Buildings account for around 35 % of Germany's total final energy consumption. Residential buildings account for the largest share of buildings' energy consumption for heating, hot water, lighting, and cooling. From an energy and climate policy perspective, reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector is of great importance. Economical and effective solutions contributing to the"Wärmewende", the transition to sustainable heating, can also contribute significantly to reducing energy imports.

The successful transition to sustainable heating, i.e., saving thermal energy and decarbonizing heat consumption, is highly relevant for achieving Germany's energy and climate policy goals. High savings effects for the energy raw materials natural gas and heating oil are seen not only in new buildings but above all in existing residential buildings. But what savings can be achieved with the various measures? Which investments are worthwhile for building owners? Which political decisions can support the implementation of the necessary investments?

The TAB report "Energy-saving effects in the building sector" presents concrete and practical principles and options for action. The TAB report is thus not only aimed at decision-makers in politics and housing companies but can also provide owners of multi-family and single-family houses with basic orientation.

Like lawyers, medical practitioners or pharmacists, architects belong to the group of liberal professions, whose occupational titles are protected by law. Only those professionals registered with the chamber of architects in his or her federal state are allowed to call themselves architect, landscape architect, interior architect or urban planner. Even though the admission rules vary slightly between the individual federal states, the chamber system guarantees that all professionals maintain a high level of professional training. This safeguards the quality of architectural and planning services in Germany so esteemed also abroad.

Amongst other things, the professional policy activities of the BAK focuses on professional training, competition and public procurement law, yet include also questions of standardisation and the development of the "Honorarordnung für Architekten und Ingenieure" (HOAI - German Fee Scales for Architects and Engineers). The HOAI constitutes a well-proven, transparent and reliable negotiation basis for fees for all those involved. It ensures that competition in planning services is based on quality and not on price, so that architects can work for the benefit of the awarding authorities and individuals, the users and the public.

The "Deutsche Architektenblatt" is the monthly member magazine of the BAK and the Federal State Chambers of Architects. It distinguished itself as a magazine with which architects can identify as regards their work in general, their questions, professional challenges and successes.

Our clients predominantly comprise building companies, mechanical engineering firms, plant manufacturers, contractors, developers, architects, planners and licensing authorities, as well as private and public-sector institutions engaged in construction research. The application of building science expertise to related areas of specialization has expanded our circle of partners to include companies from the automotive and aviation industries. We carry out complex building physics studies at our efficient and well-equipped laboratories and test centers and at our outdoor testing site in Holzkirchen, which to the best of our knowledge is the largest facility of its kind. Modern laboratory measuring techniques and computational methods help researchers develop and optimize building products for practical applications. We also carry out experiments in environmental test chambers, simulation facilities and existing buildings to assess components and overall systems for new buildings and renovation projects based on the principles of building physics.

The Fraunhofer IBP has been approved by the German building inspection authorities as a testing, monitoring and certification center for building materials and building techniques in Germany and the rest of Europe. Four of the institute’s test laboratories have been granted flexible accreditation by the German accreditation body Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle GmbH (DAkkS) in accordance with DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025. This entitles them to develop new test methods and to modify existing methods.

At this report launch event, the researchers will present findings about life in 14 high-density schemes across the capital. They will be joined by architect Bob Allies, Professor Loretta Lees, and Tower Hamlets head of regeneration Sripriya Sudhakar, who will respond to the report and open a discussion about what it means for the future of London housing.

Findings from the research are presented in a user-friendly format on the project's website, which includes visual depictions and key facts from each of the 14 housing schemes.

SPEAKERS

Kath Scanlon (@KathJScanlon) is Distinguished Policy Fellow at LSE London.

Loretta Lees (@LorettaCLees) is Professor of Human Geography in the Department of Geography at the University of Leicester.

Sripriya Sudhakar is Head of Regeneration at London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Bob Allies is an architect and a founding partner of Allies and Morrison. CHAIR Ricky Burdett (@BURDETTR) is Professor of Urban Studies at LSE a

The Smarter London Together roadmap identifies five missions: user-centred design, data-sharing, smart infrastructure, digital skills and collaboration. To work on these broad strategic components of a digital future, London government is supported by a Smart London Board and a new role of a Chief Digital Officer, appointed for the first time in 2018. Against the backdrop of international efforts that have advanced the smart cities agenda over the last decade, this public event will discuss successes and challenges of the London case. It will focus on the role of city governments in steering an urban-led digitalisation, how citizens and city government can interact more effectively and on how to bring the technology community on board. Besides reflecting on past and existing innovation, the event will speculate about how cities can go beyond trials and demonstrator projects and work towards city-wide scaling of new digital solutions. It will further reflect on new requirements for a deeper knowledge of city data, data protection and security related concerns.

Appointed in 2017 as London’s first Chief Digital Officer, Theo Blackwell (@LDN_CDO) leads on London-wide digital transformation, data and smart city initiatives at City Hall.

Léan Doody (@ldoody) is an Associate Director and the Digital Property and Smart Cities Leader for Europe at Arup. She has over 20 years’ experience in the industry on projects involving extensive strategy and policy work on the application of smart technologies.

LSE Cities (@LSECities) is an international centre that carries out research, graduate and executive education and outreach activities in London and abroad. It studies how people and cities interact in a rapidly urbanising world, focusing on how the physical form and design of cities impacts on society, culture and the environment.

The first part of the event consists of three virtual parallel workshops. The HIIG is proud to host the online workshop: “Citizens, give us your problems! How to Open Data without giving it away.” The event will conclude with a panel discussion about the workshops outcomes and the overarching question of how to enable a sustainable digitalisation in cities like Berlin. The virtual panel discussion will be open to a broader public through a livestream (on this website).

Panel Speaker

Andrea Cominola | Junior Professor for Smart Water Networks at the Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF) and Technische Universität Berlin. His research focuses on the modeling and management of water and energy demand, the detection of leakages and cyber-physical anomalies, behavior modeling, data mining and machine learning.

Luiza Bengtsson | Data, Actors, Infrastructures team member at HIIG and works on implementing Data & Society Interface research projects with the vision to enable open data access for public good, without data sharing in the classical sense and without collateral damage to individuals or institutions.

Ophélie Ivombo | Program officer for Digitisation of the Consumer Advice Centre Berlin and Bündnis Digitale Stadt Berlin. 

Thomas Krause | Project Manager Digitisation Strategy, Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises.

Germany consumes some 1.3 billion tonnes of fossil fuels, minerals, ores and biomass per year. UBA's Use of Natural Resources Report claims that the majority of raw material consumption is non-metallic minerals (45%), fossil fuels (29%) and biomass (21%). Although raw material consumption in Germany is becoming more and more efficient thanks to industry efforts and total raw material productivity has increased by 26% since 2000, Germany has an excessively high level of raw material consumption compared to other countries: 10% higher than the average in Europe, and even 100% higher than the global average. More than half of the raw materials consumed for the production of goods is sourced from abroad.