Sufficiency practices in architectural awards and emission scenarios
In: BBBSR im Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung (Hrsg.): Suffizienz - Forschung im Gebäudebereich. Low-Tech Bau., S. 48-53.
Authors: Patrick Zimmermann
Sufficiency practices in the building sector
Sufficiency aims to achieve an absolute reduction in environmental impacts, taking particular account of societal and social needs (SRU 2024). For the buildings sector (Fig. 1), the strategy can be concretised with five approaches (BBSR 2023). Sufficiency practices are understood here as the application of these sufficiency approaches in architectural lighthouse projects and their consideration in scientific climate neutrality scenarios.
The article is based on the initial hypothesis that sufficiency (in Germany) is the least considered of the three sustainability strategies, both in planning and remodelling practice and in science. To test this thesis, two systematic comparisons are made, both of which focus on the sufficiency approaches of prioritising existing buildings and reducing per capita living space.
As they act as role models and are an indicator of trends, prizes and awards for outstanding architecture and particularly sustainable projects are used for the analysis.
Scenario studies are the starting point for analysing relevance in science. They model greenhouse gas emissions up to the target year of climate neutrality in 2045 and represent an important basis for decision-making in the political discourse.