Nefeli Mavroeidi: »Aspects such as resource conservation, emission reduction, circularity, and climate resilience play a much greater role today than they did five or ten years ago.«

During my studies, I quickly became aware that as architects, our plans and decisions have a significant impact on people and the world. At that time, I started delving into the topic of sustainable construction. Against this background, I consciously chose the Master's program Energy-efficient and Sustainable Building.

Indeed, sustainability is not a new topic for the construction industry. However, in the past decades, it was often associated primarily with energy efficiency. An important development in recent years is that we are now aware that sustainability affects all aspects of our planning and is very comprehensive. Aspects such as resource conservation, emission reduction, circularity, and climate resilience play a much greater role today than they did five or ten years ago.

As part of the first amendment to the Building Energy Act from 2023, the previous standard for new buildings was raised in terms of the annual primary energy demand. With the recently enacted second amendment to the Building Energy Act, the focus is on the provision of heat from renewable energies. This certainly means a further development or redesign of the heating and cooling supply for new buildings. Especially for new buildings in inner-city areas, this can be a significant challenge. The use of more efficient building technology components or the decarbonization of local and district heating networks is crucial here. However, if we truly want to achieve our climate targets, we will not be able to avoid stricter legal requirements, especially regarding grey emissions and resource consumption. The major transformation that lies ahead of us requires significant efforts from all involved parties, including planners, executing companies, clients, and policymakers.

The approach we pursue at Werner Sobek regarding the planning of energy-efficient and sustainable buildings is summarized in the so-called Triple Zero concept. This concept, developed by Professor Werner Sobek almost three decades ago, is a simple rule of thumb for defining a sustainable building. As part of a comprehensive sustainability strategy and an adapted energy design, we first aim to increase the sustainability of a building primarily through passive measures. Building services components then complement these passive measures and are an essential part of the energy design. In addition, concepts such as waste heat utilization, ice storage technology combined with solar energy are integrated into the building concepts a spart of a holistic approach.

Energy storage and the user-oriented coordination of building demand and consumption are the keys to a highly efficient and economical energy concept. In our daily work, we deal with topics such as energy autonomy and climate-positive energy concepts. Concepts such as ice storage combined with heat pumps and solar thermal collectors are increasingly being used. They contribute significantly to balancing supply and demand fluctuations. Such concepts are suitable for both building and district levels. Another area we are currently focusing on, and where we see enormous development potential, is the integration of hydrogen technology into energy concepts.

Climate change is a fact. What we are experiencing today is mainly caused by human activities. The construction sector is responsible for approximately 60% of resource consumption and more than 50% of CO₂ emissions worldwide. So, the construction industry has the most significant leverage when it comes to resources, energy consumption, and emissions. It is in our hands and our responsibility to make a change. Departing from fossil fuels, not only in the construction sector but in all sectors, is the only way to successfully master the great transformation.

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