Urban heritage - Connective Cities

Connective Cities Summary & Outlook Event “2nd Hands on Public Buildings. Reuse of modernist buildings”

Posted on September 22, 2025August 4, 2025 by francesco

Building and demolition account for about 60% of carbon emissions and for more than 30% of waste generation. The reuse of buildings is an essential strategy towards a more sustainable building sector. Plus, the decision to reuse an existing building can save municipalities up to 15% of construction and demolition costs. We would therefore like to invite you to join our 2,5h online-event in September and learn more about the successful reuse of public buildings – maybe this insights will come in handy in your work environment?

Please register here and confirm. You will receive the meeting link via email.

Last September, a Connective Cities dialog event in cooperation with the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing was dedicated to this paradigm shift. Around 30 municipal experts from Germany, Kenya, Montenegro, the Palestinian Territories, Zambia and Ukraine exchanged ideas on solutions and challenges for the sustainable reuse of modernist buildings and worked together on individual project ideas.

On September 22, 2025, the Connectve Cities Summary and Outlook Event will allow participants and further municipal experts from Germany and worldwide to:

Look back on the one year long learning process and the projects’ advances
See examples for the revitalization of public buildings from a donors’ perspective
Get input on the importance of reuse projects for the global SDGs
Get input on the reuse of building parts by practitioners
Learn about your opportunities to engage in German development cooperation

The working language of the event is English. Please find the agenda attached. Contact us regarding any questions you might have: connective-cities@engagement-global.de.

The Haus der Statistik

Posted on April 15, 2025June 26, 2025 by erik

A new district for administration, housing, social affairs and culture is being built on the large site of the former administrative building for the Federal Statistical Office – Haus der Statistik – in the center of Berlin. A civil society initiative had prevented the demolition of the existing building from the 1960s and, together with the administration and other stakeholders, developed the concept for the conversion – a beacon for alternative approaches to urban development.

Expert exchange on the interim use of public buildings

Posted on March 4, 2025June 23, 2025 by erik

Are you an expert in the interim use of buildings? If so, we would be delighted to welcome you to a Connective Cities expert meeting, where participants in the Connective Cities learning process ‘2nd Hands on Public Buildings’ will learn about the work of ZwischenZeitZentrale Bremen and Transiträume Berlin e.V. and discuss examples of their projects with experts in this field. The exchange of expertise will take place online on March 12, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. via WebEx (alternative date as the meeting in February was cancelled).

For ecological and, increasingly, economic reasons, the reuse or conversion of buildings from the 1960s and 1970s is of interest to municipalities and their building stock. The Connective Cities dialogue event in cooperation with the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing from 24 to 27 September 2024 was dedicated to this paradigm shift. Around 30 municipal experts from Germany, Kenya, Montenegro, the Palestinian Territories, Zambia and Ukraine exchanged views on solutions and challenges for the sustainable reuse of public buildings and jointly developed project ideas. The ongoing one-year learning process of Connective Cities on the reuse and repurposing of modernist buildings offers further insights into the topics discussed in Berlin and the opportunity to develop concrete solutions through exchange and study tours. On March 12, 2025, we will focus on the topic of ‘interim use’, which arose during the event, particularly for participants from Nairobi. All objects and project examples provided by the participants can be found in this publication.

Please feel free to contact me if you are interested: marcella.sobisch@engagement-global.de.

2nd Hands on Public Buildings

Posted on January 24, 2025August 4, 2025 by erik

Documentation of the Connective Cities dialogue event from 24 to 26 September 2024 in Berlin.

Public buildings from the 1960s and 70s are a common feature of many cityscapes around the world. Today, they rarely meet the 21st century’s technical, energy and aesthetic requirements, and are frequently demolished and replaced with new buildings. However, they have great potential for reducing emissions in the construction sector, thereby contributing to climate change mitigation.

At the dialogue event, almost 25 municipal experts from Germany, Kenya, Montenegro, the Palestinian territories, Zambia and Ukraine exchanged views on solutions and challenges for the sustainable reuse of public buildings from the 1960s and 1970s and worked together to develop project ideas. New concepts often include multifunctional use for residential, social, educational, cultural, retail and office space.

Short summary and a photo gallery on our microsite ‘More sustainable than demolition‘

Hebron City Hall – reinvented time and again

Posted on January 22, 2025 by erik

Built in 1965, the current City Hall of Hebron in the Palestinian Territories has been remodelled and repurposed time and again to meet the increasing demands of a growing city and its administration. The focus was on resource efficiency, technical modernisation and the requirements of work organisation.

