Saxony-Anhalt's NEB_REALLABOR ZEKIWA Zeitz has been launched with European funding
The site of the former ZEKIWA pram factory in Zeitz will become a model project for circular building - in line with the criteria of the New European Bauhaus (NEB): BEAUTIFUL. SUSTAINABLE. TOGETHER. = BEAUTIFUL. SUSTAINABLE. TOGETHER!
This is the message that was sent on 19 June 2025 with the official handover of the funding decisions for the NEB_PROJEKT ‘Reallabor ZEKIWA Zeitz’ by Minister President Dr Reiner Haseloff. Six partners will be working on the revitalisation of the approximately three-hectare inner-city site in a research workshop until 2027: City of Zeitz, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, Martin Luther University and Forum Rathenau. Around €15.5 million has been approved for this from the European JTF (‘Just Transition Fund’), with a further €8.8 million in prospect. The framework was provided by the state initiative ‘#NeueBauhäusler: Saxony-Anhalt - Together for a New European Bauhaus (NEB)’, which was launched in August 2023.
The ‘Reallabor ZEKIWA Zeitz’ is the largest NEB_PROJEKT in Saxony-Anhalt. The Minister President emphasised: "We want to turn the structural change in the coal region into a success story. We want to turn the old into something new with good prospects for the people in the region. This calls for innovative ideas that fill brownfield sites with new life and create a friendly living environment. The ZEKIWA real-world laboratory will provide important impetus for this."
In their joint declaration, the partners emphasised the aim of the future lab for Zeitz - to create together, to benefit locally: "The ZEKIWA Zeitz real-world lab brings new impetus directly into the everyday lives of local people: a place is being created where sustainable ideas can be translated into practice and tested together with citizens. The focus is on social participation, education, culture and sustainable business. Whether through grants for co-creative art and design projects, temporary workshops to develop a resource-saving circular economy, educational formats in cooperation with local schools, researching and testing material innovations or by expanding the open ‘Space of Possibilities’ on the ground floor of the ZEKIWA building - the project creates direct opportunities for participation and new cultural spaces through creative design options and formats. In collaboration with local initiatives and committed citizens, a lively real-world laboratory is being created, a new, inclusive neighbourhood that combines education, ecology, business and community spirit in a very concrete way - open, diverse and sustainable. Zeitz is becoming a role model for how citizens can become co-creators of structural change and how urban development, climate protection and community can go hand in hand." #NeueBauhäusler
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