The 2026 edition of the New European Bauhaus Festival (NEB) has successfully concluded, marking another milestone for the European Commission’s initiative aimed at promoting a new vision of sustainable development grounded in the values of sustainability, beauty, and inclusion. Created to translate the European Green Deal into tangible experiences for citizens, businesses, institutions, and local communities, the New European Bauhaus has become one of the European Union’s key strategic priorities for reimagining the spaces in which we live and fostering an ecological transition capable of improving people’s quality of life.
Among the highlights of this year’s Festival was DIGITRIO - Digitalisation for a Novel Triad of Design, Fabrication and Materials, an innovative European portfolio funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) and selected to showcase its activities within the Festival’s exhibition area.
The DIGITRIO stand was coordinated by Federica Buccino and Laura Vergani, who led dissemination, networking, and public engagement activities throughout the event, helping to raise the profile of one of Europe’s most innovative initiatives in the fields of sustainable design and the digital transformation of the construction sector.
DIGITRIO is not a single project, but rather a European innovation portfolio bringing together ten pioneering EIC Pathfinder projects united by a common ambition: to rethink the future of architecture, engineering, and construction through the convergence of advanced digital design, novel fabrication processes, and sustainable materials. Conceived as a transdisciplinary ecosystem, the initiatives within the portfolio function as a living European laboratory for the decarbonisation of the built environment—one of the sectors with the highest impact in terms of emissions and resource consumption.
From metamaterials derived from biological waste streams and innovative knitted formworks to bio-based foams, algorithmically designed earthen structures, and AI-driven fabrication networks, DIGITRIO connects cutting-edge expertise and emerging technologies to shape a new vision for the European construction industry.
Participation in the New European Bauhaus Festival provided an important opportunity to demonstrate how European research is contributing to the development of concrete solutions for more sustainable, efficient, and inclusive buildings and infrastructures. The DIGITRIO stand, entitled “Sensing Nature: From Waste to Wonder,” offered visitors an immersive experience featuring prototypes made from bio-waste-derived materials, live digital fabrication demonstrations, interactive simulations, and activities dedicated to the next generation of researchers.
Visitors were able to interact directly with innovative materials, observe the transition from computational design to physical production, and gain insight into how digital technologies can reduce the environmental impact of the construction sector without compromising architectural quality or aesthetic value.
Particular interest was also generated by the presence of the Junior Scientists Community, a network of early-career researchers fostered by the DIGITRIO portfolio to support the development of a new generation of scientists and professionals committed to the sustainable transformation of the built environment.
During the Festival, the stand welcomed several distinguished representatives from European institutions and academia. Among them were Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, who had the opportunity to learn more about the portfolio’s activities and engage with the researchers involved, and Enrico Giovannini, economist and former Italian Minister of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility, long recognised for his commitment to sustainable development and innovation.
Participation in the Festival represents an important recognition of the contribution made by the Department of Mechanical Engineering within European excellence networks and highlights the increasingly central role of interdisciplinary research in shaping the cities and infrastructures of the future.
In line with the vision of the New European Bauhaus, DIGITRIO demonstrates how technological innovation, environmental sustainability, aesthetic quality, and social inclusion are not separate objectives but interconnected dimensions of the same transformation. A transformation that Europe is determined to lead and that, thanks to initiatives such as DIGITRIO, is becoming increasingly tangible.