The question how energy supply can be made environmentally friendly, socially acceptable and economic, and in the quickest time possible, is being asked with increasing urgency across the world. Forward-looking answers are required. Approximately 350 participants from ten countries discussed concepts and solutions for sustainable architecture and solar construction at the 4th International and Scientific Bauhaus.SOLAR Congress at the Messe Erfurt on 8th and 9th November 2011.
The presentations and discussions highlight that forward-looking, sustainable solutions only exist if people think and act across interdisciplinary. That means that in the future, it will no longer be a matter of manufacturing individual new products, but systematically thinking about understanding them as an integral part of the entire system of buildings during their development. In addition, nowadays, solar construction means developing concepts with energetic and resource-conserving considerations for urban and rural areas, no longer simply for individual building structures.

Across all trades and sectors, from architects and civil engineers to grid operators, all speakers emphasised their strong intention and willingness to search for new systemic solutions together. Dr. Hubert Aulich, chairman of the organiser SolarInput e. V., called on architects, urban and landscape planners and the solar industry "to look for new ways of holistically integrating photovoltaics as energy-producing components into buildings and landscape. To do this, architects, the construction material industry and solar industry must work closer together. Architects should place more emphasis on the quality of energy." Furthermore, he requested that all participants "find aesthetically suitable solutions for the new technologies. As only then can they also be increasingly accepted in society."