New European Bauhaus meets EUniWell: Lecture Series 2026

Host Institution: University of Florence
Lecturers: Professors Gianni Bartoli and Cecilia Ciacci
Date: 13 April, 16:00–17:00 CEST 

This lecture explores the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon as a critical challenge at the intersection of climate change, urban resilience, and well-being. After an overview of global and European initiatives addressing climate adaptation, the session introduces the scientific foundations of UHI, examining its primary causes and its increasing relevance in contemporary research and policy debates.

Particular attention will be given to mitigation strategies at both the urban and building scales, including nature-based solutions, material innovation, and design interventions. Through environmental simulation case studies conducted in historical urban districts, the lecture will demonstrate how data-driven modelling can inform sustainable urban transformation.

The discussion will highlight the impact of mitigation measures on outdoor thermal comfort, public health, and building performance under operational conditions, linking environmental sustainability with the broader principles of the New European Bauhaus — sustainability, inclusivity, and aesthetics.

During the reserved student session, participants will critically reflect on how universities can act as living laboratories for climate adaptation and explore how simulation tools can support participatory urban design and evidence-based policymaking.

Host Institution: INALCO University
Lecturer: Professor Assen Slim
Date: 15 April, 16:00–17:00 CEST

This lecture clarifies the concepts of green and inclusive growth, zero growth, and degrowth, and discusses how degrowth contributes to current debates on biophysical limits and well-being. It also highlights key tensions around inequality, policy feasibility, and transition pathways, linking economic choices to the values of the New European Bauhaus.

Host Institution: Linnaeus University
Lecturer: Professors Staffan Schartner and Jimmy Johansson
Date: 20 April, 10:00–11:00 CEST

Forests are vital for the global climate. They regulate temperature and humidity, they create much of the clouds giving farmers rain on their fields, they are home to countless species of life, they capture inconceivable quantities of carbon and they provide a wide range of products for the human share of the ecology – what we usually call “the economy”. 

Preserving and restoring global forests is of vital importance to humanity. This is only possible if we give forests a higher value than other land uses and learn how to use the forests as a sustainable base for large parts of our circular economy. Forest based products can radically lower the climate impact of construction and start using our cities as carbon storages, but the ruthless exploitation of forest resources is also threatening the biodiversity in and the very existence of many forests around the world.

Balancing these many and sometimes competing goals is challenging. The lecture explores the forest as a raw material resource and outlines the changes needed for industrial systems to operate sustainably, while ensuring long term, responsible forest management that protects biodiversity and supports the many benefits people derive from forests.

Host Institution: Linnaeus University
Lecturer: Professor Ambrose Dodoo
Date: 21 April, 10:00–11:00 CEST

Wood is a remarkable raw material that can be utilised in many different ways. At least half of all materials used in the global economy go into construction, and the same should be valid for wood products. Not only because we need timber for construction as a storage for carbon or as way to increase the value of forests vs. other land uses, but also because wood in buildings give humans better living conditions. There are numerous studies supporting the notion that most people are healthier, with lower stress levels and an increased feeling of well-being in timber structures and in environments with wood and other natural materials. One of the physical aspects affecting the indoor climate in timber buildings is the hygroscopic properties of wood

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing our society today and presents significant risk to ecological, infrastructural and economic systems. This will influence buildings’ energy and indoor environmental performances. This lecture will explore and discuss how a warmer future climate is expected to affect energy performance and indoor comfort in modern buildings. It will focus on how space heating and cooling demands are projected to be affected and the risk of indoor overheating which affects wellbeing. Effective strategies to reduce cooling load and the risk of overheating in buildings will also be explored.

Host Institution: University of Florence
Lecturer: Professor Valeria Lingua
Date: 28 April, 10:00–11:00 CEST

Nowadays global challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, resource scarcity, migration movements, demographic change, digital divide, lack of privacy, security issues, market dependencies, pandemics, wars, and rapidly changing economies intensify disparities on towns and cities throughout Europe. These increasingly complex challenges in urban areas have been addressed by the European Union with different policy documents and, in particular, the Urban Agenda for the EU and the New Liepzing Charter, within with the EU identifies concrete areas of action to make cities resilient and empower them to deal with current and future challenges. Moreover, the Territorial Agenda addresses just and green city-targeted policies, referring to different dimensions of urban governance for the common good. 

This lecture addresses the role of cities in promoting transformative action and provides a view vision of the issues and visions provided by EU city-targeted policies, by focussing on those aspects of urban regeneration and spatial planning that are most related with the just and green transition. This lead to change spatial imaginaries of the cities and ask local authorities to act for the common good, opening to new challenges for governance cooperation and stakeholders’ engagement.