How can we make housing more affordable without compromising the quality and sustainability of the places we live in? This is one of the questions addressed by NEB Lab Housing, a project spearheaded by the international community of the New European Bauhaus that seeks to offer a comprehensive perspective on one of today’s greatest challenges.
The project is based on a simple yet fundamental idea: addressing the housing crisis is not just about building more, but also involves renovating what already exists, repurposing buildings and spaces, improving the urban environment, and ensuring that homes are inclusive, eco-friendly, and beautiful places that contribute to the well-being of their residents.
Thus, this lab aims to contribute to the European approach to affordable housing by explicitly incorporating the values of the NEB:
- The first is inclusion, achieved through participatory design processes, more equitable access to housing, and the strengthening of social cohesion.
- The second is sustainability and resilience, promoting circular and low-carbon solutions in both the renovation and construction of new buildings and in adapting spaces to climate change.
- And the third is spatial quality: architecture that respects the cultural identity of each place and enhances the daily experience of its inhabitants.
Rehabilitate, Reuse, and Transform
One of NEB Lab Housing’s priority areas is precisely to promote regeneration and adaptive reuse as strategies for addressing housing needs. This means taking a fresh look at the existing built environment and asking ourselves which existing buildings, spaces, and structures can be transformed to give them a new lease on life.
The initiative also focuses on innovation in materials, construction systems, and processes, as well as on the relationship between housing, public space, mobility, and green infrastructure—since housing does not end at the front door but is part of an environment that shapes our quality of life.
This initiative goes a step further, as its objectives include creating a repository of best practices on affordable housing and developing a shared body of knowledge that can serve communities and professionals across Europe. In 2026, the plan is to work on a public database of examples and, in parallel, to develop a Compendium of Methods that brings together insights on architectural quality, beauty, adaptive reuse, and innovation. The project subsequently includes training initiatives to help apply these principles to planning, rehabilitation, and inclusive design processes.
A project open to the community
As with other New European Bauhaus projects, collaboration is at the heart of the initiative. NEB Lab is a space for co-creation where the NEB community can organize around specific challenges, as well as contribute and receive knowledge and resources.
NEB Lab Housing is open to new partners and initiatives, particularly architectural organizations, universities and research centers, public administrations, local governments, communities, NGOs, and funding agencies. In this way, housing becomes a meeting point for architecture, public policy, innovation, sustainability, and citizen participation.
