims to devise effective teaching techniques, discovering skills essential to NEB’s values and addressing environmental challenges. It brings together educators, professionals and organizations for cross-sector collaboration, emphasizing community involvement and raising awareness about the potential of NBS in the NEB perspective.
The New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative, aligned with the European Commission’s ambition for carbon neutrality by 2050 under the European Green Deal, aims to integrate aesthetics with sustainability, drawing inspiration from the historic Bauhaus movement. This initiative is anticipated to revolutionize the educational landscape by advocating for a multidisciplinary curriculum that emphasizes sustainability and innovation.
The workshop aspires to elaborate on the different salient points of the NEB’s concept, namely sustainability, inclusivity, aesthetics and social engagement, to identify the most valuable skills to be cultivated to upskill and reskill the current workforce, with a focus on Nature-based Solution (NBS) potential in urban and territorial regeneration processes. Despite their relevant multifunctionality, NBS are not indeed an alternative to conventional grey solutions: their applications are even scarce, restricted to sectoral interventions, in many cases as a result of specialized designs with low aesthetic quality, and their real benefits (social, cultural, environmental and economic) are rarely monitored. Nevertheless, the EU guidelines promoting climate and environmental neutral transition, including decarbonization targets, 17 SDGs, and ESG and DNSH principles, assign a very central role to NBS “to protect, sustainably manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits” (WCC-2016-Res-069 resolution).
The aim of the workshop is to think and share effective teaching techniques to draw the potential of NBS in contributing to sustainable, inclusive and resilient living spaces and communities, by means of the 3 NEB key values (beautiful, sustainable, together), transferring knowledge, skills and competencies, and also increasing the consciousness of the relevance of these issues in the project and in professional practice.
Furthermore, through the method of World Café, the workshop aims to identify essential skills and knowledge needed by professionals to implement the NEB’s sustainability values via nature-based approaches. The expected comprehensive list of skills will generate new insights towards the competencies needed to be acquired to keep up with the future net-zero plans of the European Union, while simultaneously leveraging the current green and digital challenges. Consequently, the workshop intents to illuminate the impact of the New European Bauhaus on sustainable education and professional practice, encouraging the cultivation of a nature-based and site-specific mindset, geared towards addressing environmental and societal challenges.
To this end, the workshop aims to assemble a multidisciplinary group of educators, practitioners, and representatives from various organizations impacted by the NEB’ values and principles, to engage in a fruitful dialogue focusing on effective community engagement, cross-sector collaboration, and strategies for raising awareness about the NBS potential in the NEB perspective.
The objective is the production of a summary of key points, in the form of a tentative Manifesto on educational challenges and opportunities (open to further development), covering namely sustainability, inclusivity, aesthetics and social engagement, and identify the most valuable skills that need to be cultivated to upskill and reskill the current workforce.
The brief agenda consists of:
a) Introduction (Introducing the NEB Initiative, focusing on its values and principles, and on the NBS’s potential in sustainable educational framework);
b) Discussion (Sharing thoughts regarding how the NEB Initiative is expected to revolutionize the landscape of education, emphasizing the NBS versatility as a lever of the educational process towards sustainability);
c) 1st round World Café (Explain the concept of the World Café and roundtables where the participants will discuss about essential skills and knowledge for professionals, creative and design skills to create NBS, key competencies and teaching methodologies that educators and trainers need to effectively convey the principles of the NEB by means of quality NBS, fostering multidisciplinary approaches and integrating the values of sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusivity in their training programs);
d) Reflection (The participants will share their collective discoveries);
e) Discussion (Sharing thoughts regarding how the NEB Initiative is expected to accomplish its goal of social engagement in promoting a nature-based design thinking);
f)2nd round World Café (The participants will discuss how to engage local communities in co-design, co-implement, co-maintain/manage NBS, foster collaboration between different sectors in the NEB initiatives and in the NBS co-design processes, raise awareness and communicate the goals and benefits of NEB initiative to the broader public, ensure that NEB projects remain aligned with social needs and adapt consistently);
g) Reflection (The participants will share their collective discoveries);
h) Conclusions (Tentative Manifesto on educational challenges and opportunities).
Ellie Mavroudi, Project Manager
She is an Architect Engineer, studied at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece with a Diploma Research Thesis on Urban Design and the Psychology of Space and a Diploma Design Thesis under the topic “Architectural Design and Reuse”. She is working at the Cluster of Bioeconomy and Environment of Western Macedonia (CluBE) as a Project Manager, responsible for the New European Bauhaus Initiative. She is also representing CluBE in the NEB Community engaging in collaborative initiatives and promoting CluBE which is one of its official partners. Finally, she participates in several European Funded projects related to Buildings Renovation – Energy Efficiency of Buildings, the New European Bauhaus and Smart Cities (Team: Dr. Ioannis Fallas, Co-Founder & Director of CluBE; Nikolaos Ntavos, Co-Founder & Manager of CluBE; Theodoros Gkiourkas, Head of Circular Economy & Energy Saving Department, Senior Project Manager; Dr. Sofia-Natalia Boemi, Scientific Researcher, Co-Head of Digital Transition and Climate Policies, Senior Project Manager; Dr. Valentina Plaka, Environmental Scientist, Head of Education, Reskilling and Upskilling programs, Project Manager; Evridiki Mandela, Project Manager).
Elena Mussinelli, architect, full professor in Environmental Design and Architectural Technology
She is the Scientific Director of the ENVI-Reg Observatory, a research group operating at the ABC Department of the Politecnico di Milano and experimenting innovative and integrated approaches in urban regeneration, with a particular focus on the environmental quality design and assessment (Team: Fabrizio Schiaffonati, Full Professor in Architectural Technology, Dean; Andrea Tartaglia, Associate Professor in Environmental Design, Responsible for the Environmental design and urban and territorial resilience Section; Roberto Bolici and Matteo Gambaro, Associate Professors in Architectural Technology, Responsible for the Urban safety/security and accessibility Section; Daniele Fanzini, Full Professor in Architectural Technology, Responsible for the Participatory planning and co-design Section; Raffaella Riva, Giovanni Castaldo, Researchers; Davide Cerati, Ph.D. and grant researcher; Annamaria Sereni, Ph.D. student).
Milano)