The BAU Insiders
The team of experts for BAU 2027
The BAU Insiders are experienced professionals from the fields of architecture, planning, the trades, and the construction industry, representing diverse perspectives across the construction value chain. With their technical expertise and practical insight, they are supporting BAU 2027.
Julian Waning
Position: Architecture Media Manager
Company: Gira Giersiepen GmbH & Co. KG
As an architect and Architecture Media Manager at Gira, Julian Waning is responsible for communications targeting the architecture and interior design sectors. His professional background enables him to gain a deep understanding of the perspectives, requirements, and concerns of these target groups and to translate them effectively into communications. In addition, he is deeply involved in digitalization within the construction and building sectors and sees himself as a reliable liaison and advocate for architecture and interior design firms at Gira.
Gerda Söhngen
Position: Managing Director
Company: KEIL Befestigungstechnik GmbH
Gerda Söhngen is concerned with the question of what responsibility companies bear for the future of our country and our industry. As the managing director of a medium-sized family-owned business, she sees every day that innovation, digitalization, and productivity are not ends in themselves. They determine whether companies remain capable of acting in the long term and whether we can successfully overcome the challenges of climate change, resource scarcity, and international competition.
Thanks to her decades-long connection to the facade industry, she is particularly committed to actively shaping the construction industry and strengthening its future viability. Gerda Söhngen is interested in how entrepreneurship, technological progress, and responsible leadership can work together to turn good ideas into real, lasting solutions.
Sarah Dungs
Position: Managing Director and Co-Owner / Chair of the Board
Companies: Greyfield Group and Verband für Bauen im Bestand e.V.
Through her company and the Verband für Bauen im Bestand e.V., Sarah Dungs demonstrates how a successful future for existing real estate can be achieved. Using their own existing properties, they develop strategies for the sustainable redevelopment of buildings and neighborhoods.
She incorporates the experience gained from these projects into her consulting work while simultaneously developing standards, methods, and educational formats that help establish the existing building stock as the standard in the construction and real estate industries.
Christoph Krause
Role: Founder & Host
Company: zukunftsmacher.fm
Christoph Krause advocates for the future viability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a clear focus on artificial intelligence, automation, robotics, and exoskeletons as genuine drivers of productivity and workload reduction. He translates future research into action: Which technologies are on the horizon, what does this mean for work, leadership, and value creation, and how can this be turned into a concrete roadmap?
A particular focus is on the construction industry: how construction sites and operations must evolve through AI-supported documentation, smart processes, new tools, and human-machine systems to overcome labor shortages, time pressures, and quality requirements.
Romina Haller
Position: Managing Director
Company: Haller Raumgestaltung GmbH & Co. KG
Romina Haller believes in meaningful and visionary entrepreneurship and in the future of craftsmanship! She creates spaces through vibrant craftsmanship, digitizes her business processes, and reimagines the future by focusing on internal and external transformations.
Her Focus Areas:
Craftsmanship – Preserving traditional values and creating something great through innovation.
Leadership – Leading with values, clarity, structure, and enthusiasm.
Empowerment – Encouraging people to follow their own path and take responsibility.
Dr. Lena-Marie Pätzmann
Position: CEO
Company: Sitegeist GmbH
With her startup Sitegeist, Dr. Lena-Marie Pätzmann has dedicated herself to the field of automation in construction through robotics.
The focus is on concrete repair. Sitegeist’s robots use high-pressure water jets to remove deteriorated concrete.
Cehan San
Position: Consultant / Managing Director
Company: Craft Coach / San Haustechnik GmbH
Cehan San is an expert in modern building technology and demonstrates how climate protection can be practically implemented in the skilled trades through efficient heating systems, heat pumps, smart controls, and sustainable energy concepts. His focus is not on theory, but on solutions that work in everyday life and make buildings ready for the years ahead.
Another focus of his work is digitalization in skilled trades businesses: clear processes, better communication, more productive workflows, and the sensible use of AI. His goal is to combine skilled trades, climate protection, and modern technology in a way that strengthens businesses economically while also making a real contribution to the future.
Emanuel Heisenberg
Position: Founder and CEO
Company: ecoworks GmbH
Emanuel Heisenberg has been an entrepreneur in the HVAC industry for 20 years. Ecoworks is a pioneer in serial renovation—the renovation of buildings using prefabrication and robotics.
Bernd Wolter - the building coach
Role: Content Creator, Speaker, Host
Bernd Wolter combines many years of hands-on experience in construction, the skilled trades, and construction machinery technology with authentic communication on social media. His focus is on conveying complex technical topics in a way that is understandable, practical, and entertaining, thereby reaching skilled workers, companies, and the next generation of industry professionals and inspiring them to join the construction industry.
