The Real-World Lab · 2026–2031
Five years of testing. Real procedures. Public learning curve.
THE NEW FRANKFURT is the Frankfurt framework in which serial revitalization of existing buildings is tested: time-limited, transparent and under real market conditions.
Existing law. A resilient path.
The real-world lab framework does not invent a special world. It makes the path through existing rules faster and more resilient.
- The federal government strengthens real-world labs politically as an instrument of innovation promotion and regulatory learning.
- For THE NEW FRANKFURT this means: the real-world lab framework uses existing building, subsidy, insurance, financing and permitting law.
- The added value lies in the connection: early involvement of authorities, documented review paths, repeatable standards, risk matrix, project files, public communication and measurable learnings.
The reality:
Real-world lab status does not replace a building permit, a fire safety review, a funding commitment or insurance coverage. It makes the path there more resilient.
What is being tested:
- 1.Office to housing
- 2.Office to energy-efficient office
- 3.Hybrid: office + housing + services
- 4.Employee housing as a location advantage
- 5.School, daycare, counseling, neighborhood
- 6.3rd places for encounter and everyday life
- 7.Recycling and reuse in existing buildings
- 8.CSRD/ESRS-ready reporting
- 9.Insurance through transparency and active risk management
Law
Existing law as a stable framework
Permitting
Simplify review paths, increase transparency
Financing
Secure bankability, mobilize capital
Insurance
Manage risks, enable coverage
Learning
Share insights, improve standards
THE NEW FRANKFURT is the Frankfurt legal and learning framework for serial revitalization of existing buildings.
Mainzer Landstraße and large existing buildings.
Frankfurt brings the density a real-world lab needs: large existing buildings, public transport, the banking district, the trade fair area, Gallus, Europaviertel, international companies, demand for skilled workers and visible pressure for change.
2,500
apartments by 2031
23
qualified buildings
up to
1,800
school places
The market provides the tailwind: Frankfurt records a high office vacancy rate and large, quickly available spaces.
Office space and vacancy data are the most publicly reliable figures; the number of older buildings is verified in the real-world lab through screening, property lists and technical inspection.
What becomes possible in the corridor:
- 1.Housing from the upper floors
- 2.modern office space after energy retrofits
- 3.partial conversion of office space into apartments
- 4.corporate housing for companies
- 5.education spaces and social infrastructure
- 6.ground floors with a concrete usage plan: local supply, café, counseling, culture, workshop, daycare, neighborhood space
- 7.recycling and reuse logic
- 8.safe paths, lighting, crossings, quality of stay
- 9.digital building data for operation, financing and ESG
The reality:
A building can be well-located and marketable and still fail on structure, building services, fire safety, daylight, operating costs or insurance.
Mainzer Landstraße becomes the test track for the second life phase of large buildings.
Office, housing, employee retention.
Frankfurt can test a building type that fits the labor market: modernized office, complementary housing, services and social infrastructure in one property or quarter network.
First preference
Office to housing, where floor plan, daylight, structure, building services, fire safety, sound insulation, building law and business case fit.
Second strong path
Energy modernization of office space plus partial conversion of individual building areas into apartments.
For companies
This can become a real advantage in the war for talents.
Housing as a location package
Anyone who wants to bring international experts, young families, project teams, scientists, tech specialists or executives to Frankfurt can offer housing as part of the location package.
The principle
Reminiscent of earlier factory and railway housing, translated today into a modern model: well connected, ESG-ready, digitally managed, flexibly usable and close to the workplace.
Possible models:
- 1.A company rents office space and additional apartments in the same building
- 2.Apartments are offered to employees as a location advantage
- 3.flexible units for international experts, project teams, trainees, commuters
- 4.serviced-living or corporate-housing operators take over operation
- 5.mixed building: office, housing, meeting, mobility, sports, daycare, café
- 6.higher location loyalty, better employer attractiveness, more stable letting
The reality:
Living and working in the same building require clean separation: access, noise, fire safety, security, data protection, service charges, tenancy law, operator obligations and insurance.
