A big thank you to the whole NEB community for co-creating the lab through all the brainstorming sessions and fruitful discussions!

For your ease, we have developed a dedicated space for the NEB Lab on our community platform. Besides the general information on the lab and the first-generation of NEB Lab projects, you will find there a detailed explanation of how to propose a project to the NEB Lab.

NEB Lab projects starting already today include the development of New European Bauhaus labelling tools, work on regulatory framework conditions, and a survey among construction companies, architects, urban planners and other actors to identify barriers to the implementation of NEB projects in the construction and housing sector.

Commissioner Gabriel and Ferreira commented on the NEB Lab launch. Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, said: “The New European Bauhaus is a growing movement connecting people across fields like culture, education, the arts, science, and architecture to share innovative ideas and embark on beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive projects to improve our daily lives. The NEB Lab provides a central meeting place for yet more of those connections to happen. It will help build the groundwork for more real changes on the ground.”

Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, added: “The NEB Lab is the perfect opportunity to put New European Bauhaus thinking into practice, involve a wide range of stakeholders in developing practical and lasting contributions to the initiative. I invite the growing NEB community to participate and particularly regions, municipalities and other public actors to become Friends of the New European Bauhaus and work together with us for the well-being of communities in European regions and cities.”

Broadening the community and driving change on the ground

Together with the launch of the ‘NEB Lab’ we are opening a call for Friends of the New European Bauhaus to involve companies and public actors such as regions, villages and cities, more directly in the NEB. The call for Friends of the New European Bauhaus responds to demand from public entities (such as municipalities), political organisations and companies to be involved in a more structured way in the NEB initiative. It is open from today onwards to entities that pledge their commitment to the New European Bauhaus values of sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusion.

The Friends will join an existing community of more than 450 official partners, High-Level Round Table members, Contact Points of the national governments, and winners and finalists of the New European Bauhaus prizes.

Starting with this community, the NEB Lab will act as an incubator to connect people and learn from one another’s experiences. As of today, three Community-led projects are officially part of the NEB Lab: 

• ‘New European Bauhaus goes South’ connects six south European counties which join forces to reflect about and improve education through architecture;
• ‘Nordic carbon neutral Bauhaus’ is an open forum to discuss how architecture, design and art can help achieve a carbon neutral building and living environment in an inclusive manner;
• ‘New European Bauhaus of the mountains’ seeks to improve the quality of the built environment, and citizens' quality of life, in rural and mountain areas.

These three projects complement the set of the Commission-led projects: 

• A ‘labelling strategy’ project inviting experts, academics, and professionals in sustainability, inclusiveness, and aesthetics to contribute to building a compass and assessment frameworks that will help ensure projects are well-aligned with the New European Bauhaus values;
• An ‘analysis and experimentation’ project to explore how the regulatory framework, from local to European level, can support the development of New European Bauhaus projects. A survey to map the challenges and opportunities practitioners face is open now until 30 June 2022;
• Two ‘innovative funding’ projects: one focusing on crowdfunding and public funding, the other on joint funding with philanthropy. These projects will explore innovative funding solutions for New European Bauhaus projects. Everyone interested in innovative funding is invited to get involved by sharing their thoughts and experiences.

The NEB Lab projects add to the ongoing work to promote the transformation of places of learning, as well as three calls to support citizens, cities, and towns to take the New European Bauhaus project deep into their communities.

Commission communication on NEB Lab launch:

• Press release
• Communiqué de présse