Official start to the European Affordable Housing Consortium: Sustainable Housing for Social Impact, SHAPE-EU

Housing Europe will be coordinating a 2-year project that shapes the envisaged by the Affordable Housing Initiative 100 lighthouse projects

Brussels, 4 March 2022 | Published in Future of the EU & Housing

As of March 2022, 10 partners have joined efforts to shape the envisaged by the Affordable Housing Initiative 100 lighthouse projects by creating blueprints for a just energy transition with affordability and liveability at its heart.

The European Affordable Housing Consortium, SHAPE-EU will be the point of reference for a socially-inclusive Renovation Wave and New European Bauhaus.

Coordinated by Housing Europe and co-funded by the European Union's Single Market Programme, the goal of the project is to support social housing providers, public authorities, and SMEs to deliver social and affordable housing district renovations, which include innovative features, such as the use of smart and circular technologies and new approaches created and managed jointly with the local communities.

Housing Europe, Energy Cities, Eurocities, the European Construction, Built Environment and Energy Efficient Building Technology Platform (ECTP), GNE Finance and its affiliated partners, EKYL, L'Union Sociale pour l'Habitat (USH), Legacoop Abitanti, TU Delft, and VVH are ready to:

Provide tailored support to renovation practitioners throughout Europe
Prepare blueprints to replicate good examples of district-level renovation
Make a Knowledge Hub available with all needed technical and financial information
Meet and share knowledge with practitioners across Europe in a series of online and on-site events

The most successful examples of scaling up renovation in housing are those which have harnessed creativity, resources, and most of all, receive support from the population. They have not focused on centimeters of insulation or m2 of solar panels but on ensuring that peoples' homes, energy bills, and districts remain affordable and good places to live.

There are already a good number of examples that the fair energy transition is happening. However, there is a need to tap into a hive mind to enable others to learn from and expand the approaches that work.

What are the trusted renovation technologies?
How can we balance the challenge of meeting renovation & new construction?
How can we find the financial sources to cover the costs?

On the lookout for a blueprint for Fair Energy Transition, these are the questions that the European Affordable Housing Consortium: Sustainable Housing for Social Impact, SHAPE-EU will answer. Have a read at this piece for European Energy Innovation magazine.

Find out more on the official website of the initiative.

The initiative is looking for experts to support the process.

You can get involved and receive more details by contacting Housing Europe's Director of Innovation, joao.goncalves@housingeurope.eu