Real estate politics: thinking differently about building – economy

Climate protection is a national goal, and that also applies to the new federal government, whatever it will be. But whether Germany will really become climate-neutral by 2045 will not be decided by the constant repetition of full-bodied announcements, but also by the reality of planning and building in our country. The building sector accounts for around 40 percent of CO₂ emissions. Architecture and urban planning draw on a comprehensive pool of knowledge from innovative players in sustainable building, research and courageous builders. But there is a lack of political will and an operationally feasible roadmap that specifies the costs and distribution of the burdens.

In the building sector, however, it is not just climate-friendly construction that has to become the norm. In addition, the consequences of demographic change, the crisis in the social security systems and the diverse transformations in economic life have to be dealt with – at the same time. There are also four interjections.

First: If people cannot be sure that they will be able to pay for an apartment with their income even in economically sound times, affordable housing becomes an existential social question and fundamentally erodes trust in our social order. We all know that it is not a few who are affected, but rather the middle of our society. With the proportion of very old people in need of care in the total population, the demand for social assistance, care facilities and new forms of living adapted to the most varied of lifestyles increases. Housing policy must shape demographic change in a humane way.

Individual lighthouse projects are not enough

There are countless examples of housing types that translate neighborly solidarity into the future and make a contribution to the financing of public services of general interest. But individual lighthouse projects are not enough. Climate-friendly and socially resilient building must become an obligation. After all, affordable, well-organized living is an essential prerequisite for affordable social infrastructure. This requires new forms: district get-togethers, in which low-threshold local supply offers, coworking spaces and neighborhood-oriented living are bundled. Because social security will depend on informal solidarity systems in the future.

In order to coordinate these requirements and to activate the participation of the residents, a functioning district management and the overcoming of bureaucratic spatial programs are required. In place of kindergarten guidelines, school building subsidy guidelines, home building regulations, space programs must be made more flexible, creating synergies that can be used across generations, have an integrating effect in the neighborhood and can be adapted to the needs of a changing society.

Second: How short politics jumps is shown by the attempt to reinterpret the “equivalence of living conditions”. Indeed, the urban-rural antagonism in spatial planning is out of date. Today it is about economically strong and less strong regions, about central, well-developed and peripheral areas. The country cannot be thought of as exclusively urban, because many of the things that are taken for granted in the city cannot easily be transferred to more extensive forms of settlement: mobility is more difficult, the public infrastructure and cultural offerings are thinner, and the gaps in broadband and mobile communications are legendary. At the same time, landscaped settlement models do a lot that doesn’t work in the city.

In addition, density and a classic understanding of centrality are not necessarily economic success factors. Success can also be at home in the country, as many do Hidden champions show. Politicians have to understand that this is about much more than the struggles to distribute funds. It is about the connection between different cultural areas, landscapes, identities with compatible development.

We need a fundamental revision in urban planning law

Third: the future of city centers. The importance of the dense, European city has become more conscious with and after Corona. The vision of the mixed-use city only arises if living in the core and inner cities, if the coexistence of trade and commerce is at all permissible under building law. This is only possible in exceptional cases in so-called core areas. Building planning regulations have been tinkered with for decades. However, all changes to the building code and the building use ordinance do not provide an answer to building in an existing structure that is characterized by development plans from the post-war period and the era of the car-friendly city.

But if the survival of owner-managed retail and the affordability of floors and rents in cities are important to us, then we need a fundamental revision in urban planning law. So far, it has forced building law authorities to block sensible urban development and, if necessary, to enable sustainable urban planning in exceptional cases.

Fourth: Climate protection in the building sector must finally be tackled in the dimension as defined by the international contractual agreements. Concepts are required for the operational translation of climate protection goals into the reality of building and renovation. Across Germany we need one billion square meters of photovoltaics, which will change the appearance of our cities and landscapes. The energy demand of buildings has to be massively reduced because it cannot be met indefinitely by renewable sources. By 2045, i.e. within 24 years, thirty million existing buildings will have to be energetically refurbished and operated in a climate-neutral manner. But the renovation rate is currently only 0.7 percent.

After all: the general consensus on climate protection is broad. And Germany is strong in innovations in construction technologies, in the development of new material constellations. Climate protection technologies are a future market for German products. It is downright breathtaking the scope for design that can open up when we are ready to think fundamentally about the basic questions of planning and building. An alliance made up of the Federal Chamber of Architects, the German Sustainable Building Council and German Environmental Aid has therefore formulated a specific work order for the next federal government: By 2025, Germany needs one million climate-neutrally renovated buildings per year, one million renovation timetables for non-renovated buildings, 100 percent transparency about energy efficiency Condition of all buildings in Germany.