Interested parties can still apply for the Aerogel Architecture Award 2023 until Sunday, April 30, 2023 (11:59 p.m.). The "Realized Solutions" category is looking for internationally realized projects by architects and civil engineers in which aerogel is used in a special way. Students can submit their project ideas in the "Student Designs" category.

How can innovation activities of online communities be better assessed? The Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and the Technical University of Berlin have now investigated this question. In their research project "Peer Innovation", the institutions have developed an open-source toolbox that examines the innovation activities of peer communities...

A buyer purchases an undeveloped plot of land from a municipality. She is contractually obliged to bear the development costs. If this is the case, she only has to pay real estate transfer tax on the purchase price of the undeveloped property, but not on the purchase price including the development costs. This has now been announced by the Federal Fiscal Court (BFH) (ruling dated 28....

The portal "schoener-wohnen.de" has broken down what "death cleaning" is all about. The trend is not only intended to help you declutter your apartment or house, but also your own life. The method goes back to Margareta Magnusson, who has also written a book on the subject, "The gentle Art of swedish death cleaning". The aim of this...

The Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) has looked at living conditions in cities, districts and regions against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic and published a corresponding publication. The "Atlas of Urban and Regional Development" is also dedicated to the area of housing. Among other things, the authors have analyzed the development of rental and...

The price of new-build apartments rose by around 17% from November 2021 to November 2022. This was reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Increased prices for various services and materials are likely to have had a significant impact on this. According to Destatis, prices for roofing and sealing work, among other things, rose by 20.3% in the period in question, while prices for...

The Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzvb) advises customers affected by terminations without notice by their energy suppliers to claim compensation. According to the vzbv, the customers have suffered damage because they have fallen into the basic energy supply through no fault of their own. Customers often pay higher prices for the basic energy supply than for tariffs they have chosen themselves. Affected customers...

Do the reflections of a photovoltaic system constitute a nuisance for the neighbor or not? The Braunschweig Higher Regional Court had to deal with this question (Ref. 8 U 166/21). In this case, an owner sued his neighbor. The neighbor had installed a photovoltaic system on his roof. The panels would cause reflections of the sun's rays and a...

The "brigitte.de" portal has summarized the 2023 living trends and identified the following: the eclecticism trend, the coastal granny trend, the Japandi trend, the wellness trend, the marble trend and the greenterior trend. The eclecticism trend involves combining old and new furnishings. In order to find old furnishings, we recommend...

The asking prices for new-build and renovated older properties in Germany remain at a constant level. This is according to figures published by immobilienscout24.de. Prospective buyers currently have to pay an average of around EUR 5,200 per square meter for a renovated older property built between 1900 and 1949. For newer properties that were built in 2014 or later, the...