The office building of the future can be workplace, home and arrival space at the same time.
What the real-world lab delivers.
THE NEW FRANKFURT bundles functions that individual owners rarely have available at the same time in an early project stage.
It is not about logos. It is about performance in the system.
Applied research & user perspective
Future scenarios, virtual engineering, user participation, sensor technology, urban systems, evaluation of real-world lab results.
Technical engineering & implementation expertise
Building fabric, load-bearing capacity, structural analysis, building services, energy, fire safety, construction sequence, interfaces, implementation planning.
PropTech and data ecosystem
Building, market and usage data, API logic, data room, comparability, later platform capability.
On-site technical assessment
Site inspection, 360° capture, core samples, data collection, technical go/adjust/stop basis.
Risk, quality and insurability
Risk inventory, risk transfer, construction and operating risks, liability, ESG/performance risks, requirements of international capital providers.
Real-world lab hub and workplace
Physical place for workshops, owner dialogue, partner work, public formats, knowledge transfer and visible implementation.
Recycling, reuse and circular material logic
Deconstruction, material inventory, secondary materials, waste-law review, reuse, CO₂ and resource effects.
The real-world lab turns specialist knowledge into a joint implementation process.
The real-world lab process.
THE NEW FRANKFURT guides existing-building projects through an end-to-end process: from the first usage idea through assessment and implementation to stable operation.
- 1
Idea / ideation
Usage thesis, quarter, ownership situation, building type, first impact: housing, office, hybrid, corporate housing, education, 3rd places.
- 2
Assessment / up to 8 weeks
Regulatory and financial assessment according to taxonomy, funding, bankability, CSRD/ESRS, insurance and capital capability; in parallel a real on-site assessment covering fabric, load-bearing capacity, building services, energy, fire safety, sound insulation, contaminants, access, daylight, digitalization and recycling/reuse potential.
- 3
Bankability pass
Project files for owners, banks, investors, insurers and authorities: technology, law, costs, funding, risk, ESG, operation, use of funds.
- 4
Implementation
Construction, costs, deadlines, quality, interfaces, serial fit-out packages, recycling, reuse, documentation, treasury logic.
- 5
Stable operation
Building pass, data maintenance, servicing, operating costs, security, ESG reporting, operating logic, usage mix, performance monitoring.
The reality:
The process must test hard early enough and document completely later. Only then does a single project become a repeatable model.
THE NEW FRANKFURT turns an idea into a verifiable path to operation.
Method instead of wishful thinking.
THE NEW FRANKFURT views every building as an investment, risk and operating model. The business case emerges from method, not from a single target rent, not from a beautiful visualization, not from a funding pot. What matters is the interplay.
Program frame: 2,500 apartments
- 175,000 m² of residential space
- €3,500/m² of residential space
- Funding logic via KfW, Hessian rental housing subsidies and possible federal building blocks
- Tokenization can later become an additional capital building block
The reality:
A project must remain viable even if construction time, financing costs or technical findings turn out tougher than planned.
The six levels:
1. Use
Housing, office, hybrid, corporate housing, education, local supply, 3rd places.
2. CapEx
Conversion costs, reserves, building services, fire safety, construction time, inflation, tendering, change-order risk.
3. Funding
KfW, state subsidies, social rental housing subsidies, possible commercial-to-residential programs, municipal support.
4. Revenue
Residential rent, office rent, corporate rental model, operator spaces, ground-floor uses, social institutions.
5. Risk coverage
Technology, construction time, liability, legacy contamination, fire safety, insurance, operation.
6. Reporting
Taxonomy, CSRD/ESRS, CO₂, energy, recycling, reuse, social impact, use of funds.
The business case starts with the building and ends with operation.
Places that hold the city together.
THE NEW FRANKFURT can connect housing, education, work and encounter. This is exactly where 3rd places become relevant: places besides home and workplace where people come together, learn, eat, work, help each other, discuss, repair, experience culture and build neighborhood.
