ACE Info April 2015

ACE Info

April 2015

ACE General Assembly, 17-18 April, Tallinn - Photo: Reio Avast ©

Pour lire le ACE Info en français, cliquez ici.

ACE MATTERS

ACE General Assembly - Special Session "Internationalisation & Responsibility", 17 April, Tallinn

A Special Session was devoted to the Responsibility of Architects as a Profession. It was an opportunity to illustrate best case examples, but specifically to focus on exploring international synergies to tackle diverse urban & social issues, such as Climate Change, Heritage conservation, Regeneration and Inclusion, bearing in mind the Architect’s unique role. Presentations are available on the ACE Website. Watch the video from Tallinna TV.

Tallinn Final Declaration

At the end of the Special Session on Friday 17 April, the ACE President Luciano Lazzari, the President of the International Union of Architects (UIA) Esa Mohamed and the President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Elisabeth Chu Richter co-signed a Final Declaration which underlines the key responsibility of the architectural profession in tackling the critical local and global challenges of our time, in particular with respect to climate change, urban regeneration, social inclusion and heritage conservation. Read the declaration.

5th EUROSTAV Conference and 2nd SKBBC Conference on Sustainability in Architecture and Construction

ACE President Luciano Lazzari opened the first session at the EUROSTAV & SKGBC Conference: Sustainability in Architecture and Construction, which involved European Architects, Universities and Research Centres. The event ended with the VISIO 2020 Prize Awarding Ceremony.

ACE Energy Day during the EUSEW

On Tuesday 16 June the ACE will organise an "Energy Day” on the ACE EU-funded projects. This public event, organised by the ACE Project Officer (Veronika Schröpfer), will take place in the framework of the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW). It will aim at presenting the outcomes of the EU-funded projects in which ACE is participating, as well the technologies developed by these projects (A2PBEER, LEEMA, Inspire, PROF-TRAC).

The "Barbara Cappochin" International Architecture Prize 2015 edition

ACE will co-sponsor and be represented in the jury of the International Architecture Prize organised by the Barbara Cappochin Foundation. The purpose of the Prize is to bring out the centrality and responsibility of architecture in the process of landscape modification. It focuses its attention on urban outskirts and on the use of bio-architecture, energy efficiency and sustainable urban planning. The prize rewards works dealing with urban regeneration and environmental development, with the highest quality in different fields, including environmental quality. Deadline: 30 June 2015. Read the announcement.

EU NEWS

9th round of EU-US negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

The 9th round of TTIP negotiations, which took place in New York on 20-24 April 2015, made it possible to advance on the three pillars of the negotiations: market access, regulatory cooperation and rules. In the margins of the TTIP negotiations, the ACE is negotiating a mutual recognition agreement (MRA) with the US National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), under the auspices of the EU Commission and the US Trade Representative (USTR). According to a recent report released by the EU Commission, the TTIP has significant potential for SMEs: SMEs already account for 28% of the EU’s exports to the US - a share that could expand further if transatlantic trade were easier. The report concludes that reducing the costs of complying with technical regulations would be the most effective way to boost SME exports. Learn more on TTIP on the EU Commission website.

A Framework strategy for a Resilient Energy Union

On 25 February, the EU Commission published its Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union, addressing energy in five dimensions: energy security, internal energy market, energy efficiency, climate, and research and innovation. The Commission has included the principle "Energy efficiency first" in its strategy. It recognises the necessity to "fundamentally rethink energy efficiency and treat it as an energy source in its own right, so that it can compete on equal terms with generation capacity" and calls on Member States "to give energy efficiency primary consideration in their policies". Furthermore, the Commission notes that "buildings have huge potential for energy efficiency gains" and announces it will develop a ‘Smart Financing for Smart Buildings’-initiative to simplify access to existing financing to make building stocks more energy-efficient. It will also propose a strategy to facilitate investment in heating and cooling.

Communication The Paris Protocol – A blueprint for tackling global climate change

As part of its Energy Union package, the EU Commission published on 25 February a Communication outlining the EU's vision ahead of the UN climate conference (COP21), to be held in Paris in December 2015. The EU Commission states that the Paris Protocol must secure ambitious reductions of emissions by specifying that "the long term goal should be to reduce global emissions by at least 60% below 2010 levels by 2050" and in that context by "setting out clear, specific, ambitious and fair legally binding mitigation commitments that put the world on track towards achieving the below 2°C objective". On 6 March, the Environment Council approved the EU's objective to achieve a at least 40% domestic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels by 2030. Learn more on the Commission website.

Launch of URBACT III + Call for Experts

On 16 March 2015, the URBACT III programme was officially launched in Brussels. Following URBACT I and II programmes, URBACT III (2014-2020) has been developed to continue to promote sustainable integrated urban development and contribute to the delivery of the Europe 2020 strategy in cities. Learn more on the URBACT website. A call for applicants for the constitution of the URBACT III pool of experts has been opened. The call for applicants will remain open throughout the entire duration of the URBACT III Programme (2020).

Energy Efficiency: 27 Member States hit with EU legal action

On 26 March, the EU Commission referred Hungary to the EU Court of Justice for failing to transpose the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). Under this directive EU Member States must meet certain energy savings targets from 1 January 2014 until 31 December 2020. They have to do this by using energy efficiency obligations schemes or other targeted policy measures to drive energy efficiency improvements, notably in buildings. Overall, infringement procedures for not notifying the Commission as regards national measures taken to transpose the directive into national law were launched against 27 Member States (all except Malta).

