13.12.2024

The state of the skilled crafts nation

Building design

President of the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts and master painter himself

Next weekend, on September 24, 2017, the 19th Bundestag elections will take place. A good opportunity for STEIN author Bärbel Daiber to ask Skilled Crafts President Hans Peter Wollseifer about the relationship between the skilled crafts sector and federal politics and what demands and expectations the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) has of the future government. STEIN: Mr. Wollseifer, the skilled trades and […]

Next weekend, on September 24, 2017, the 19th Bundestag elections will take place. A good opportunity for STEIN author Bärbel Daiber to ask Skilled Crafts President Hans Peter Wollseifer about the relationship between the skilled crafts sector and federal politics and what demands and expectations the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) has of the future government.

STEIN : Mr. Wollseifer, the skilled trades and SMEs are finally receiving more appreciation from politicians. What effect is this having and where is there still a lack of appreciation?

Hans Peter Wollseifer: The German SME sector and, as an important part of it, the more than one million craft businesses have proven to be very robust in times of crisis. At the same time, they have stood out as the economic sector that politicians can count on, especially with regard to outstanding socio-political challenges such as refugee integration. The skilled crafts sector has a stabilizing effect on society and the economy. This also has a lot to do with the dual training system, which ensures the quality of training and the supply of qualified skilled workers. Even if the majority of politicians now see it this way, there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of financial support for vocational training and training funding, for example in higher vocational training. In order for our companies to continue to be successful, we also need the right framework conditions. Superfluous bureaucracy must be further reduced. And when it comes to the burden of taxes and social security contributions, our companies are at their pain threshold. In order for them to remain competitive, social security contributions must not exceed 40 percent in the future either.

STEIN : What urgent measures for the skilled crafts sector were neglected in the last legislative period that now urgently need to be addressed?

Hans Peter Wollseifer: Particularly in view of the shortage of skilled workers, it is urgent to make vocational training more attractive to young people again. This requires better equipment for our vocational training centers, an update for vocational schools and stronger support for vocational education overall. Following the successful Higher Education Pact, there must now be a Vocational Training Pact, also as an expression of the equal value of vocational and academic education. We have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that much more energy-efficient refurbishment of buildings is needed if we want to achieve the climate targets – tax incentives can play a decisive role in encouraging investment. We could already be much further ahead here. In recent years, it has not been possible to keep electricity prices under control for SMEs and private households, and the EEG levy is rising and rising. From the point of view of the skilled trades, it is unacceptable that small and medium-sized businesses are being asked to pay for the privileged treatment of large companies that are exempt from the levy.

STEIN : What are the three most important issues for the skilled crafts sector that politicians must now urgently address? And what central demands of the skilled crafts sector do you derive from this for the future federal government?

Hans Peter Wollseifer: I have already mentioned that something urgently needs to be done to finance the energy transition. The costs must be distributed fairly and distortions of competition avoided, and a secure and affordable energy and electricity supply must be guaranteed. It is particularly important for craft businesses in rural areas to have access to fast internet. We need to speed up connections considerably here. Companies also need a modern data law. There must be no further burdens on our companies in terms of taxes and social security contributions. One example is the area of pensions: Past mistakes such as the maternity pension or the pension at 63 are taking their revenge here, burdening the pension fund with several billion euros every year. We urgently need to keep pension costs under control. There should therefore be no further increases in benefits, which would then have to be financed from contributions. Instead, the aim must be to make pensions demographically stable, for example by linking the retirement age to life expectancy – as will be the case in Denmark in future.

STEIN : Thank you very much for talking to us.

28.11.2024

Society

Werner Sobek receives Global Award for Sustainable Architecture

Building design

Werner Sobek received the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture on May 13. Sobek, who is head of the Institute for Lightweight Design and Construction, was one of five award winners. The jury recognized his “groundbreaking research”. Sobek’s research projects include, for example, the Urban Mining and Recycling Unit in the NEST building in Zurich. Werner Sobek is one of the five prize winners who received the award on […]

Werner Sobek received the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture on May 13. Sobek, who is head of the Institute for Lightweight Design and Construction, was one of five award winners. The jury recognized his “groundbreaking research”. Sobek’s research projects include, for example, the Urban Mining and Recycling Unit in the NEST building in Zurich.

Werner Sobek is one of the five winners who received the award on May 13, 2019 at the Cité de l’Architecture in Paris. The jury recognized his “groundbreaking research” with the award. He has headed the Institute for Lightweight Design and Construction for 25 years.

In order to give the complex issue of sustainability a more concrete focus, the jury members choose a specific theme each year. In 2019, the sustainability experts decided to refer to the current 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus. They focused on its multidisciplinary approach that strives for social reform.

The Global Award for Sustainable Architecture is based on a growing community of award winners from all over the world. Like Werner Sobek, they are all committed to sustainable architectural ethics.

We reported on Werner Sobek’s Urban Mining and Recycling Unit in Garten + Landschaft in April 2019 with the topic “Sustainable residential districts”, because the idea of returning material to the cycle in the form of recycling or upcycling when buildings are demolished in the interests of sustainable construction is an obvious one. However, the corresponding approaches have not yet arrived in everyday planning. With the “UMAR” research project, Werner Sobek and his colleagues are testing how residential buildings can be returned 100 per cent to technical or biological cycles in the future and are gaining insights that could also revolutionize open space planning.

You can read the full article on the UMAR unit here.

14.01.2025

Pioneer of the profession in Mexico

Building design

The Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award goes to the Mexican landscape architect Mario Schjetnan.

Mario Schjetnan has received the 2015 Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award from the IFLA. Born in Mexico City, the architect and landscape architect has shaped Mexican landscape architecture like no other. He studied architecture at the National University of Mexico and then went to Berkley to study landscape architecture, where he was influenced by greats such as Garret Eckbo, Donald Appleyard and Robert Twis. As head of the urban planning department at the National Institute of Housing for Workers (INFONAVIT) in Mexico, he worked on the development of guidelines for social housing estates. In 1977, he founded his office Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU). His best-known works include Tezozomac Park (1982), Xochimilco Ecological Park (1993) and Chapultepec Parks. All of these parks are located in Mexico City. Some of his projects can also be found in the USA, including Union Point Park in Oakland, California (2005).

Schjetnan was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 1984 and received an honorary doctorate from the Univsersidad Autónoma de Nuevo Léon in 1995. He teaches as a guest lecturer at various universities and, in addition to his academic and practical career, has worked to establish landscape architecture as a profession in Mexico. From 1985 to 1986, he was president of the Mexican Society of Landscape Architects, of which he has been a founding member since 1972.