EU Commission welcomes the Friends of New European Bauhaus to a collaborative lab

With the launch of the ‘NEB LAB’, the Commission hopes to consolidate supporters of the initiative and help to improve the regulatory framework across regions and municipalities

Yesterday, the European Commission announced the launch of the New European Bauhaus Lab (NEB), something they have labelled as a ‘think and do tank’. The NEB LAB is supposed to consolidate the efforts of all actors involved in advancing the ideas and projects of the New European Bauhaus through connections with regional and municipal authorities across the EU.

NEB LAB hits the ground running

NEB LAB started working on its objectives right off the bat, as the launch came with an open platform where companies, public authorities and non-profit organisations can apply and get involved. This is what the Commission describes as a ‘Call for Friends‘.

The move came as a response to the growing demand to involve all these actors more directly in the decision-making process of establishing the New European Bauhaus as a movement.

Furthermore, NEB LAB announced the start of even more projects, including the development of the New European Bauhaus labelling tool, work on regulatory framework conditions and a survey. The survey will be conducted among construction companies, architects, urban planners and others. Its aim, reportedly, is to identify the main barriers to implementing the principles of New European Bauhaus projects in the construction and housing sector.

The aim of the labelling tools calls for the development of a compass and assessment framework for projects and how well they fit the principles of the New European Bauhaus. They will help guide the creation of policy and funding initiatives across the EU and, according to a statement by NEB LAB, should be out by December 2022.

On the other hand, the regulatory framework and survey go hand in hand, with the aim being to deliver concrete and research-based guidelines for policymakers. The results of the survey are scheduled to be published in autumn 2022. At the same time, the whole project will focus on analysing how the existing regulatory framework on the national, regional and local levels can support New Bauhaus projects.