Event organized by IBA Hamburg GmbH and the World Future Council.


Although urban areas account for only three percent of the world’s land, more of the earth’s population live in them than in rural areas. But cities swallow up some 80 percent of all resources. How does global climate change affect the development of the world’s cities? What consequences will rising energy prices and the finite nature of fossil fuels have for cities and their residents?

The challenges involved also form a clear action framework for the International Building Exhibition (IBA) in Hamburg. So the IBA laboratory Energy & Climate set out to examine the issues together with residents and acknowledged experts in the field. The programme included a presentation of the currently known status of climate change and global energy supplies plus an overview of the future development of cities – in international, national and regional terms. On the basis of this, projects and proposals for renewable urban development were presented and discussed.

The projects and project ideas for Hamburg and the Elbe islands formed the core of this two-day exchange. IBA Hamburg has, for example, resolved to implement all the IBA building projects from now until 2013 in climate neutral manner. One innovative key project is, e.g., to transform the old Wilhelmsburg anti-aircraft bunker into an energy bunker by installing Europe’s biggest building-mounted solar thermal plant, which will then form the main element of a local heating grid. Discussions with the local actors, academics and practitioners produced suggestions and ideas for this and other projects, signalizing a first step towards implementation.