“Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mayor Weber,
Mr Söllner,

I am delighted to welcome you, on behalf of VKR, to the opening of the second ‘Aktivhaus’ in Europe.

“One attempt is better than theories from a thousand specialists.”
That was the motto of Villum Kann Rasmussen, the founder of the VKR Group. It is through experimentation and trials – as with this ‘House of the Future’ – that we gain experience and learn new information.

With the opening of the ‘House of the Future’, we are proving that it is already possible today to build houses that meet tomorrow’s requirements for CO₂-neutral houses with the correct, proper energy.

An active house has much to offer. We have created a unique room climate that is full of daylight and fresh air – and has very exciting architecture as well.

The VKR Group offers a wide range of products and solutions that support our mission of bringing daylight, fresh air and a better environment into people’s daily lives.

Today, buildings consume some 40% of all energy, making them the biggest single consumer of all; there is tremendous potential for reducing energy consumption and initiating measures to improve the climate.

Germany has always been one of the trailblazers in matters concerning energy and the environment, and is well known for its tireless involvement in the field of sustainable energies and the development of complete solutions. Which is why it is a tremendous honour for me to be opening the ‘House of the Future’ here in Regensburg today.

As some of you are probably already aware, we opened the group’s first active house earlier this year in Denmark. This is now the second “act”. We are currently building a total of eight different houses in five European countries as examples of sustainable active houses of the future. We are delighted to be revolutionising the building of single-family dwellings by doing so. I am convinced that this is the right direction for us all to take.

The qualities in and of a house are only really put to the test when people start to live their lives in it. After the opening, the ‘House of the Future’ will be used as a show home for six months. It will then be sold to a family who will test what everyday life in the house is like. We will monitor and measure the room climate, energy consumption and energy production in the house for the period of two years.

The development was made possible by SONNENKRAFT, who have supplied products along with four other VKR companies – VELUX, VELFAC, WindowMaster, and Drexel & Weiss:

dormer windows, façade windows, solar heat, natural ventilation and heat recovery together all provide a unique indoor climate with daylight and fresh air – based on renewable resources.

My particular thanks go to the project group at SONNENKRAFT in Germany:

Markus Staudigl (project manager of the House of the Future)
Christian Stadler (Technical Director of SONNENKRAFT Deutschland)

And to the members of the project team:

Stephan Fabi (fabi Architekten)
Prof. Birgit Lenzen (Regensburg High School)
Florian Kagerer (Fraunhofer ISE)
Thomas Kautnik (fabi Architekten)

Since the ground was broken on 9 December 2008, the project team and craftspeople on the site have achieved remarkable results and carried out this project – our ‘House of the Future – with tremendous dedication and passion.

I hope that the ‘House of the Future’ and the seven other active houses will provide the highly promising framework for buildings of the future.