From 16 to 22 February 2020, 30 guests from Estonia, Martinique, Portugal, Sicily and Slovenia visited the HTL Pinkafeld in the course of an Erasmus+ project "Let's build tomorrows Life Space”. Our guest students buddied up with Austrian students of the 4th building technology and construction classes. They worked intensively on their ideas of the house of the future. In order to build these designs on a solid foundation of knowledge, there were impulse presentations about ecological architecture of all participating regions. Further alternative materials such as Caribbean bamboo, Portuguese cork, Italian tuff and Estonian birch were tested in the HTL labs, in order to make indicative statements about the strength and physical characteristics. 2 excursions led to local companies (Liebbau Weiz, CPH, Naturhaus Wechselland and Herz) which are also dedicated to this topic. Especially the HTLs “Bauhof” (construction yard) inspired our guests. There the students could create a small workpiece with the help of the CNC milling machine and the laser cutter. At the end of the planning process everybody could virtually walked through the houses of the future, with the help of VR glasses. Finally the plans and energy concepts were presented. Most of our guests were accommodated in the adjacent STEP guest house. Thanks to some local families some guest students could be accommodated privately. Many of the HTL students involved were positively surprised by the good cooperation, their joint achievements, and their communication competence. Hanna Heinisch who, like many, also took care of the guests beyond her class time summed up the week as follows: "It was a wonderful experience and yes, I could and can benefit a lot from it."

Press article: https://www.meinbezirk.at/oberwart/c-lokales/fuenf-europaeische-laender-in-pinkafeld-zu-gast_a3957282