bgh. Gauly & Volgmann has been involved for many years in contributing to the Federal Congress on National Urban Development Policy. For some time now, bgh. Gauly & Volgmann has been supporting the “Dialogues for Urban Change (D4UC)” project in conducting professional events within the framework of the Congress, including in Jena (2023), Heidelberg (2024), and Rostock (2025).
D4UC is implemented by the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB) and promotes the mutual exchange of experiences between urban development practitioners in three networks with representatives from the USA, South Africa, Ukraine, and Germany (More about D4UC).
At the Federal Congress in Heidelberg, the international event “From Local to Global – Cooperation in Urban Development in an International Context” was organized.
First, under the umbrella of the BMWSB’s international city networks, the experiences of the South African-German network, the Ukrainian-German network, and the US-German network were shared, and the networks’ recommendations were discussed in plenary.
Subsequently, panelists reflected on how learning cycles from local to global and across countries can be a catalyst for urban transformation.
Following the Federal Congress, an exchange of knowledge between the South African and Namibian participants on experiences in the field of integrated urban development was also organized.
At the national congress in Jena, Arena VI “International Perspectives on Housing for All” was designed as a platform for international discussions on challenges in housing policy and integrated urban development. The focus was on the creation of liveable and integrated urban districts and dealt with the characteristics of the topic of “Housing for All” from the perspective of the USA, Ukraine, Brazil and South Africa in parallel contributions. International experts discussed aspects of affordable housing, marginalized neighbourhoods and homelessness. In the second part, the “Erlenhöfe” housing project in Jena-Ost was visited. The project highlighted aspects of social and modular housing construction and municipal management instruments to promote environmental friendliness and the creation of affordable housing.
The accompanying event “Recalibration, resilience and recovery – IBA as an international model for urban innovation” was aimed at all international congress guests as well as members of the D4UC network. During a network lunch and the subsequent tour of the iconic Eiermann building – as part of the International Building Exhibition (IBA) Thuringia – expert professionals debated the applicability of IBA approaches in various contexts, such as integrated urban recovery in Ukraine or urban development initiatives in Africa, North and South America.
Commissioned by: Deutschen Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Time period: 2021 – 2026