Session

Plenary Session / Keynote Speaker

Inclusiveness is one of the three main objectives of the New European Bauhaus. Inclusiveness means that sustainable and high-quality built environment should be accessible to everyone. Is this objective achievable in a global environment where social inequalities are increasing and discriminations are maintained and reemerging? Is this possible when significant and growing political forces are denying climate change and put pressure on the rights of diverse social groups? Is this possible when nationalism reemerges and the rights of immigrant groups decline, making them a second –inferior– category of humans? Is this possible for the EU to promote such a project when it has to increase very significantly its defense budget?

Under these negative circumstances should the EU abandon inclusiveness and the whole NEB project and postpone it for better days? Is it possible to build sustainable and high-quality buildings through the market that will be initially inaccessible for the many but will become accessible in the long run (the trickle-down effect)? Are there other ways to promote inclusiveness?