Continue to build on existing buildings, stop demolition and new sealing, question housing as a commodity and understand it as a common good, keep land in municipal ownership, put people at the center. Speakers at the Bauwelt Congress on May 11-12, 2023, at Berlin's Kino International provided a whole range of answers to the question, "What is the gold of the city?".

The building sector must adapt to building within planetary boundaries, and do so as soon as possible. Annette Hillebrandt of the University of Wuppertal referred to Earth Overshoot Day, which in Germany is May 4. For two-thirds of the year, Germans lived on the planet on credit. This, he said, is leading to a climate crisis and widespread species extinction. Hildebrand's credo: Efficiency is not effective enough, and beauty alone is no longer enough. She sees the architecture-creative just like the policy in the obligation. A moratorium on demolition would help to preserve existing buildings, while a moratorium on land use would help to contain the rampant sealing of new surfaces. The renunciation of non-recyclable composite materials and instead the use of repairable and recyclable products are just as much part of the solution as the production of solar energy on the roof as well as façade greening and light-colored envelope surfaces. The exemption from norms and standards by means of a "building class E" could support here. Hillebrand also took a self-critical look at the building projects for which she herself was responsible and admitted that she would make different decisions today.

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