Supporting Transformation in Urban Areas: The Desire Project

This chapter presents the project Desire—Designing the Irresistible Circular Society—within the context of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) program, emphasizing how its goals align with the NEB’s core values of sustainability, inclusivity and aesthetics. As one of the six lighthouse projects funded under the NEB, Desire seeks to inspire a movement by developing a new school of thought, drawing inspiration from the original Bauhaus. Following a theoretical exploration of these guiding values, the chapter outlines the context and framework within which the Desire project operates. It highlights how the project translates NEB ideals into practice, shaping innovative and sustainable solutions to address contemporary societal challenges. The chapter concludes by introducing the concept of the “sites’ biographies”, which provide detailed accounts of the unique histories and contexts of the project's sites of experimentation. These biographies set the stage for the in-depth discussions featured in the following eight chapters of the book.