The Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning

Research Project: Field trial for building stock of high conservation value

Project briefing

Background

Historic town cores, urban districts, settlements, village centres, and suburbs – the existing building stock plays the principal visual role in defining our built environments. Special building materials such as slate and clinker, building constructions such as half-timbering, building traditions typical of regions, towns and cities, and even ensembles of significant architects often lend those built environments an unmistakable face – making them sources of identity creation for local residents. The existing building stock is characterised not only by listed heritage objects, but also by high conservation-value building stock. The term besonders erhaltenswerte Bausubstanz – building stock of high conservation value – refers to buildings, building ensembles, and other parts of a settlement which, if redesigned or demolished, would harm the uniqueness of a village, town, city, or region’s visual character and limit the possibilities for experiencing the built history of a locale, town, or city. Current challenges such as demographic, social, economic and structural change mean that the existing building stock must be adapted to current and future needs. Likewise, another key factor is the targeted renewal of energy systems within high conservation-value building stock.

The Expert Group for Protection of Urban Architectural Heritage, commissioned by the Federal Government, issued a memorandum in August 2015 under the title Building Stock of High Conservation Value and Town-City Identity in Integrated Urban Development. It highlights the link between the built environment and urban identity as a driver for building stock-oriented investment. With this memorandum, it also called for joint action by the Federal Government, the federal states, communities, owners, researchers and academia to safeguard diverse building traditions and architectural witnesses to a range of styles and epochs.

Prior to the positioning process, the expert group engaged extensively in the issue of how to handle building stock of high conservation value. The Federal Ministry initiated the continuation of the discourse, with the need for consistent approaches at the municipal level arising in particular from the need to accelerate energy-efficient building refurbishment. The municipalities must make administrative decisions on exemptions to the Energieeinsparverordnung (a regulation in Germany describing minimum requirements regarding energy use in new and renovated buildings) and relevant funding procedures – and these decisions must comply with equality law. At the same time, they must safeguard the visual characters of their towns, cities and villages and stimulate investment from property owners. Back in 2014, the Federal Government produced the work aid Building Stock of High Conservation Value as Part of Integrated Urban Development as an initial point of support for municipal practice. It was used as a base for the field trial.

Objective

The aim of the field trial in selected model municipalities was to test out methodological approaches to identifying and surveying high conservation-value building stock. At the core of the project was a ten-month data collection phase in which the model municipalities applied a range of methodological approaches to data collection and evaluated their suitability. The insights gained were processed based on an academic method and incorporated into a work aid intended to demonstrate to municipalities transferable and practical options for identifying and surveying buildings with high conservation value.

The field trial was intentionally launched at the urban level. Local government is responsible for the identification of high conservation-value building stock. The aim of the field trial here was to strengthen interdisciplinary cooperation within local government. In addition, the municipalities were encouraged and supported in their efforts to involve other stakeholders on a one-on-one basis.

The contractor was complan Kommunalberatung GmbH, based in Potsdam, Germany.

Contact us

  • Ricarda Ruland
    Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development
    Division RS 7 "Baukultur and Urban Architectural Conservation"
    Phone: +49 228 99401-2301
    Email: ricarda.ruland@bbr.bund.de

This Page