Dreaming of Utopias – and Acting!

Werner Sobek, the mastermind of tomorrow’s built environment – received the “Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon” on 17 May 2022 – a significant milestone with strong symbolic power.

“What is architecture but the attempt to create a human home”? This quote by the philosopher Ernst Bloch, which Werner Sobek repeatedly invokes in talks and lectures, provides a deep insight into the attitude and comprehensive view of the world-renowned and multi-award-winning engineer and architect. Like hardly anyone else, Werner Sobek has Sobek has promoted sustainable building and the discourse on the role of building in climate change. His decades-long, unwavering commitment to research and innovation was honoured on 17 May 2022 with the “Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany”. He was presented with the Federal Cross of Merit by the Minister of Science and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg, Theresia Bauer. “Werner Sobek is an architectural pioneer and he has established the context of climate protection and global responsibility with his visionary ideas for sustainable building,” said the Minister.

It was a thoughtful Werner Sobek who received this special award from the hands of Minister Theresia Bauer one day after his 69th birthday. He recently presented the first volume of his trilogy “non nobis” (avedition), an “Alarming World Report on Construction”, which examines in detail the key role that construction plays in climate change. The thought leader on tomorrow’s built environment notes that the question of the future – the question of how should we build tomorrow? – has hardly been asked by architects and engineers for some time. “Yet it is widely recognised that the construction industry, more than any other sector, is responsible for global warming, the rampant consumption of resources and the generation of huge amounts of waste. Conversely, it plays a central role in enabling a healthy and ultimately peaceful coexistence of people on this planet,” is Werner Sobek’s summary.