A building compound will demonstrate innovative concepts and technologies of housing. It is carbon neutral over its entire life cycle and therefore a milestone in sustainable building with immense potential of replication and upscaling.

The demonstration buildings within this project consist of:

• one central prototype building containing a community centre with a highly innovative energy supply system for household appliances, in addition demonstrating the typologies of row houses and multi-storey housing,
• a pair of two prototype living units of the typology single-family, row house in a load-bearing straw bale construction.

The community center will serve as a prototype for a supply-demand matching energy system, in which thermal energy services are provided directly without conversion losses, therefore minimizing the electric consumption by 80%. The community centre is designed for dissemination, exhibition and prototype facilities for energy supply. It will be open to the public and will, together with other dissemination activities, demonstrate the innovations which are applied in the project. Trial living, guided tours, and various media work, as well as information materials and the website, will disseminate the project’s innovations and results to relevant stakeholders and target groups.

The demonstration project will be a positive example for further stakeholders and communities. To make the project even more effective as best practice, all steps will be documented comprehensively. Monitoring activities confirm that the goals have been reached, and will be edited scientifically, completed with personal feedback from stakeholders due to trial living.

It is planned to add more buildings up to a whole settlement on the construction area after the EU LIFE+ project to demonstrate the innovations on an even larger scale. This will be done with private funding where the project serves as a convincing showcase for carbon-neutral living along the entire life cycle.