Save the date: Civic Design Conference 2026 24.04.2026
Dear Sir or Madam,
On Friday, April 24th, 2026, the Civic Design Conference of the Peter Behrens School of Arts will take place for the seventh time at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences. This year's theme is “The Necessarily New" and, together with the Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (In-LUST), we would like to invite you to participate. With the theme of the Necessarily New, we would like to work with lecturers, experts, researchers, students and the interested public to raise awareness of the complexity of the challenges we face today.
Nowadays, there is a general consensus in old Europe – at least among architects – that the construction of new buildings should be restricted as much as possible, if not banned altogether. All critical and technical research is being refocused on the preservation and redesign of existing buildings. As a result, parts of the public administration, some property developers and the general public are increasingly adopting this radical approach. The reasons for this are obvious, as a quick glance at the emissions data for the construction sector confirms. And so it is: stop demolition and ban new construction is the new mantra of architecture.
As always, the reality is more nuanced. Yes, we all agree that greenfield development is a terrible idea, even though it is still practised by supposedly sensible administrations; yes, we all agree that the destruction caused by the currently waging wars is a crime against humanity. Nevertheless, there are many situations in which truly new buildings can still be the right solution, and not necessarily because of a deep nostalgia for the endless possibilities that industrialisation and urbanisation have offered the discipline over the course of almost two centuries.
Let us consider, for example, densification and how seriously tackling the housing crisis in attractive cities across Europe could lead to new buildings being placed between existing ones and expanded vertically, thereby increasing the supply of housing without expanding urban areas and avoiding the associated environmental costs. Or let us consider the very specific requirements of certain industries, such as the space-intensive production of huge wind turbines, necessary storage power plants or even completely new technologies for non-fossil energy generation. Let us also consider the transformation of industrial wastelands, where nothing can be salvaged, not even the structures, and a completely new architecture has to be developed, reusing and recycling existing raw materials. Looking beyond Europe, it is clear that the enormous urbanisation in the Global South and the Far East cannot take place without new infrastructure and buildings.
The aim of our conference is to bring together practising architects and urban planners with students, researchers, teachers as well as experts from from the city administrations to discuss the tension between preservation and necessary new construction from a formal-aesthetic, scientific and political-pragmatic perspective.
We will send you an official invitation with a detailed schedule and a complete list of this year's guest speakers shortly.
We look forward to your attendance!
With best regards
Lea Schymura
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Hochschule Düsseldorf
University of Applied Sciences
HSD_Signatur_HSD_In_Lust
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Lea Schymura, M.Sc.
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin
Civic Design
Institut für lebenswerte und umweltgerechte Stadtentwicklung
Gebäude 6, Raum 06.2.027
Münsterstraße 156
40476 Düsseldorf
lea.schymura@hs-duesseldorf.de
