Over the whole life cycle, building with earth neither costs more nor is especially maintenance-intensive. Christof Ziegert, founder of ZRS Ingenieure and chair of the earth building standards committee, made this clear at the 21st Transformationsdialog of the Bundesstiftung Bauakademie on 14 October 2026, titled “From individual projects to building practice. How does earth building move from niche to scale?”

Building with earth saves on building services in construction and operation, freeing budget for the structure. Germany leads in standardisation; other countries draw on the DIN standards. Denmark is further ahead on mandatory sustainability requirements.
Alexander Stolzenberg (Stadt und Land Wohnbauten-Gesellschaft) criticised cost analyses with a very short time horizon that ignore the life cycle. At the HOLZ ZIEGEL LEHM living lab, monitoring begins. Christian Gäth (Earthbound) noted concrete’s industrial head start of over 100 years. Franziska Knoll (WIR!-Bündnis GOLEHM) named CO₂ pricing a lever for faster scaling.