Beyond the fair: Klimahouse tours and convention

The doors of the fifteenth edition of Klimahouse will open in Bolzano from 22 to 25 January 2020. The fair dedicated to energy efficiency and building renovation this year promotes a wide variety of initiatives to open up to an increasingly broad public. Among the main events that will take place during the days of the event will be the Klimahouse Congress, a three-day conference and debate with international guests, and the Klimahouse Tours, a series of guided tours to discover sustainable architecture in South Tyrol.

 "Tradition and Innovation" is the title chosen for the 2020 edition of the International Congress of Klimahouse, which will be held from 22 to 24 January at the MEC Meeting & Event Center Südtirol Alto Adige in Bolzano. The event organized by Agenzia Casa Clima and promoted by Fiera Bolzano will investigate one of the central questions of contemporary architecture: how to increase the sustainability of the sector? The congress is an opportunity both to evaluate the progress made and to launch new challenges for the future. On Wednesday 22 January, the first day of the event, the absolute protagonist will be wood, a material capable of synthesizing tradition and innovation in architecture. Among the speakers there will be Prof. Andrea Bernasconi from ETH Zurich, Prof. Jan Willem van der Kuilen from TU Munich, the professor and researcher of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano Federica Morandi, the designer Stefan Gamper, multiple winner of the CasaClima Award, and Prof Iztok Šušteršič from InnoRenew CoE in Izola, Slovenia.

Artificial intelligence, robotics and digital fabrication will be the focus of the second day of the Klimahouse Congress. Some of the leading experts in the field will alternate with Dominik Matt, Director of the Fraunhofer Italia research institute, and the urban architect Renier de Graaf. Achim Menges, Director and founder of the ICD of the University of Stuttgart, and Prof. Benjamin Dillenburger of the ETH Zurich will instead discuss specific case studies such as the construction of the DFAB House in Dübendorf using robots and 3D printers. The last day of the event will be devoted to the most innovative architectural projects of recent years. On the stage of the Congress will be the climatologist and scientific promoter Luca Mercalli together with the famous architects Louis Paillard, Jürgen Bartenschlag from the Berlin firm Sauerbruch Hutton and Armand Paardekooper Overman from the Dutch firm Mecanoo.

Participation in the conference, after purchasing a ticket to this LINK, guarantees the achievement of a daily number of training credits.

The programme of Klimahouse Tours, organised by Fiera Bolzano in collaboration with the South Tyrolean Architecture Foundation, includes various itineraries guided by designers to discover the great innovations in public and private building in South Tyrol: from the material and energy renovation of the historical architectural heritage to the adaptation of buildings and structures vital for regular urban development such as schools, hotels and district heating systems.

Among the sites that can be visited during the guided tours (Klimahouse Tour 1) are Grieserhof in Nals, an old barn dating back to 1313 and under the protection of Cultural Heritage. It is an excellent example of rural cultural heritage, whose renovation combines comfort, modernity and respect for tradition. The Klimahouse Tours 8 will allow the public to discover the best accommodation facilities in the surroundings of Bolzano, such as the Hotel Pfösl in Nova Ponente, entirely built with ecological methods and selecting only local woods, or the Hotel Lamm in the old town of Castelrotto, whose renovation project was able to modernize the structure with the addition of a striking sunroof, while preserving the traditional aesthetic character. At this LINK you can find more information and to subscribe to one of the Klimahouse Tour.