In practical terms for Frankfurt:
- 1.Library / learning space
- 2.Café with a neighborhood function
- 3.Neighborhood space
- 4.Repair and recycling workshop
- 5.Community kitchen
- 6.small cultural space
- 7.Club and group room
- 8.Youth and family services
- 9.Counseling and social work
- 10.Multi-use of schools and daycare outside core hours
- 11.Spaces for local initiatives, neighborhood and further education
International references
- Denmark: Libraries as placemaking and community spaces
- Netherlands: Libraries as a safe third space
- Singapore: Hawker centres as social spaces
- Medellín: Library parks as learning and meeting places
- Seoul: Community facilities for social stabilization
The reality:
3rd places need operators, opening hours, cleaning, security, financing, program and responsibility. Space alone does not build community.
Good buildings create space. Good quarters create encounter.
Transparency makes capital more realistic.
Insurability makes existing-building projects more internationally connectable. Capital providers can assess risks better when fabric, construction time, liability, fire safety, operation, ESG and documentation become visible early.
The real-world lab treats insurability as its own discipline:
- 1.Risk inventory per property
- 2.technical due diligence
- 3.core samples and fabric testing
- 4.fire safety and building services risks
- 5.contaminants and environment
- 6.construction performance risks
- 7.planning and professional liability
- 8.interfaces of serial components
- 9.delay and rent-loss risks
- 10.operation, security, maintenance
- 11.ESG/performance risks
- 12.reporting and verification obligations
- CSRD and ESRS increase the need for reliable building data.
- ESRS follows the principle of double materiality.
- Insurability arises from active risk management, quality management, future management, sustainability data and documentation across the entire project.
The reality:
Insurability does not come from a product at the end.
Transparency makes risks assessable. Assessable risks make financing more realistic.
Key terms explained compactly.
Central terms around real-world labs, serial revitalization and sustainable value creation in existing buildings.
- Real-world lab (Reallabor)
- A time-limited, real testing space in which innovations are tested under real market conditions and further developed together with partners.
- Real-World Lab Act (Reallabore-Gesetz)
- The legal framework for promoting real-world labs through simplified permitting, risk reduction and public support for innovation projects.
- Serial revitalization
- Standardized, industrial processes and component solutions for the scalable modernization of existing buildings during ongoing operation.
- Recycling
- The reprocessing of materials for renewed use in circular production and construction processes.
- Reuse
- The direct reuse of components without energy-intensive reprocessing.
- Material passport
- Digital records of the materials, origin, properties and circularity of a building or component.
- Digital twin
- A virtual replica of a building or portfolio for simulation, monitoring and optimization across the life cycle.
- BIM (Building Information Modeling)
- Digital method for the holistic planning, execution and management of buildings based on intelligent data models.
- Bankability
- The suitability of a project to be viable, transparent and risk-adequately assessable for financiers.
- Bankability pass
- Proof of technical, economic, legal and ESG conformity to increase financeability.
- Taxonomy
- EU classification system for ecologically sustainable economic activities and investments.
- CSRD
- Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the EU directive on mandatory sustainability reporting.
- ESRS
- European Sustainability Reporting Standards, the concrete standards for sustainability reporting under CSRD.
- Insurability
- The ability of a project to minimize insurable risks and thereby secure insurance coverage.
- Corporate housing
- Housing solutions for companies for employee retention and flexibility in urban space.
- 3rd place
- Publicly accessible, non-commercial places between home and workplace that foster encounter and community.
- Treasury twin
- Digital twins of the financial and capital structure for scenario analysis, steering and optimization of cash flows and capital allocation.
Real-world lab THE NEW FRANKFURT: blueprint for serial revitalization of existing buildings.
Whitepaper
The complete blueprint as a PDF.
All 10 chapters of the real-world lab blueprint in one document: framework, test track, usage types, process, business case, 3rd places and insurability. Free via email.