Our NEB Actions engage in the design and use of public spaces for all generations, the upgrading of residential buildings and circularity in the existing building inventory. They test innovations targeting greater biodiversity, regenerative energy, local transit and nutrition.
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Animal-Aided Design

Incorporating wildlife into architecture and open-space and urban planning
"Animal-Aided Design" is an approach that incorporates wildlife into architecture and open-space and urban planning. In Neuperlach, we develop solutions to promote urban biodiversity in existing and planned green spaces as well as on residential and commercial buildings, both in new construction and in energetic renovations. We focus especially on developing synergies with climate-friendly urban design.












"Animal-Aided Design" is creating a toolbox for Neuperlach that can be used to plan and implement measures for selected target species. In a participatory step, we select suitable target species from the existing regional wildlife pool and creating a catalogue of measures to meet their species-specific habitat requirements within the city district. The spatial locations of the possible measures are described in a master plan. One or more measures are implemented using a demonstrator as a real-life prototype. In the future, Neuperlach buildings and open spaces created using Animal-Aided Design will be climate-friendly places where all city dwellers can experience nature and where humans and animals can encounter one another.
Studio Animal-Aided Design is a planning office for the promotion of urban biodiversity and urban nature.
Team: Christine Jakoby, Qingyu Liang, Thomas E. Hauck, Ariane Mutzel, Raheem Abdul, Beatrice Grill, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Beate Piecha
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Growing a Tasty Neuperlach

Food, Greening, Health – systemic and practical development of food landscapes using edible plants in the city
"Growing a Tasty Neuperlach" brings together sustainable nutrition and edible greening. Together with the neighbourhood residents we wish to create visible and tangible action formats and educational opportunities in public spaces that generate enthusiasm for sustainable nutrition and greening.






In the spirit of education for sustainable development (ESD), connections among agriculture, food production and climate protection are made tangible on a local level. Communal planting and cooking activities bring together a wide variety of people in the district. They learn with and from each other and thus make their neighbourhood green and edible. Together with the Münchner Initiative Nachhaltigkeit (Munich Sustainability Initiative) and the Münchner Ernährungsrat e.V. (Nutrition Council of Munich), we will transform food chains and create networking opportunities for initiatives, urban councils and businesses.
Green City e.V. - We are making Munich green, liveable and sustainable.
Team: Christina Priner, Lea Wiser
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Public Power

Strategies for shading urban heat islands to create thermally healthy public spaces
Increasing heat stress due to climate change is causing large portions of our cities to become harmful to our health. Urban overheating is a global phenomenon that affects pedestrians in cities all over the world and demands the implementation of urgent climate-adaption strategies.
Vulnerable groups of people are particularly at risk from thermal stress, which makes it difficult for them to take advantage of public spaces. Our NEB Action aims to reduce temperatures in urban spaces through shading measures to restore their recreational appeal and prevent social isolation. The solar modules within these shading elements will allow them to be used simultaneously for energy generation.
We are studying Neuperlach to identify heat islands in public spaces and to determine areas where shading measures make sense in terms of their social usability, environmental integration and economic value. In participatory formats that involve the city inhabitants, we develop demonstrators that show how climate-appropriate design can bring about social, ecological and economic enhancement, establish identity and thus create an inclusive, liveable, beautiful and sustainable city.
The Chair for Building Technology and Climate Responsive Design conducts research on holistic design strategies for buildings and cities.
str.ucture GmbH develops innovative structural solutions in new and existing buildings in accordance with the basic principles of lightweight construction.
Team: Thomas Auer, Sebastian C. Koth, Julian Lienhard, Andreas Schönbrunner
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Circular Neuperlach

Roadmap to circularity for commercial buildings – new uses for their spaces, their integration into the neighbourhood and material cycles
To establish circularity in the built environment, we need to change the way we design, build and use buildings. In the long term, the aim must be to reduce resource consumption, extend the useful life of buildings, and close material loops.
The goal of this NEB Action is to generate information about the spaces, usage, construction and materials of non-residential buildings in Neuperlach in order to present their potential contributions to circularity in a transformation of the district. We are developing a methodology that engages diverse stakeholders from the real estate industry, city government, urban planning, and civil society while providing entrepreneurial opportunities. Participants will be connected to relevant networks. An exhibition will communicate the aspects and necessity of circularity in usage, planning and construction to a broad audience.
We summarize our results in a "Circularity Roadmap" in order to establish circular buildings and related practices in Neuperlach for the long term and to make them transferable to other districts and cities in Germany and Europe.
The Institute of Energy Efficient and Sustainable Design and Building (ENPB) conducts research on a fundamentally sustainable transformation of our built environment.
Team: Werner Lang, Carsten Schade, Johannes Staudt
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Redesigning Housing Structures

Social, economic and energetic refurbishment and spatial expansion of residential buildings in need of renovation
The NEB Action "Redesigning Housing Structures" investigates how the structural deficits of existing residential buildings can be improved socially, technologically and economically. The goal is to provide energy upgrades and social benefits simultaneously by renovating facades and expanding existing residential spaces using prefabricated wood elements or reused building components.
A large-scale demonstrator will form the conclusion of a systematic chain of investigations and evaluations of the typological performance of different building types. The proposed measures contribute to climate justice through the use of renewable materials. An additional project goal is to selectively increase the range of available housing and to use this improved settlement efficiency to reduce land consumption and housing pressure.
The project represents a prototype for similar large post-war housing estates throughout Germany and Europe. The opportunities afforded by a digitized workflow from inventory to production will make the findings generally applicable.
The project is a cooperative venture of the Chair of Architectural Design, Rebuilding and Conservation at the Technical University of Munich and the Department of Design, Construction and Digitally Supported Realisation at the OTH Regensburg.
Team: Andreas Hild, Andreas Müsseler, Mascha Zach, Thomas Auer
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Rethinking the Urban Office Complex