EEFIG report: Energy Efficiency – the first fuel for the EU Economy

On 26 February 2015, the Energy Efficiency Financial Institution Group (EEFIG) published a new report on boosting finance in energy efficiency investments in buildings, industry and SMEs. Regarding buildings, the report recommends measures such as the creation of energy and cost database for buildings and the development of a project rating system to provide a transparent assessment of the technical and financial risks of energy renovation projects for buildings. Download the report on the Commission website.

Eurostat: Production in construction down by 1.2% in EU28

In February 2015 compared with January 2015, seasonally adjusted production in the construction sector fell by 1.8% in the euro area (EU19) and by 1.2% in the EU28, according to first estimates from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In February 2015 compared with February 2014, production in construction fell by 3.7% in the euro area and by 2.4% in the EU28.

EU PROJECTS

LEEMA (January 2012 - December 2015)
The LEEMA project aims to develop novel, inorganic insulation materials and building-insulation masonry components that will be suitable for applications both in new and retrofitted buildings. The developed materials will have significantly lower embodied energy (70-90%) and a lower unit cost (25-30%) compared to the cost of commonly used insulation materials. The project is in its final year. ACE is organising an Energy Day during the European Sustainable Energy Week on Tuesday 16 June, when the results of this project plus two others (Inspire and A2PBEER) will be presented. You are very welcome to attend.

iNSPiRe (October 2012 - September 2016)
iNSPiRe aims to tackle the problem of high-energy consumption by producing systemic renovation packages that can be applied to residential and office buildings. The renovation packages to be developed by iNSPiRe aim to reduce the primary energy consumption of a building to lower than 50kWh/m2/year. ACE will organise a workshop on non-technical barriers and the architects’ perception of the renovation packages in Brussels on the Wednesday 17 June 2015. Please contact the project officer veronika(dot)schropfer(at)ace-cae(dot)eu, if you would like to attend.

A2PBEER (October 2013 - September 2017)
A2PBEER project has the objective of developing a systemic energy efficient buildings’ retrofitting methodology for public buildings and will take advantage of synergies derived from interventions at district level. Together with LIT, the ACE project officer has published an article on A2PBEER in the April edition of the Design and Build Review online magazine.

Erasmus+: The ‘wicked’ project (September 2014 - August 2017)
The Erasmus+ project in co-operation with EAAE about ‘Confronting Wicked Problems: Adapting Architectural Education to the New Situation in Europe’ is organising three Think Tanks for the areas of Profession, Heritage and Sustainability. Two Transnational Meetings are planned per year for each Think Tank, plus annual Learning/Teaching/Training Activities. The Sustainability Think Tank met last week in Delft for a student charette. The other two Think Tanks will meet in Genoa and Barcelona in May.

PROF-TRAC (March 2015 - February 2019)
This new project started in March and aims to develop and maintain an Open Education Platform for Continuing Professional Development. This platform will address technical experts, engineers, architects and managers. The kick-off meeting took place at the ACE premises on 23-24 March 2015. ACE is the work package leader for dissemination. The Slovenian and Italian member organisations are also partners in this project.

NEWS FROM MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS

New President at the Chamber of Architecture and Spatial planning of Slovenia (ZAPS)

Mr. Andrej Goljar has been appointed President of ZAPS with a mandate of 2 years.

Spain: Government pulls back on the Draft Bill
The Spanish Government has finally gone back on its intention to approve the Draft Bill and has announced that the procedure is at standstill. This is a great success for the Spanish architects as it means they retain their reserved functions and thereby ensure architectural quality. The continued importance of the Ley de Ordenación de la Edificación – LOE (Building Act), the real guarantee of the quality of Spanish architectural services is also recognised. Read more on the CSCAE Website (in Spanish)

VARIOUS

Frei Otto Receives the 2015 Pritzker Architecture Prize

Frei Otto was an architect, visionary, utopian, ecologist, pioneer of lightweight materials, protector of natural resources and a generous collaborator with architects, engineers, and biologists, among others. Mr. Otto becomes the 40th laureate of the Pritzker Prize and the second laureate from Germany. He died in his native Germany on March 9, 2015.

Interactive Webinar Session for European Professional Service Providers in the Construction Industry
The EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce & Industry (EUMCCI) is currently implementing an EU-Malaysian project, co-funded by the EU Commission, to promote Malaysia as a direct trade market and as an easy gateway to ASEAN and its 600 million consumers. One of the target groups are Professional Service Providers in the construction industry, particularly SMEs, notably in the fields of Architecture. In this context, two interactive “Question & Answer Webinars” has been organised on Tuesday 12^th May 2015 from 10am to 11.30am (GMT) and on Tuesday 26th May 2015 from 10am to 11.30am (GMT). European participants will have the opportunity to ask the panel individual questions and thereby learn more about market opportunities in the Southeast Asian country. Moreover, the webinar will present more information about the upcoming 1-day Symposium and 1-day Business Matching Day for European solution providers scheduled in September 2015.

ACE Info April 2015

ACE Info April 2015

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