NEW bauhaus 2026: How AI, Robotics and New Building Materials Are Changing Construction
Rising construction costs, skilled labor shortages, scarce housing, ambitious climate targets: the construction and real estate industry is under pressure from multiple sides. At the same time, artificial intelligence, robotics, and industrial manufacturing are opening up new possibilities. How these developments can be brought together will be the focus on September 2nd and 3rd, 2026 at the NEW bauhaus Festival in Weimar. The format combines trade fair, congress, and dialogue platform and brings together stakeholders from construction and real estate business, architecture, crafts, science, politics, culture, and creative industries.
The choice of venue is deliberate. Weimar is considered the birthplace of the historic Bauhaus. NEW bauhaus adopts its interdisciplinary approach and applies it to current issues around building, living, and urban development. The topics range from sustainable building materials and circular economy to digitalization and the economic and social transformation of the built environment.
These program items are in focus
On September 2, Sascha Lobo will discuss what digital progress means for an industry that is still characterized by analogue structures in many places. Robotics and automation will be discussed, among others, with KUKA. Under the title 'Mushrooms instead of cement, wood instead of concrete,' the discussion will include materials and construction methods that could change resource consumption. Other panels will deal with affordable housing, new business models, and the question of what cities and rural areas should look like in the future. Politically, the event is at least staffed with Thuringia's Prime Minister Mario Voigt. Federal Minister of Construction Verena Hubertz has taken over the patronage, sending Secretary of State Olaf Joachim for the opening.
Thuringian State Award for Building Culture
The award ceremony will take place on September 3 and is one of the concluding program items.
When the construction site becomes a production site
The shift is particularly evident in the topic of automation. KUKA will be involved for the first time in 2026 as an international robotics and automation specialist partner. The focus is on whether experiences from industrial production can be more strongly transferred to construction. Specifically, it involves prefabrication: walls and ceilings are created under controlled production conditions, then assembled at the construction site. Digital planning and automated manufacturing could shorten construction times and make processes more predictable. Given the lack of skilled workers and increased costs, industrialization is no longer a vision of the future but a matter of arithmetic.
AI needs to become practical in the construction industry
Artificial Intelligence also receives a lot of attention. Sascha Lobo presents on the first day of the festival the digital development of reality in construction and real estate: What has technology promised, what has it delivered? Responsibility and transparency in the use of AI are explicitly on the agenda. Other program items address BIM and digital planning processes. The guiding question that runs through these blocks: not whether AI can be used, but where it actually improves processes.
Sustainability starts with the material
Technological progress alone does not solve the industry's problems. The resource consumption of construction also needs to change. Therefore, the program addresses circular economy, new materials, and the handling of existing buildings. One program point compares wood and alternative materials to traditional construction methods. This brings to the forefront the question of whether the future should build less new and work more with the existing building stock. Ecological requirements directly confront costs, financing, and economic feasibility. This connection of different perspectives is part of the festival's concept.
Construction becomes a societal question
NEW bauhaus therefore deliberately does not focus on technology alone. On the 2nd and 3rd of September, affordable housing, urban development, rural areas, mobility, and societal participation are also on the agenda. Among others, discussions will focus on who finances the transformation and which business models can sustain the construction industry in the future. The NEW bauhaus Festival takes place on the 2nd and 3rd of September 2026 in Weimar. It is aimed, among others, at project developers, architects, construction companies, housing industry, municipalities, academia, and startups. Construction costs, lack of housing, and climate targets increase the pressure to act, AI and automation open up new possibilities. In Weimar, therefore, it will not only be discussed how the building of the future could look. The crucial question will be which ideas are already practical and economically feasible today.