24.01.2025

Baukultur Report 2024/25: Focus on infrastructure

Building design

The Baukultur Report 2024/25 shows why infrastructures are so important and how their transformation can succeed. Source: Federal Foundation of Baukultur. Graphic: © Bundesstiftung Baukultur; Design: Heimann + Schwantes

The new Baukultur Report 2024/25 focuses on the topic of “infrastructures”. The Federal Foundation of Baukultur asks how the transformation to resilient, climate-friendly, socially integrated and well-designed infrastructure buildings and spaces can succeed. The report was presented to the public at the Convention of Baukultur on June 20.

Infrastructures are the basis for our everyday lives. One of the most important challenges facing society is to maintain, adapt and further develop them. Interdisciplinary planning and integrated construction offer great opportunities to qualify Germany as a business location and at the same time secure services of general interest. In its Baukultur Report 2024/25, the Federal Foundation of Baukultur shows how the necessary transformation can be achieved.

To this end, the report analyzes the current situation of German infrastructure and formulates recommendations for action for politicians, builders and local authorities. “The unwieldy term ‘infrastructure’ is about the basis of our coexistence and the opportunity to make our environment more liveable and better designed,” says Reiner Nagel, Chairman of the Board of the Federal Foundation of Baukultur. “It goes without saying that infrastructure must be functional – but at the same time, it doesn’t matter what it looks like: Well-designed infrastructures that are integrated into urban planning can make a positive contribution to an environment worth living in.”

Since 2014, the Federal Foundation of Baukultur has presented the Baukultur Report every two years. In 2022, for example, the focus was on the “New culture of conversion”. This year, the title, “Infrastructures”, sounds very technical. However, it refers not only to road construction and supply lines, but also to all other infrastructures such as transport routes, social facilities and transportation systems. According to the report, they are the basis for equally good living conditions and even the foundation of democracy.

Infrastructures regulate supply and disposal, mobility and transportation. They therefore determine our quality of life. At the same time, the renovation backlog is high, which is why too little has been invested in roads, railways, bridges, daycare centers, schools, hospitals and cultural buildings in recent years. Challenges such as climate change, the energy crisis and the scarcity of resources call for integrated approaches, as demonstrated by the floods of the century in the Ahr valley, which show how important it is to expand blue-green infrastructure.

The Baukultur Report 2024/25 focuses on the necessary transformation of infrastructures and thus the improvement of living conditions in German cities and municipalities. The foundation compiled the report independently and conducted building culture dialogs, expert discussions, surveys and two building culture workshops, among other things. The document was also presented and explained to the current Federal Cabinet. This resulted in recommendations for action to local authorities, politicians and building professionals. The foundation presented these at the Convention of Baukultur in Potsdam on June 20, 2024.

According to the report, the benchmark for technical and social infrastructures should be their availability and their function for the common good. The report begins by summarizing the current state of Baukultur in Germany. It looks at the general conditions in the construction industry, affordable housing, climate change adaptation measures and the transformation of city centers, as well as current developments such as the use of BIM in planning and changes to public procurement regulations.

In the main section, the report focuses on the importance of civil engineering. This must meet high technical and functional as well as aesthetic standards. This is because infrastructure makes a significant contribution to the atmosphere of places and, with the right design quality, can create social added value and have an identity-forming effect. Against this background, the Baukultur Foundation also emphasizes the importance of craftsmanship and training.

With the help of pioneering projects, the Baukultur Report 2024/25 also takes a practical approach. This makes it clear what successful infrastructures look like and how they function. For example, it looks at the underground light rail stops in Karlsruhe, the Jan Fedder Promenade in Hamburg and the renovated Danube swimming pool in Sigmaringen.

From this, recommendations for action for policy-makers are derived, which are aimed at longevity, resilience, public welfare, availability, efficiency and climate measures. The report makes it clear that action must be taken quickly: “Maintain instead of demolish” is one of the most important demands. This is all the more important in view of the renovation backlog.

The growing renovation backlog in Germany is making it increasingly difficult to guarantee high-quality and functioning infrastructure. For example, the KfW Municipal Panel 2023 revealed an investment backlog of 160 billion euros for municipal infrastructure alone. 4,000 bridges are considered dilapidated and 5,000 kilometers are disconnected. According to the Baukultur Report 2024/25, there is also a lot to be done in terms of social and municipal infrastructure.

The graphics show how well-functioning infrastructures have a direct impact on services of general interest and influence areas such as education, health, safety and mobility. For the first time, the report also introduces the social added value of well-planned, aesthetic infrastructure into the debate. Among other things, the foundation draws attention to the importance of social infrastructure such as schools, swimming pools and health kiosks and emphasizes the design potential of the energy transition.

In this way, the Federal Foundation of Baukultur, which was established by the federal law of December 17, 2006, fulfils its task of raising awareness of good planning and building. At the same time, it aims to highlight the quality and performance of the German planning and building sector.

Now the Baukultur Report 2024/25 is going on a summer tour: From July 11, the Federal Foundation of Baukultur will be taking it on the road and distributing the document free of charge as a PDF or in print. Stops on the summer tour include Chemnitz, Regensburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt am Main, Wuppertal and Lübeck.

You can find out more about the last Baukultur report entitled “Neue Umbaukultur” here.

