On 29 January 2026, the workshop “Innovation paths and strategies for building envelope components and systems”, organised within the European projects H2020 MEZeroE, took place at Klimahouse 2026 in Bolzano.
The workshop brought together companies, researchers and practitioners for a constructive exchange on how to support the transition towards healthy, comfortable and energy-efficient living spaces through innovation in the building envelope.
The discussion clearly showed how important it is to create spaces where firms can share experiences, confront challenges, and reflect together on the most effective paths to bring innovative ideas to the market. Research plays a central role in this process, by providing testing, validation, and evidence-based support that helps transform concepts into reliable, scalable solutions.
The programme included:
- An introduction by Francesco Babich (Eurac Research)
- A roundtable with industry partners (Pellini, Rothoblaas, Ferrari BK, Straudi, Wolf Haus, Progress)
- Insights on Living Labs and experiments in real buildings by Akshit Gupta (Eurac Research) and Matteo Cipollini (ESA engineering)
- A look ahead at future perspectives with Roberto Lollini (Eurac Research)
The workshop confirmed the value of dialogue between research and industry to accelerate innovation in building envelope components and systems, and to ensure that solutions are not only innovative, but also market-ready, reliable and sustainable.