Integrating vacant office buildings and their open spaces into urban life as productive, mixed-use public places.
This NEB Action addresses the question of how obsolete urban office complexes – the everyday architecture of globalisation – can become productive, mixed-use, and publicly accessible elements of the city.
Changing the urban function of these buildings, which are largely closed off from the public, can combine with their vast footprints to form a crucial factor in making European cities more resilient. We focus on two office complexes at a central location in Neuperlach, one of which is already in temporary use by citizens' initiatives under the name "shaere". Together with the citizens and students, we analyse the two buildings and their urban surroundings and develop proposals for sustainable new uses.
The Chair of Urban Design is also known as the "Laboratory for the Everyday City" and deals with urban design issues in all their facets.
Team: Benedikt Boucsein, Matthias Faul, Elif Simge Fettahoglu-Özgen, Mathieu Wellner (TUM Cluster Sustainable Real Estate, CSRE)
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Mobility NEBourhoods

Participatory development of NEBourhood hubs as multifunctional mobility centres
A sustainable implementation of innovative forms of mobility is essential for the reduction of environmental pollution and CO2 emissions. At the same time, it presents an opportunity for the design of attractive urban spaces. New transport strategies such as sharing concepts cannot be realized as purely technological solutions, but must be anchored in local communities and actual urban locations.
"Mobility NEBourhoods" combines the data-based analysis of the digital version of the district with a collaboration among local actors and with playful forms of participation. Based on these, we define three suitable locations for multipurpose "NEBourhood Hubs" and develop their functions and design. The realization of the hubs in Neuperlach will provide an opportunity to test, evaluate and discuss forms of mobility.
The research area of the Chair of Architectural Informatics covers the topics of Artificial Intelligence, Collaborative Design, Digital Participation and Digital Urban Infrastructure.
Prototypes are developed in the chair's own BILM laboratory.
Team: Matti Drechsel, Nick Förster, Gerhard Schubert, Carla Sauvant
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Energy Communities

Energy communities as a standard model for district energy supply – joint production, consumption, storage, sharing and marketing.
In energy communities, residents can take charge of their energy supply and bring low-cost, local electricity into their homes. The concept has great potential for harnessing local opportunities and accelerating the energy transition from within the community.
This NEB Action analyses possibilities for producing, using and marketing solar power in particular within neighbourhood community plants in Neuperlach. The plants are developed in a cooperative process that includes financing, participation and organisational forms that suit the neighbourhood. This encourages entrepreneurial ideas that offer services such as electric vehicle charging. Social innovations are more important here than technologically and economically optimal solutions. A prototypical energy community will be founded and empowered to implement a pilot plant. This will serve as a visible flagship of the community, motivating locals to participate.
As one of the first energy communities in the urban area, the "NEBourhood Energy Community" can serve as a model for other Munich districts and build up a wealth of experience for a rollout in other German and European cities. In this way it contributes to a democratic, decentralized and decarbonised energy system of the future.
Junior research group Cleanvelope: energy-active building envelopes in climate-oriented city districts
Team: Claudia Hemmerle, Thomas Auer
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ECOLOPES

Building envelopes as diverse habitats for humans, plants, animals and microorganisms to support biodiversity in the city
Nature in the city has positive effects on the well-being of its human inhabitants. However, because of increasing densification and for other reasons, biodiversity is declining in urban areas. The NEB Action ECOLOPES seeks concrete solutions for making green infrastructure with higher biodiversity possible in city districts like Neuperlach.
In order to create a cross-species habitat for humans, plants, animals and microorganisms in the built environment, as well, ECOLOPES develops ecological building envelopes that take into account the needs of different species. Within the NEBourhoods framework, elements of future building envelopes are installed on buildings as mock-ups for testing. To create such ecosystems, we develop a radically new cross-species and cross-disciplinary design process that draws on ecology, architecture, landscape architecture, and computer-based design. The goal is to create building envelopes that are no longer a primary separating layer between inside and outside, but a new type of architectural space that serves as a gradual transition shared by a variety of life forms. This supports beneficial relationships between humans and nature and contributes to biodiversity conservation and urban well-being.
ECOLOPES (ECOlogical building enveLOPES) is a research project funded by HORIZON 2020 and conducted by TU Munich, TU Wien, Università di Genova, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Studio Animal-Aided Design and McNeel Europe.
Team: Wolfgang W. Weisser
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PEARL

Joint development of temporary and permanent places for youth culture
Together with young people from Neuperlach, we target their district: we roam through it in search of places where youth culture happens and could or should happen. The aim is for young people to engage with their own living space and actively help to shape and revitalize it as an auto-effective social, political and artistic act.
Together we create places where youth culture can be lived temporarily and permanently. We are cooperating with the Münchner Kammerspiele to establish a future permanent theatre laboratory in Neuperlach, a place where youth culture can develop ever new forms of expression. Together with the young people we work in formats including film, urban stories and music and present their ideas through performative interventions in city locations throughout Neuperlach – to support them and to initiate sustainable changes.
A cooperative venture between the Chair of Urban Design and Critical Urban Theory of the Department of Architecture at HM (Munich University of Applied Sciences) and the Münchner Kammerspiele
Team: Andrea Benze, Janina Sieber, Elke Bauer, Martín Valdés-Stauber