30.11.2024

Project

Installation for the Blue Night

Building design

“Forest sculpture” was the title of a light and space installation by landscape architecture students from the Technical University of Munich. For the “Blue Night” in Nuremberg on May 3, 2014, they transformed market umbrellas with bags and LED light tubes into an illuminated forest.

“Like a sea of clouds! Like an illusion! Simply beautiful! Wow!” The visitors to the “Blue Night” are visibly impressed. They gaze almost reverently into the shimmering blue-green treetops. There is hardly anyone who doesn’t pull out their cell phone camera to capture this unreal moment shortly after sunset.
The “forest sculpture” was one of the main attractions of the “Blue Night” on May 3. The theme of this year’s annual cultural event organized by the city of Nuremberg was longing. The basic idea behind the illuminated installation was to translate the everyday location of the main market into a symbolic place of longing.

Landscape architecture students from the Technical University of Munich took the fruit and vegetable market and its visitors on a walk through the woods: into a forest of artificial trees built from typical elements of the market. Market umbrellas became tree trunks, bags became foliage and fruit crates became seats.
For six months, 24 students worked together with the chair towards this moment. Up to 44 students worked on the main market during the six days of construction. The students had to inflate 20,000 plastic bags, assemble 240 wooden pallets, set up 80 market umbrellas and hang them with bags and LED light tubes.

In October 2013, the students entered the design phase through a constructive competition process. After several stages, the “forest sculpture” installation emerged from the 24 proposals, which all participants then worked on together until it was ready for implementation. Numerous questions had to be clarified during the development phase: What is the volume of 20,000 plastic bags and how long does it take to fill them with air? Which light source is suitable and how do I make 400 meters of cable invisible in the square? The students were confronted with hurdles such as fire protection and stability. Burning plastic bags dripping down on visitors, for example, or market umbrellas toppling over in a storm – the installation had to withstand all eventualities.

Understanding and solving the pitfalls of implementation and approval planning is one of the most important contents of “studio1zu1” – a teaching format and field of research of the Chair of Landscape Architecture and Public Space at the Technical University of Munich. Despite all the specifications, regulations and compromises, the installation was to be realized in line with its original intention – and of course within budget. The spontaneous applause after the lighting was switched on was a well-deserved reward for everyone involved.

Forest sculpture, Nuremberg main market, a light and space installation
Chair of Landscape Architecture and Public Space (Prof. Regine Keller), Technical University of Munich;
Project management: Felix Lüdicke; Supervision: Thomas Hauck, Felix Metzler;
Design: Julian Birkmaier, Rita Codea, Franziska Cußmann, Sabrina Daubmeier, Tobias Drexler, Elisabeth Egerter, Vanessa Frisch, Katharina Gebhart, Eva Grömling, Felix Gutmann, Franziska Hepp, Ines Hofmann, Melanie Hölzl, Kristjan Kohu, Yun Kyeong Hoh, Hannah Layer, Martina Lehmann, Theresia Loy, Pim Lucassen, Fabian Obert, Benjamin Schwab, Philipp Uerlings, Georg Wagner, Michael Wenzel

Location: Google Maps

23.12.2024

Product

Dream houseboat

Building design

Living dream houseboat buy book tip — Before the conversion: the old Bauhütten ship from GDR times

A family dares to fulfill a lifelong dream and converts a houseboat. You can read about the construction work and life on the boat in “Four rooms, kitchen, boat”.

“Isn’t it cold there?” is the most common question asked of houseboat residents. Concerned passers-by also ask whether the boat rocks and makes them feel sick or whether the plates fall out of the cupboard from time to time. The Eisenhardt family is happy to provide information, as they have fulfilled a dream that many people only dare to dream of: they have purchased an old GDR-era construction ship, converted it and made it their permanent home on the water. And to answer at least the first question: No, it’s not cold, because the crew, consisting of father, mother and two children, have insulated their ship “Helene” with 20 centimeters of rock wool. They are also self-sufficient in terms of energy and have already survived several winters in the crunching ice.

The woman on board, Berlin journalist Uta Eisenhardt, has now compiled her experiences in a small book entitled “Vier Zimmer, Küche, Boot – Eine Familie zieht aufs Wasser”. What is interesting for houseboat aspirants and leisure captains, for example, is that she describes the search for a berth on the Spree in Berlin as particularly grueling. The officials at the city planning office were anything but delighted: buying a houseboat and mooring it in Berlin’s inland waters? This was not permitted under building law, because “riverbanks are public spaces for recreation and nature conservation”. Only persistence will help, says Uta Eisenhardt. She also gives a few useful tips at the end: Costs, approval, living space, floor plan, mooring fee, condition, year of construction through to sleeping berths. As the reader learns in the course of reading the book, inexperienced boat owners have many misfortunes – after all, the home sweet home can not only burn down, but also sink.

“Four rooms, kitchen, boat”
Uta Eisenhardt
22.90 euros. Published by Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2016

Anyone who wants to find out more about this exotic form of living also has the opportunity to do so at the first “Houseboat Conference”: Verlag Delius Klasing is organizing it on 20 October in Hamburg (at a price of 398 euros). Many questions can be clarified there, such as: What does it mean to live on the water, what options are there, what needs to be considered when building and constructing floating structures and what is the legal framework?

All photos: Eisenhardt