From April 9th to 13th, Brussels hosted to the New European Bauhaus Festival 2024, marking the event’s second edition, drawing attendees committed to fostering a more sustainable, inclusive, and aesthetically pleasing future for Europe and beyond.

VARCITIES aligns closely with the principles of the New European Bauhaus (NEB), particularly in its emphasis on environmental, social, and cultural sustainability. By incorporating nature-based solutions and promoting a circular economy, we directly echo the NEB’s ecological principles. Our prioritisation of inclusive public spaces and focus on engaging in participatory planning also reflects the NEB’s goal of multilevel engagement and transdisciplinary approaches. Besides, VARCITIES’ commitment to involving local communities and stakeholders in decision-making processes ensures that urban development efforts are context-specific and responsive to diverse needs, in line with the NEB’s principle of participatory processes.

We were happy to be amongst the fifty selected initiatives as part of the FAIR exhibition space, where we had the opportunity to showcase our initiative during the festival. With a booth set up, we engaged festival-goers by introducing our activities, our Pilot cities and their Visionary Solutions, and demoed our ICT products, the GoNature Game and the Health & Well-Being Platform. Project partners, ISOCARP, PI and UM also collected constructive feedback about the  Replication Toolkit. Overall, through our discussions with festival visitors, we aimed to exemplify how VARCITIES implements in practical urban development projects the NEB’s principles to create more sustainable, inclusive, and aesthetically pleasing cities across Europe.

Additionally, we organised a LAB workshop as part of the Festival’s official programme on Saturday 13th. Hosted by Darttek and UM, the workshop presented attendees with insights and direct trial of the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) versions of the GoNature Game! Participants had the chance to virtually explore our pilot sites through these immersive experience.