New European Bauhaus partnership focuses on a sustainable future

22 Apr 2021 00:00 | Communication

The Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences has become an official partner of the European Commission's New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative, which aims to transform the European Commission's sustainability agenda into real solutions that contribute to a sustainable and inclusive society. This partnership is coordinated via the AUAS’s Centre of Expertise for Creative Innovation (CoECI), a collaboration between four Amsterdam-based higher education institutions that is headed by AUAS. By participating in this initiative, AUAS and CoECI will focus on helping to create a sustainable and inclusive society through creative innovations with a broad network of partners.

New European Bauhaus stems from the Horizon 2020-funded European Green Deal, the latter of which aims to accelerate Europe's recovery from the coronavirus crisis by turning green challenges into innovation opportunities. Within the Green Deal, AUAS is already working on various project proposals with international partners that aim to help create a climate-neutral Europe by 2050 via our collaborative applied research. These EU initiatives align well with our new 3D strategy at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, which prioritises sustainability as one of the three key domains for our institution in the years ahead, alongside diversity & inclusion, and digitalisation.

Beautiful, sustainable, together

With the motto ‘beautiful, sustainable, together’, New European Bauhaus (NEB) draws inspiration from the Bauhaus movement and the belief that design can be a force for societal progress. To quote the project: “We want to create a design movement integrating three dimensions: sustainability (including circularity), quality of experience (including aesthetics) and inclusion (including affordability). Showing that creativity is in finding affordable, inclusive and attractive solutions for our climate challenges.”

The interdisciplinary nature of the initiative presents an excellent opportunity for the entire AUAS, and the creative sector in particular, to participate and help shape the future. CoECI supports this plan and, together with its network of partners both inside and outside the AUAS, will use its imagination and develop innovative concepts that contribute to the sustainable transition.

Activities

In the coming months, CoECI will join other partners in the Netherlands and Europe to discuss ideas for a sustainable future and how the creative sector can contribute to it. It will also review how faculties across the AUAS can collaborate on this great challenge from their own areas of expertise: from social questions and technical innovations to design perspectives.

CoECI brings together creative businesses, citizens, science and education in the Netherlands and Europe, to collectively create proposals and ideas for a sustainable Europe. The NEB initiative is now in the 'Design phase' and will kick off the 'Deliver phase' in September 2021. The AUAS hopes to be selected for this, which would see it set up and implement collaborative pilot projects. This will be followed by the 'Disseminate phase'. More information, including about the activities, will soon be available on the CoECI website (currently only available in Dutch).

Contact

Mareile Zuber, project developer at CoECI and responsible for the European partnership, is the contact person for questions/remarks/ideas and proposals regarding New European Bauhaus. You can reach her directly via m.a.zuber@hva.nl.

In addition to coordinating activities for New European Bauhaus, Mareile will focus on building bridges between CoECI/AUAS and other European consortia. This could include, for example, applications to European financing programmes such as Horizon Europe, Creative Europe and Digital Europe.

About the Centre of Expertise for Creative Innovation

The Centre of Expertise for Creative Innovation (CoECI) is the national knowledge and innovation network for the creative industry. CoECI uses art, media, technology and design to create a sustainable and inclusive urban society. These activities contribute to partnerships, both commercial and non-profit, between education and the professional field. In this way, CoECI connects research and talent with companies, social organisations and communities.

CoECI is a partnership coordinated by the Amsterdam Universities of Applied Sciences with three other institutions: the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (AHK) and Hogeschool Inholland (founding partners); as well as the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, which joined the collective in 2019. This collaboration was originally launched under the name Amsterdam Creative Industries Network (ACIN). CoECI covers the entire chain of artistic innovation: from experimental research to concrete interventions.

More information about New European Bauhaus is available via the website of the European Commission.

​​​​