Energy efficiency and resource conservation will be just as crucial in the future as successful design.
(Photo: Zooey Brown)
When Jeanne Forget talks about the future, she uses a Sparkasse commercial from the past. In the 1980s, a man bragged to his friend by showing off three decks of house, car, and yacht cards. “In a few years it will be: ‘my photovoltaic system, my battery storage, my charging station'”, Forget is certain. She is VP Corporate Strategy, Innovation and Business Development at Hager Group based in Blieskastel in Saarland.
Forget, who works for the group on future trends in electrical installations for real estate from commercial to residential, summarizes with the trio a development that architects, project developers and real estate agents on the market are currently concerned with: the change to more sustainable, more energy-efficient buildings.
On the one hand, property developers are working on improving the hitherto poor CO2 balance of new and existing buildings, not least because of legal and regulatory requirements.
Peter Ippolito is co-founder of the architecture studio Ippolito Fleitz Group in Stuttgart and evaluates trends as witnesses to social change. “Housing includes meta-topics. The more we live in a hyper-complex, accelerated, digital world and use its technology, there is a longing for the analogue.”
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The development of eat-in kitchens with open access to the area is also a result of changing role models, the bathroom as a wellness zone is evidence of a more body-conscious society: “The question of our own physical presence in the room is an important one. Even if it’s just the moment to stand naked in front of the bathroom mirror.”
Planting is part of the architecture and irrigation is controlled.
(Photo: Structure)
It is only logical that issues relating to sustainability and the conservation of resources for project developers are already a topic in the specifications for the coming years, even if the market rarely asks for environmental aspects as a decisive purchasing argument, says Florian Kennerknecht, Head of Product Management at the Munich-based company company building.
One of the more recent objects, the Vinzent in Munich-Neuhausen by Bauwerk, bears much of its engineering work visibly on the outer surface. The greening of the façade and the balconies is planned from the start, and the irrigation is controlled in such a way that the vegetation reliably acts as a cooling element and contributes to the shading. In addition, the plants at least partially compensate for the negative effects of soil sealing. The residents do not necessarily have to be interested in this – they can also simply enjoy the greenery in front of the windows.
Space is a resource
Measured against sustainability criteria, the space consumption per capita in apartments is one of the challenges in the real estate industry. Floor space is still considered a sign of high-quality living. At the same time, the blatant price jumps in the inner cities in recent years have caused the purchase costs to rise to such an extent that the number of potential buyers is falling.
Bauwerk provides an answer to this in another project in which the floor space can be used differently throughout the day by means of movable elements, depending on requirements. Similar to rolling cabinets in archives, the collapsible bed and workspaces can be moved to use unused space in the bedroom as an office or living room during the day.
For Ippolito, floor plans are an important aspect in relation to sustainability: “These are the issues we are working on today: How do we create spaces that are based on new life paths?” Spaces that do not become superfluous over the course of a life, but change their use, reduce the space requirement. “How can everything we build today be so much more ambiguous and so much more sustainable?”
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From his experience with projects all over the world, Ippolito knows that technical solutions are accepted differently in every country. “In China’s cities, food delivery is completely normal and data protection is weighted differently. There, a refrigerator that is reordered independently would also be accepted differently.” On the other hand, it is globally crucial that a technology can be used intuitively.
As soon as the user had to overcome hurdles, such as those that arise with controlling the climate, light or shading via voice control, it would not prevail: “And the technology has to be invisible.” This also applies to installations and sensors that are connected via the Provide information about the consumption of an apartment and even control it.
Many plots of land with single-family houses are being replaced by the construction of luxurious apartment buildings
At the Hager Group, Jeanne Forget sees future real estate, whether single or multi-family houses, as networked objects that are equipped with the appropriate hardware and software in the background and bring together simple control and information on the part of the user. “How much energy does my house produce and consume, how can I control cooling and heating so that consumption is low?” These are questions that residents will be interested in in the future.
With rising square meter prices, property developers are also relying on movable room dividers in the luxury segment in order to use the floor space more efficiently.
(Photo: Structure)
From the PV system to the electricity storage system to the charging station and the heat pump, an ecosystem is created with the lowest possible energy consumption and CO2 footprint. According to Forget, the electric cars, which are charged with solar power during the day, for example, can be used as storage at night to supply the house – from single-family to multi-family houses.
A more sustainable orientation will also be associated with reduction and renunciation in the top segment. Many plots of land with single-family houses that are inherited in expensive parts of the city are already being used for the construction of luxurious apartment buildings.
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On the one hand, a higher yield is possible for the owners, on the other hand, a certain amount of land use no longer fits in with the times, says Michael Tusch, an architect in Düsseldorf, who is nevertheless planning a multi-storey low-rise building as a single-family house for a client in Mülheim an der Ruhr. “The owner said it was his lifelong dream,” says Tusch. He himself advised building a high-quality property for six parties there.
With geothermal energy, a photovoltaic system and living space ventilation, the house is state-of-the-art: “Whatever is currently available is built in.” This also includes a resource-saving concrete core water cooling system. In the past, builders might have opted for classic air conditioning systems. But, according to Tusch, he would definitely have rejected it.
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