The 1st Workshop on Sustainable Housing of the CORPUS project, with a focus on “Facts, Trends, Objectives, Actors, Systems”, took place on 24th -25th November, 2011 in Helsinki, Finland, at the premises of the Finnish Ministry of the Environment. About 45 participants from all over Europe – policy makers, researchers and civil society representatives – engaged in one and a half day of intense discussion of ideas and latest developments.

The specific aims of the workshop were:

• to set the stage by identifying the main issues in sustainable housing,
• to start to develop  a common understanding of the domain by elaborating system maps of sustainable housing,
• to discuss policy strategies for sustainable housing at EU and national levels,
• to provide an opportunity for European policy makers and researchers to network,
• to enable learning of innovative forms and methods of effective knowledge brokerage,

After a welcome by Aila Korpivaara, Building Counsellor, Ministry of the Environment, the CORPUS coordinator, Dr. Gerd Scholl, presented the goals of CORPUS and of the workshop series in an introduction. Major issues in sustainable housing were highlighted by Dr. Pål Strandbakken as chair of the housing workshop series. A discussion paper had been distributed earlier to participants to serve as preparatory background material. It was supplemented by a paper on knowledge management by policy makers in the area of sustainable housing.

Six Knowledge Units had been prepared prior to the workshop and were re-introduced as posters in a walk around poster session.  To increase engagement, participants formed breakout groups, travelling between “Knowledge Islands” on key issues of sustainable housing, namely Barriers to energy savings in households, Energy performance certificates of buildings, Solar energy/Photovoltaics, Energy saving refurbishment, Ecological architecture and Socially sustainable housing. Here, participants discussed the presented knowledge. This method guaranteed a broad debate, incorporating the experiences and competencies of the entire audience.

The website of the CORPUS project provides a space for knowledge sharing and online dialogue. Alex Daniell gave an overview (link to PP) of the web site, described its main functionalities, demonstrated how to use it, how to upload documents on it and how to navigate it. 

To build a common understanding of the field and at the same time reveal diverging views on the topic of sustainable housing, a mapping exercise was introduced by Gerald Berger and Maria Miguel Ribeiro. Three mind maps on factors that shape sustainable housing were developed in highly participatory exercises.

The first day ended with a presentation of different architectural concepts in sustainable housing. The presentations were “Beyond Passive Houses” by Rolf Jacobsen from the Gaia Architects, and “Plus Houses” by Julian Weyer, CF Møller Architects.

Policy strategies for sustainable housing at the European and the national level were centre stage during the second day. For the EU Level, we had “The Potential for Sustainability in Buildings under EU Regulations” by Gerhard J. Meyer, University of Applied Sciences Erfurt/mk Architekten, with Comments by Eivind Stø, National Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO), Norway .

In three parallel sessions, the German, Finnish and Norwegian policy approaches were highlighted by national representatives from the respective countries: 

Andreas Schüring, Federal Ministry of Transport, Construction and Urban Development presented German housing policies. Pirkko Heikinheimo, Finnish Ministry of the Environment presented Finnish housing policies and Even Bjørnstad, ENOVA presented Norwegian housing policies. Energy performance renovation, support schemes and identification of impact areas were relevant for all three presentations. Results were presented in the plenary.

The second CORPUS workshop on sustainable housing will deal with “Policy-Instruments and Evidence-based Policy Assessment”. To introduce this topic, Pål Strandbakken presented a list of possible policy instruments already in place. The participants discussed this initial list of tools and finally voted on the instruments they would like to see as the focus of the forthcoming workshop.

The outcomes, ideas and knowledge generated for, and during, the workshop are all available on the CORPUS website. In order to remember and share this stimulating one and a half day experience with others, you may want to have a look at the pictures taken at the workshop.

This workshop was the first in a series of three, each with a different focus on sustainable housing.

The second workshop on sustainable housing will take place March 15th and 16th 2012 in Helsinki, Finland. We are looking forward to seeing you again.

Dr. Pål Strandbakken – on behalf of the CORPUS Consortium