About
The FutureBuilt pilot projects are intended to serve as an arena for research, innovation and learning, and as inspiration for the industry in general. FutureBuilt was originally established as a ten-year innovationprogramme for the period from 2010 to 2020, with an objective of complete 50 such pilot projects. As per December 2025, FutureBuilt comprises 80 projects across the public and private sectors. The goal is to complete a total of 100 pilot projects.
In order to qualify as a FutureBuilt project, the project needs to match a number of criteria relating to, inter alia, greenhouse gas emission reduction, as well as to meet urban environment, architecture, innovation and social sustainability requirements. FutureBuilt also has a designated set of criteria for circular buildings.
The benefits to participating in the FutureBuilt programme is, inter alia, professional assistance, guidance and ongoing follow-up from FutureBuilt, including assistance with applications for financial grants from Enova or other forms of R&D funding, profiling and marketing, as well as streamlined municipal permit processing and reduced building permit fees. A local steering committee in each municipality decides which projects to include in the programme.
Who does it impact?
Developers registering their project as a FutureBuilt project.
Status: Launched
Launched and is continuously updated
Relation to other initiatives and regulations
It is organized so that documentation for meeting the FutureBuilt criterias may be provided through BREEAM-NOR. FutureBuilt provides assistance with obtaining financial grants from Enova, which is one of FutureBuilt’s collaboration partners.
Participants
A list of pilot projects is available here (in Norwegian)
Thommessen's comments
The key idea behind FutureBuilt is "to lead by example", with the pilot projects inspiring development and change for the industry as a whole. The level of ambition for the FutureBuilt projects is high, and we assume that considerable resources will be required from any industry players committing thereto.
In our assessment, FutureBuilt is closely attuned to market trends, for example by an increased focus on circular buildings, innovation and social sustainability Experience and learning from individual projects are likely to be highly valuable to other industry players, and to provide useful information on the opportunities and limitations entailed by the applicable regulatory framework.