2023–2024 Quality criteria for buildings and neighbourhoods based on the New European Bauhaus

The aim of this project was to develop assessment criteria for subsidized demonstration buildings and quarters. In doing so, reference had to be made to existing building assessment programs and compatibility had to be established. In addition to existing sustainability criteria, aesthetics and social inclusion had to be assessed. The transformation necessary today should not only be an environmental and economic project, but must also become a new cultural project for Europe (von der Leyen 2020). In this sense, the mission of a climate-neutral city is necessarily linked to aesthetics and social inclusion. Todayʼs rating systems focus on sustainability. The innovation of this project lies in the combination of these three areas as a further development and linking of established models. For the criterion of aesthetics, the model started from some of the 8 criteria for high building culture of the Davos Building Culture Quality System (DBQS). The DBQS was already transferred to the Austrian situation in the Fourth Baukulturreport. For the criterion of social inclusion, existing assessment systems for social aspects of building were used as a basis in the field of subsidized residential construction. For the aspect of diversity, on the other hand, assessment perspectives were needed that address questions of segregation, mixed use/flexibility and potentials of public space. As a result, a new assessment model for aesthetics and social inclusion was developed that is compatible with existing sustainability criteria (klimaaktiv) as well as current political framework conditions (EU taxonomy), that can be applied efficiently and effectively and that provides a comprehensive picture of the quality of buildings as well as urban districts and settlements.

R&D service commissioned by FFG (Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft) for Plattform Baukulturpolitik, with Barbara Feller, Rupert Halbartschlager, Renate Hammer, Caren Ohrhallinger.