General

New guidelines for the EU energy label will apply from March 2021. This means that electronic devices will be newly classified into energy efficiency classes and labeled with the appropriate energy label. The background to this is that the current classification into energy efficiency classes is only of limited significance, as many electrical appliances have achieved efficiency improvements very quickly in recent years....

In a residential area in Saxony-Anhalt, the building that housed a youth welfare office until 2016 was to be converted into a residential building. The apartments to be built there were to be rented out from 2019. In addition, 26 parking spaces were to be created in the inner courtyard of the building complex. The owner had a building permit for the construction measures. The owner of the...

The hallway is as much a part of the apartment and thus of one's own home as the living room, dining room and bedroom. However, it is often treated merely as a passageway or as a storage room. Actually surprising, considering that a hallway is the first room you enter in your own home. To avoid interior design mistakes and give the corridor the same charm as the rest...

The Forsa study "Living in old age" commissioned by Vivir as part of the "Vivienda" project deals with the redevelopment of the living culture of the 60 plus generation. Vivir's project planning focuses on housing and living concepts that are geared toward a lively community and individual service offerings. With new living concepts, a self-determined life and living in old age is to be...

Anyone who owns a garage is spoiled for choice when it comes to finding the right door. Whether roller shutter, sectional, up-and-over, sliding or swing door, garage doors come in different functionalities and materials. For example, owners can choose between aluminum, plastic or wooden doors. Garage doors can be opened manually or electronically. What they have in common...

Those who want to improve the energy balance of their existing property often think about replacing the windows. Special attention should also be paid to skylights. This is because the frames of old skylights become rotten over time and the glazing does not meet today's insulation standards. Another advantage is that in the course of replacing the skylight immediately...

Whether a rent increase may be followed by a modernization rent increase is clarified by a ruling (AZ VIII ZR 367/18) before the Federal Supreme Court (BGH). The landlady of an apartment in Berlin increased the rent by 37 euros per month to a total of 224 euros in 2010 in accordance with Section 558 of the German Civil Code (BGB). The reason for this was structural changes in the apartment, such as the conversion of the toilet into a bathroom....

In the Home Report 2021, published by the trend and futurology institute "Zukunftsinstitut", the author Oona Horx-Strathern deals with the living trends 2021. In addition to numerous facts and figures, trends and theses around the topic of building, the author devotes herself in the "trend dictionary" to newly emerged words and terms from the industry. The development of a new vocabulary...

According to forecasts from Workthere, a subsidiary of real estate advisor Savills, demand for "flexible workspaces" is expected to be strong in the second half of the year. Even though order utilization dropped from 79 percent before the Corona pandemic to 65 percent in November 2020, Workthere's real estate experts anticipate a slight increase in demand as early as the first half of 2021,...

To ensure that a building is adequately protected against moisture, prescribed standards should be observed. The water or moisture acting on the building from the outside can cause damage to and in the building if faulty constructions in terms of building physics do not provide sufficient heat and moisture protection. In addition, the ventilation behavior of the occupants influences the moisture content of the...