Ancillary housing costs in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) have recently risen by an unusually high 9.7%. Net rents have also risen by 1.7 percent. Overall, housing costs have risen by 5 percent as a result. Tenants in NRW now have to pay an average of €13.15 per square meter per month for housing - of which €7.68 is for rent and €5.46 for...

The German Engineering Prize 2022 was recently awarded to the Stuttgart-based firm "sbp - schlaich bergermann partner" for the light rail bridge in Stuttgart-Degerloch at a ceremony. "The winning project, the light rail bridge in Stuttgart Degerloch, is characterized by an imaginative design that strengthens public transport in a major city," said...

KfW points out which aspects owners must pay attention to when insulating facades and installing solar shading with regard to funding opportunities. For example, the application for funding must be submitted before construction companies and tradesmen are commissioned. Contracts for planning, on the other hand, can be awarded in advance, for example to energy efficiency experts. In addition...

A building owner may not allow a tower crane to slew over a neighboring property without prior notice. This was decided by the Higher Regional Court (OLG) of Stuttgart (AZ: 4 U 74/22). In this case, two future neighbors in the district of Ludwigsburg were in dispute. The client had erected a slewing tower crane on the property boundary for the construction of two semi-detached houses and four garages....

If you don't just want to make your house or apartment cozy in winter, but also your outdoor area, you can also decorate it attractively. Stylish door wreaths, hardy plants in chic pots or pretty lanterns and storm lanterns are just some examples. The e-magazine "archzine.net" points this out and shows in corresponding photos how the decoration ideas...

In 2020, Germans generated around 31 kilograms of self-compostable waste per capita. This is according to estimates carried out by the Federal Statistical Office for the first time. Excluding biowaste from agriculture or the manufacturing industry, the total volume of biowaste from the municipal sector amounted to 14.4 million tons in 2020. In addition to the self-composted...

If owners need additional space in their property, for example for a home office, a hobby room or an apartment, this can often be realized in the basement. The FMI Mineral Wool Industry Association points this out. However, owners should consider various aspects of the basement extension in advance, namely the building physics, the structural requirements and the...

Thermal insulation of buildings is effective and easy to implement - this is the view of the FMI Mineral Wool Industry Association. Mineral wool can also help to achieve the climate targets in the building sector, writes the trade association on its website "der-daemstoff.de". To achieve this, however, the house must be insulated from the roof to the façade to the basement ceiling. For...

A property seller cannot necessarily be held responsible for the remediation of a property if contaminated sites are suspected there. This is because it is necessary to check in advance whether the soil is actually contaminated. This has now been decided by the Federal Court of Justice (V ZR 213/21) and therefore referred the case back to the Munich Higher Regional Court (OLG). In the case in question, a...

Whether lightweight furniture panels, plant pots or decking boards - they can all be made (in part) from fast-growing poplars or from their ground bark and branches. Several experts have discovered this in recent years as part of the Dendromass4Europe (D4EU) research project. It was carried out under the leadership of Norbert Weber, Professor of...