As the engineers of the future, we have a responsibility to tackle global sustainability problems. These problems are not just environmental but also social and economic. 

With SDE21 set in Wuppertal and having a strong urban orientation, we are aiming to create a holistic solution that addresses not only environmental sustainability, but also socio-economic issues such as lifestyle, affordability, and overconsumption of space. 

Our concept is centred around three main concepts: sustainable lifestyle, demographic diversity and urban intensification. We believe the built environment can be transformed to promote a sustainable lifestyle through collaboration between active users and passive systems. We aim to make sustainable living affordable, by creating a design that is useful to a wide range of people; a building that provides diverse functions for diverse demographics. Our proposal focuses on intensifying and efficiently using spaces by combining functions, on both building and urban scale  

Our building will be a microcosm of our vision on an urban scale– a lively, interactive space which has a use 24/7. 

Through the combined skills and efforts of our multi-disciplinary team, we are working on GRIT: a modular, vertical extension of an existing building. With GRIT, we define a unique reorganisation of space, using a modular framework and passive systems. We aim to provide diverse functions for diverse users to enhance demographic diversity. Although the concept proposes a global solution, it adapts to the peculiarities of the different morphological and social scenarios of European cities.