Climate-friendly building - future-proof living.

A New Era in Construction – Community – Affordable Housing. How can we build in a climate-friendly way to ensure our cities have a future? How can we keep housing affordable? How can we strengthen community rather than foster loneliness? In Freiburg, these issues take on a concrete dimension: LifeLab is planning the region’s first five-story wood-straw-clay building in the new Kleineschholz neighborhood. This evening, the construction and housing project will bring these three questions about the future together.

Opening Remarks: Mayor Prof. Martin Haag

Keynote Address: “The Beautiful Transformation” (via video). Prof. Dr. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber is a physicist and climate researcher specializing in quantum physics, complex systems, and sustainability sciences. He was the founding director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and has done pioneering work in key areas of climate science. He is currently the Director General of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria and the founder of the “Bauhaus der Erde.” In his lecture, he explains why the construction sector—responsible for around 40 percent of global CO₂ emissions—must be at the center of the climate transition.

Lecture: “Working Together for a Sustainable City.” Prof. Dr. Ing., architect, and urban planner Christina Simon-Philipp (Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences) is an expert in sustainable neighborhood development and urban renewal. Main research areas: neighborhood development, urban renewal, public space, real-world laboratories, and teaching-research projects. She is the curator of the German Urban Development Award presented by the German Academy for Urban Development and Regional Planning.

Keynote: “A Building Concept Full of Solutions—From Practice for the Future”: Markus Wolf, master carpenter at Zimmerei Grünspecht eG in Freiburg. He will present the latest developments in straw bale construction at Zimmerei Grünspecht and explain why the LifeLab project has a nationwide impact.

Moderator: Mona Haas (Dachgenossenschaft Wohnen für Alle e.G.)