Source: European Union 2 Published on: 2026-07-07
From neighbours tending community food forests, to residents caring for green roofs and redesigning social housing, LIFE-funded projects are illustrating how Europe’s green transition can start at ground level.
Against the lively backdrop of the Festival of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) in Brussels, six projects demonstrated how LIFE funding is helping to deliver the NEB vision of places that are not only sustainable, but also more attractive, inclusive and resilient.
While the New European Bauhaus is rethinking how Europeans live, build and connect with their surroundings, the LIFE programme is helping communities turn those ambitions into reality.
The session ‘Building the NEB from the LIFE programme: 6 successful stories’ took the audience on a journey across Europe, discovering local projects that are delivering the NEB principles. Held on the Festival’s circularity day, the session showcased how circular solutions, nature-based approaches and community participation are already transforming neighbourhoods.
A highlight of the Festival was the visit of Jessika Roswall, European Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, to the LIFE projects corner. Meeting representatives from the six initiatives, the Commissioner learned how LIFE funding has helped these communities advance sustainability, circularity and climate resilience in practice.
Communities shaping greener neighbourhoods
Many of the projects shared a common message: successful green transitions begin with people.
LIFEBauhausing Europe is working with five municipalities in Spain, Hungary, Latvia and Croatia to place residents at the centre of urban renewal. Local working groups have redesigned public spaces, created urban gardens and food forests, and transformed neglected buildings into vibrant local hubs. In Budapest, the historic Bethlen Theatre has been given a new lease of life as a community space, while in Blanca, Spain, a former warehouse now serves as a youth and cultural centre.
“No green transition can be achieved in our city unless people reconnect with the places where they live and with each other,” said Maria Huertas, project coordinator of EuroVértice.
In Catalonia, Spain, BIG4LIFE is showing how nature-based solutions can make cities healthier and more resilient. Green roofs and walls on nine buildings in Barcelona and Lleida are helping to save water and energy, support biodiversity, cool urban areas and improve health and wellbeing. Seniors, students and building users are actively involved in maintaining and monitoring the sites, helping ensure long-term impact. The project’s innovative irrigation methods can reduce water use by up to 80%.
“It was an honour to talk with Commissioner Roswall about how nature-based solutions can help cities adapt to more frequent and intense heatwaves. Investment in green infrastructure is investment in public health, biodiversity and more liveable cities,” said Gabriel Pérez, University of Lleida. “In October, BIG4LIFE will host a Green Infrastructure Congress in Barcelona and Lleida to showcase its innovative solutions for greening cities,” said Laura Herrera, also from University of Lleida.
SeedNEB is also improving urban biodiversity and people’s wellbeing by helping three municipalities – Lorquí, Spain, Potenza, Italy and Dunaújváros, Hungary – tackle pollution and rising temperatures through nature-based solutions. Green roofs, living façades and biodiversity measures are being introduced in public buildings and spaces, while biodiversity offices and local grant schemes are encouraging citizens and businesses to take action themselves.
Reimagining housing through circular and bio-based solutions
Other projects demonstrated how residents, professionals and local industry can work together to transform Europe’s housing stock.
TEPLO-Panelka is developing a circular bio-based renovation model for Soviet-era apartment buildings in Ukraine, where around 90% of the housing stock is energy inefficient. Using prefabricated façade systems made from recycled materials, the project is working closely with residents and local industry to deliver renovations that meet both technical and community needs.
Be-WoodEN brings together eight partners from Italy, Belgium, Poland and Slovenia to strengthen skills and supply chains for timber construction. Through professional training and co-design challenges in social housing neighbourhoods, architects, engineers and local communities are exploring how wood-based solutions can create warmer, more sustainable shared spaces.
In Amsterdam, BIOMATINE is giving new life to around 500 social housing units and historic buildings through bio-based insulation materials such as wood fibre. Alongside the renovation works, a LIFE-supported Bio-based Academy is helping housing associations and contractors build the expertise needed to scale up these solutions.
“With a subsidy like this, you really have the chance to create a breakthrough, to create the space to work in a new way,” said Daan Jongejan, BIOMATINE project manager from the City of Amsterdam.
Jongejan discussed the application of bio-based materials as a circular strategy for the built environment in Amsterdam with Commissioner Roswall, underlining how the insulation of historic social houses and monuments is contributing to an inclusive, sustainable and beautiful Europe.
Delivering European ambitions locally
The LIFE funding has enabled the six projects to test innovative approaches that might otherwise have been considered too risky or too innovative for conventional funding. It has helped turn ideas into demonstrators, connected research with practice and built local networks that will continue long after the projects end.
In doing so, LIFE is helping bring New European Bauhaus principles to life in communities across Europe, illustrating how environmental innovation can boost collaboration, social ties and strong local communities.
Together, these projects signpost how LIFE is contributing to EU priorities on energy efficiency, climate adaptation, biodiversity and circularity, supporting objectives set out in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the Renovation Wave Strategy, Nature Restoration Regulation, Biodiversity Strategy and the Circular Economy Action Plan, as well as helping to achieve the goals of the New European Bauhaus.