Bauhaus Earth: Restoring forests through regenerative buildings and cities

Topic: Climate Action through regenerative construction: New low-carbon construction approaches as a lever for forest and landscape restoration in Europe and the Mena region

Central Question: How can regenerative construction products contribute to forest and landscape restoration, create local economy value foster climate action and restauration.

Nations face a dual challenge in the coming years: On the one hand, it is essential to systematically expand natural climate and biodiversity protection by preserving and restoring ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, and soils. On the other hand, new climate positive approaches are urgently needed to address construction – currently one of the most energy-intensive, carbon emitting and waste producing sectors. By building with renewable, bio-based materials (such as wood, hemp fibre, straw, or wetland crops), these seemingly incompatible goals can be reconciled. Bio-based building products are a key lever for a cross-sector climate protection strategy, strengthen national value chains, and enable buildings to function as carbon sinks (Carbon Dioxide Removal, CDR). In addition, this makes it possible to contribute to biodiversity, a resilient landscape with local economic value creation, and the reduction of CO2. Modular, demountable construction solutions also offer great potential for a circular economy, helping to reduce the current volume of waste generated by the construction sector.