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In March, the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology – under the patronage of Architects’ Council of Europe – launched a NEBinar online workshop series promoting the New European Bauhaus initiative among architecture students and young architects across Europe.

“Echoing the title of the ambitious volume East West Central. Re-building Europe, instigated by the Executive Board Members of the Architects Council of Europe, a grouping of academics and professionals has put together an open- source pilot program exploring the meaning and potential of the EU COM’s New European Bauhaus initiative to engage the creative professionals in Europe’s East.” stated Dr. Selma Harrington, ACE Executive Board Member and Member of the NEBinar Steering Committee.

For Wacław Szarejko, Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Wroclaw University of Science & Technology & curator of the NEBinar initative: “Our aim is to create a think tank that draws both from the world of practitioners, representing professional organisations from all over Europe, and from the academic world, from universities. We are trying to find a synergy between theory and practice and so far, we are succeeding.”

“Architecture and urban planning are of great importance for society and the economy. To build a better and more sustainable world, international cooperation and the inclusion of different perspectives are needed. Therefore, it is important for architects and experts to promote dialogue, cooperation and develop inclusive solutions at different levels, from local to international. Therefore, architectural policy should be based on facts, research, and expert experience to avoid politicisation and focus on long-term benefits” underlined Borys Czarakcziew, ACE Treasurer and curator of the NEBinar initative. 

Highlights from the NEBinar Conference in Wroclaw 2 to 4 June 2023
 
The first NEBinar Conference took place from 2 to 4 June 2023 in Wroclaw (Poland) under the title ‘Young power of the New European Bauhaus’ with the support of the Faculty of Architecture of the Wrocław University of Technology, the Architects' Council of Europe, DSOIA and SARP O. Wrocław, partner BAZALTY.pl, and the magazine Zawód Architect.   

The conference started on Friday afternoon with 3 keynote presentations. The ACE Vice-President, Fulgencio Avilés Inglés, opened the session by recalling the key principles of the New European Bauhaus. Among the most important were symbiosis with nature and respect for the environment wherever possible, renovation and adaptation of existing buildings rather than building from scratch, use of local materials as well as elements salvaged from other buildings, cooperation (at the execution stage) with local construction and craftsmen, limiting the transport of materials in the execution process, thinking in terms of sustainability and regeneration in all phases of design and construction, and architectural education from the earliest years among children to form future professionals who understand the needs and necessity for change in the way we live and design. The second presentation by Dubravko Bacic, ACE Executive Board Member, focused on the results of the ACE 2022 Sector Study concerning the education of young architects in Europe.
The third speaker was Zbigniew Maćków, a Wrocław architect and member of the DSOIA Council, who talked about the history of the current headquarters of the Wrocław Chamber, i.e. the pre-war kindergarten, built on the site and as part of the WUWA exhibition, and then in the post-war era ruined, burnt down and finally rebuilt from scratch by DSOIA and the Maćków Pracownia Projektowa office.  

On Saturday, the conference continued at the Faculty of Architecture of the Wrocław University of Technology with a discussion on the new European Bauhaus in relation to the original Bauhaus, the next development for the NEBinar initiative and the future exhibition planned in 2024. Diego Zoppi, Member of the ACE Executive Board, shared his views on the role of the architect and the impact of the artificial intelligence in the educational process. The conference finished with a tour of the New Żerniki estate with architect Zbigniew Maćków while the beautiful sunny evening was devoted to dinner at the new Martin Marina, located on the river Oder, opposite the main building of the University of Wrocław.

About NEBinar
The program consists of a series of online lectures and workshops with the targeted audiences from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain, Italy, Germany and Ireland. The invited speakers, practicing architects, lecturers, researchers, as well as other cultural professionals will ponder on the application of the New European Bauhaus principles underlined by the slogan “Beautiful, Sustainable, Together.” The focus is on developing a better understanding of the formation, qualification and practice of architecture and related fields of urbanism, planning, landscape architecture, interior architecture, spatial arts, crafts and other disciplines in built environment faced with the challenges of the European Green transformation envisaged as a cultural movement. 
Led by the Steering group of architects and academics, the series of lectures and workshops are designed as an interactive process and builds up on the experiences of the co-creation process of the New European Bauhaus initiated in 2024.  
While the NEBinar Pearl examines the seeds of the NEB initiative and the value tools like the NEB Compass and the DAVOS Baukultur Quality system, the NEBinar Shell will identify the good practice cases and their theoretical and contextual grounding, and the NEBinar Bite will chart the hot-spots, locations, problems and future projects. 
Learn more about NEBinar in this interview available in Polish and English.

Save the date!  
The next NEBinar will be hold on 22 June at 1PM CET
Link: https://pwr-edu.zoom.us/j/93873387443?pwd=RjNvSU1Dd0VLUmpxc0g0UkhoNm16UT09 
Webinar ID: 938 7338 7443  Passcode: 951069