In 2021, the high-ranking team of initiators led by Manfred Curbach took part in a competition for a large-scale research center that was organized by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research to support structural change in Lusatia. The teams proposal was to establish a new type of research center for building and construction named “LAB Lausitz Art of Building”. Ultimately, LAB was narrowly defeated by the German Center for Astrophysics in September 2022.
However, as one can’t simply stop campaigning for resource-efficent  construction, the initiators around Curbach continued to fight for the idea of this new kind of research center. The declared objectiv was, to establish LAB as the key to climate-neutral and resource-efficient building and construction in Lusatia after all. And at the end of 2023 this goal was within direct reach.

On November 20, 2023, the team was then able to inform all partners involved in Bautzen that the Budget Committee of the German Bundestag decided November 17th 2023 to provide a total of 68.6 million Euros over the next five years for the research center now named “LAB – Living Art of Building”. On the Saxon side, the districts of Bautzen and Görlitz have also pledged to provide up to 450 million Euros from their funds for structural change. Other federal states, including Thuringia and Brandenburg, have also expressed their interest in participating and contributing to the funding.

The set up of the LAB is a multi-year process and is scheduled to begin in the secound half 2024. After the initial phase, a total of around 1,250 scientists will research in globally unique laboratory facilities. This would make the LAB the largest research centre of its kind. Close collaboration with industry will create up to 40,000 jobs in and around the LAB in the long run.

Focus

• The large international research facilities are almost exclusively concerned with the operation of buildings. At the LAB, however, the focus is on production. The solutions would open up new possibilities in construction at national, European and international level.

• The team behind the LAB is supradisciplinary and unique: experts from industry, architecture, engineering, economics, cultural and social sciences as well as nanotechnology, materials research, computer science, chemistry and urban planning.

• The LAB will have several locations across Germany. They will work together to realise the vision. Further information will be announced as soon as they are available.