Urban experiments and living labs

Application-oriented research on the City of the Future is undertaken using a wide range of experimental formats. Living labs in particular are viewed as a way to forge new paths, initiating integrated work processes and trials. Living labs give new impetus to urban research and development.

This cross-cutting topic is directed in particular at projects in the BMBF’s City of the Future programme that explicitly use living lab formats. The objective is to fully understand the functions, procedures and existing experience of what has been implemented. It concerns the importance to urban transformation of experimental urban research and the learning and consolidation processes involved. Particular importance is given to the issue of how experimental solutions can be applied and scaled up.