Werner Sobek receives the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit)

Honoring Werner Sobek as a visionary of sustainable construction - [Picture: René Müller ] Structural Engineer and Architect Dr. E.h. Dr. h.c. Werner Sobek has been awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit). On Tuesday (May 17) at the University of Stuttgart, Theresia Bauer, Minister of Science and Art, paid special tribute to Professor Sobek's extraordinary commitment to climate protection and his services to sustainable construction."It is both an honor and a pleasure for me to present Werner Sobek with the Order of Merit. Werner Sobek is a pioneer in the field of architecture, and his visionary ideas for sustainable building have helped to firmly established the concepts of climate protection and global responsibility. He has decisively shaped the innovative building and living environments of the future," emphasized Theresia Bauer. As a structural engineer and architect, Werner Sobek constructed resource and energy-saving high-rise buildings, as well as transparent, technologically smart residential buildings of pioneering quality. In 2000, he founded the "Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK)", and also co-founded the Stuttgart Institute of Sustainability Foundation in 2011, a non-profit organization that promotes research on sustainable building techniques. "With his commitment to sustainability in building and his dedication to the improvement and advancement of building culture, Werner Sobek provided the impetus for a turning point in architecture and civil engineering," said Theresia Bauer.