Experiences with the restoration of buildings and the construction of new buildings by reusing existing materials

Posted on December 12, 2024 by erik

As part of the learning process “Towards a Climate Positive Built Environment Using Bio-based and Re-used Materials”, experts from the City of Munich, the Technical University of Munich and the City of Heidelberg travelled to Nepal in October 2024 to learn about Nepal’s long-standing practices in the field of sustainable construction and the reuse of building materials during a week-long delegation trip.

The German delegation met the R.P. Foundation and the international organisation ICIMOD in addition to Banepa’s municipal stakeholders and learned about the architectural landscape and circular building techniques in Nepal. The aim of the German delegation was to explore possibilities for applying such Nepalese approaches in Munich and Heidelberg. The delegation was also interested in discussing building in mountainous regions and resilient construction with regard to increasing extreme weather events.

Transforming primary school “Lovćenski Partizanski Odred”

Posted on November 19, 2024 by erik

Revitalizing an essential community hub

The Primary School “Lovćenski Partizanski Odred” in Cetinje, Montenegro, has been a cornerstone of education in the community since 2004. Serving 600 students, the school building was constructed as part of a larger plan, which, due to budget limitations, was only partially completed. While the main building was in use, the absence of a sports hall and outdoor facilities, combined with outdated infrastructure, hindered the learning experience.

In 2018, a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation and the Old Royal Capital Cetinje set out to change this. The joint venture aimed to upgrade the school with a new sports hall, enhanced outdoor spaces, and significant energy efficiency improvements, ensuring a safer, more sustainable environment. This transformation, strengthened by Connective Cities’ knowledge-sharing platform, showcases the power of international collaboration in advancing sustainable urban development.

Connective Cities learning process and knowledge exchange

The Connective Cities network, which fosters sustainable urban practices through peer learning and collaboration, has been an invaluable resource in the transformation of Cetinje’s schools. In October 2023, representatives from Cetinje—Marija Mrvaljević, the City Chief Architect, and Marija Proročić, Secretary for Spatial Planning and Environmental Protection—participated in the Connective Cities Learning Process on Renewable Energy Options at the Municipal Level, in Tbilisi, Georgia. During this event, they presented the school renovation project, gaining valuable insights and technical expertise from other European and German cities facing similar urban challenges. This exchange has been essential in adapting the project to international standards of energy efficiency and sustainable design.

Through the Connective Cities platform, Cetinje has successfully integrated key renewable energy solutions into the renovation of local schools. The municipality installed solar energy systems on school buildings, significantly improving energy efficiency and reducing electricity costs. Additionally, energy-efficient lighting and enhanced insulation were implemented to further decrease energy consumption. These initiatives not only advance Cetinje’s sustainability objectives but also serve as a model for other municipalities seeking to implement similar solutions.

Turning polluted streams into green-blue corridors

Posted on November 15, 2024July 22, 2025 by erik

For the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, the world looked very different when it was participating in the Connective Cities learning process on urban development adapted to climate change between 2019 and 2021. The war in Ukraine began in 2022 and has forced a fundamental shift in priorities for municipal administrations. However, the renaturation of small rivers, which Vinnytsia began as part of the learning process, remains an important project for the city as it forms a key element of its sustainable future.

Recognition of environmental, urban planning and social potential

The city, with its population of around 370,000, is located 260 kilometres to the south-west of Kyiv with 64 small rivers and streams flowing through it. Their potential has long been underestimated. The locals referred to them simply as “stinking streams”, they were frequently full of rubbish or routed underground and the water quality was dreadful. Today, the municipality understands the environmental, urban planning and social potential these watercourses and their banks provide – as blue-green corridors, local areas for recreation and for protecting and promoting biodiversity. “To begin with we really had no idea what renaturation of a water course involved. We thought removing all the rubbish from the streams would be enough,” recalls Yanna Chaikovska, director of the municipal Institute of Urban Development in Vinnytsia.

More sustainable than demolition

Posted on October 21, 2024 by erik

Public buildings from the 1960s and 70s are a common feature of many cityscapes around the world. Today, they no longer meet the 21st century’s technical, energy and aesthetic requirements, and are frequently demolished and replaced with new buildings. However, they have great potential for reducing emissions in the construction sector, thereby contributing to climate change mitigation. Thanks to their flexible floor plans, buildings from the 1960s and 70s – the modernist period – can be adapted to today’s requirements, often with additional benefits for cities and their inhabitants. It is high time we preserved these buildings, and used the grey energy embodied within their concrete and steel in a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable way.

This paradigm shift was the focus of the ‘2nd Hands on Public Buildings’ discussion event held on 24-27 September 2024, hosted by Connective Cities, in cooperation with the Berlin Senate Department. Around 30 municipal practitioners from Germany, Kenya, Montenegro, the Palestinian territories, Zambia and Ukraine, came together to discuss approaches to, and challenges inherent in, sustainably repurposing public buildings from the 1960s and 70s, and to develop some project ideas.