The energy transition as a cross-sectoral design task

22.02.2024

How can Bavaria secure its long-term energy supply using wind power and photovoltaics? The technical possibilities and tasks are well known. But how can we work together to make wind turbines and PV systems more popular in urban and rural contexts? There is a lack of creative approaches, or as SZ journalist and architect Gerhard Matzig once put it: "The energy transition must become more aesthetic" (SZ August 4, 2021).

This is why the New European Bauhaus (NEB) Living Lab: Energy has now been launched. In a cross-sectoral, research-based collaboration, it aims to develop new ideas for energy generation in Bavaria that can be approved and to make them visible as models. The energy transition is not only negotiated as a technical and economic challenge, but also as a cultural and aesthetic one. The lab's work is guided by thinking and working methods from the cultural and creative industries, such as design thinking and speculative design, which are firmly anchored in the team. Its members are recruited from the fields of science & research, the energy industry, civil society, administration and, for the first time, the cultural and creative industries (CCI), including design and architecture.

The interdisciplinary laboratory team includes (in alphabetical order): Landscape architect Daniel Czechowski (Planstatt Senner), industrial designer Stefan Eckstein (VDID), project planner Sabine Müller (Qair), artist Vesna Petresin and energy scientist Daniela Wohlschlager (Research Center for Energy Economics).

On April 18, 2024, the final project event for the NEB Living Lab: Energy will take place at the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy. As a satellite contribution, the event is embedded in this year's NEB Festival.

More about the NEB Living Lab: Energy