German and Turkish university cooperation: Summer school on energy efficiency in buildings

Rapid urbanisation and the associated high demand for the construction of new buildings have created vast opportunities for the building sector in Turkey. National polices have been initiated such as the Energy Efficiency Strategy Paper, which supports the transition of at least 25 per cent of building stocks to modern sustainable forms of energy by 2023 as well as the 2011 National Climate Change Action Plan, which aims to reduce energy consumption in public buildings and facilities by 20 per cent within the same timeframe.

In line with these developments, the Turkish-German Cooperation Project for Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings was launched under the auspices of the German Climate Technology Initiative (DKTI). The project is based on an agreement between the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and Turkey’s Ministry of the Environment and Urbanisation (MoEU). The objective of the project is to improve the legal, technical, and administrative frameworks needed to increase the energy efficiency (EE) of public buildings in Turkey. In order to further support capacity building activities, cooperation between two universities in Turkey and Germany has been envisaged. To facilitate the development of a joint curriculum on EE for buildings, a 4-week international master class summer school on the same topic took place at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara and at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, with support by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

adelphi together with the Beuth University of Applied Sciences supported the planning and implementation of the German leg of the summer school in Berlin in the second and third week of the programme. This involved the organisation of logistics, travel, and administrative arrangements as well as the finalisation, thematic inputs, and contributions to the summer academy programme. The aim was to bring together representatives from Turkey and Germany to combine architectural and engineering solutions and promote a holistic approach for EE in buildings.