Green buildings and lived sustainabilities in Germany and Luxembourg

• Applicant: Professorin Julia Affolderbach, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology ; Empirical Social Research ; Human Geography
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 512755421

In 2019 governments across Europe set the goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Through its high share of energy use and carbon emissions as well as great potential to reduce emissions, the building sector is seen as central to achieving these ambitious goals. Within the European Union (EU), buildings are currently responsible for approximately 40% of energy consumption and 36% of carbon dioxide emissions. Considerable attention to date has been paid to reducing greenhouse gas emissions of buildings and increasing building sustainability in the planning and construction phase whereas the existing, less energy efficient building stock has received much less attention. Further, there is a lack of focus on post-occupancy studies and the impact of green buildings on users. The proposed research addresses this gap focusing on building users through the relationship between designing, building, retrofitting and thinking about green buildings and daily practices of living and working in green buildings what we refer to as ‘lived sustainabilities’. It investigates changes to daily social practices of living and working in green buildings that are shaped by interdependences between discourses on green building including expectations, framings and understandings as well as the green buildings themselves. This perspective emphasizes the potential transformative power of green buildings and their specific materialities through behavioural changes, social values and practices. Existing buildings and building traditions, materials and styles affect perceptions and lifestyles as much as societal conventions of home and work life. Beyond the building itself these attitudes, practices and identities intersect with and influence other aspects of life including health, mobility, employment and education. As contexts vary across space, the project foresees a multi-sited comparative research design of post-occupancy practices that includes geographical and social variations. It involves an in-depth qualitative study of green residential and office buildings in two neighboring but distinct study regions: Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Data will be primarily collected through workshops, (walking) interviews, focus groups and surveys with green building actors and users as well as reflective journals and photo diaries of users. The insights generated from the proposed research will inform policy and practice in relation to how green building can be promoted and the possible resistance to such policies at different spatial scales. It will contribute to a better understanding of the spatially variegated sociopolitical contexts and processes of green building transitions emphasizing the role of users.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Luxembourg, United Kingdom
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Kirstie O' Neill; Professor Dr. Christian Schulz