The Emerging Landscape of
Urban Living Labs
Characteristics, Practices and Examples
WHY READ THIS HANDBOOK?
There is a growing trend to involve citizens in city development to
make urban areas more sustainable and livable. The urban living labs
approach offers a way to foster new collaborative, trans-disciplinary
ways of thinking in urban planning and development, and provides a
real-world testing ground for urban innovation and transformation.
This handbook aims to bring open innovation and co-creation to urban
policy makers and change agents in Europe and beyond, by offering an
introduction into the basic concepts and principles of urban living labs.
In addition, this handbook provides examples of good practices and
guidance on the design, operation and evaluation of urban livings labs.
MALMÖ GRAZ
NEWCASTLE ROTTERDAM
WHO IS THE AUDIENCE FOR THIS HANDBOOK?
While this handbook is targeted at actors planning or launching
participatory activities related to urban planning or other development
projects in urban contexts, focusing on municipalities, housing
companies and universities, it can be equally relevant for private
companies, and civil society organisations active in cities.
What are urban living labs? PAGE 4
When and why to develop urban living labs? PAGE 5
Characteristics of urban living labs PAGE 6
How do urban living labs work? PAGE 7
Types of urban living labs PAGE 8
Strategic urban living lab examples PAGE 10
Domains of urban living labs PAGE 11
Civic urban living lab examples PAGE 12
Grassroots urban living lab examples PAGE 13
Role of municipalities in urban living labs PAGE 15
Stages in urban living labs PAGE 16
Want to learn more about urban living labs? PAGE 18
Editors: Kes McCormick and Christian Hartmann
Contributors: Annica Kronsell, Marija Breitfuss-Loidl, Harriet Bulkeley,
Derk Loorbach, Janice Astbury, Lars Coenen, Lea Fünfschilling , Lindsay
Mai, Niki Frantzeskaki , Angelika Sauer, Yuliya Voytenko Palgan, Timo von
Wirth and Simon Marvin
Designer: Mia Pantzar
WHAT ARE URBAN LIVING LABS?
Cities face a pressing challenge – how to provide economic prosperity
and social cohesion while achieving environmental sustainability?
In response, new collaborations are emerging in the form of urban
living labs – sites devised to design, test and learn from social and
technical innovation in real time.
Urban living labs are proliferating across Europe and around the world
as a means for testing innovations in buildings, transport and energy
systems.
Urban living labs can be considered both as an arena (geographically
or institutionally bounded spaces), and as an approach for intentional
collaborative experimentation of researchers, citizens, companies and
local governments.
“Today’s sustainability
challenges urgently call for
new urban solutions which in
turn require experimentation
on suitable scales and with
multiple stakeholders. This is
where urban living labs have
a key role to play.”
Carina Borgström-Hansson, WWF
WHEN AND WHY TO DEVELOP URBAN LIVING LABS?
There are multiple reasons to develop or engage in urban living labs.
First, urban living labs connect partners from various sectors who
complement each other with a diversity of competences, human
knowledge and skills, financial resources, and political influence. Urban
living labs can thus become means to successfully pursue ambitious
goals collectively.
Second, urban living labs make sustainable innovations highly visible
and usable in practice since they test the innovations in real settings,
such as buildings, transportation and the energy sector, and hence they
can accelerate the adoption of innovative solutions among the users.
Third, urban living labs can transform governance in cities as they
test sustainable innovations by providing platforms for knowledge
co-production with a mix of stakeholders and users. This approach
is based on the quadruple helix model of partnership whereby
government, industry, the public and academia work together to
generate innovative solutions.
Fourth, for actors trying to establish themselves as innovation leaders
in the field of sustainability and smart technologies, urban living labs
can become high profile statements of intent. They can help to both
attract public attention and secure funding.
Fifth, urban living labs are a means through which new communities of
practice with shared goals can be brought together, developing social
networks and visions for urban futures. In other words, they can be a
mechanism to design and create the future of cities.
“One of the appeals of urban
living labs is that they produce
knowledge ‘in the real world’
and ‘for the real world’, and this
ability to bring alternatives to life
is generally viewed as one of their
critical advantages.”
James Evans, Manchester University
The Emerging Landscape of Urban Living Labs | Characteristics, Practices and Examples 5
CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN LIVING LABS
Five key characteristics of urban living labs can be identified.
1. Geographical embeddedness: Urban living labs are placed or
embedded in a geographical area – they are predominately not
virtual platforms.
2. Experimentation and learning: Urban living labs test new
technologies, solutions and policies in real world conditions in
highly visible ways.
3. Participation and user involvement: Co-design and engagement
with stakeholders often appears in all stages of the urban living
labs approach.
4. Leadership and ownership: It appears that having a clear leader
or owner is crucial for urban living labs, although a delicate balance
exists between steering and controlling.
5. Evaluation of actions and impact: Evaluation underpins the
ability of urban living labs to facilitate formalised learning.
6 The Emerging Landscape of Urban Living Labs | Characteristics, Practices and Examples
HOW DO URBAN LIVING LABS WORK?
As a means of governing the city, urban living labs are invested with
multiple different ambitions and goals. Processes of innovation and
learning are integral. Urban living labs test new technologies, solutions
and policies in real world conditions in highly visible ways, which can
prompt radical social and technical transformation. Evaluation of the
actions and impacts of an urban living lab is important to feed back
the results, and revisit and refine the goals and visions over time.
Here, co-production of knowledge and ideas with users, stakeholders,
research organisations and government bodies is key, providing
urban living labs with the potential to be flexible to multiple ideas
and interests and to produce collective outcomes.
This intention to foster participation takes multiple forms, from
identifying stakeholder needs, deciding upon urban living labs goals
and visions, planning and designing to developing, implementing,
and evaluating urban living labs actions and updating ambitions.
An important practical challenge for many urban living labs lies in
how to achieve the inclusion of all key stakeholders and account
for their interests. Rather than being corporate-led or scientifically
determined modes of governance, urban living labs have the potential
to re-politicise urban development.
This final argument feeds into the discussion of leadership and ownership
of urban living labs. The ability of urban living labs to contribute to
urban sustainability depends on how they are designed and executed
in practice, and it appears that having a clear leader or owner is crucial.
There is an important coordination and management role for urban
living labs to be effective, although a delicate balance exists between
steering and controlling. Urban living labs need to remain flexible for
different stakeholders to engage in their development and direction.
Leadership of urban living labs can be broadly divided between three
different forms – strategic, civic and grassroots.
“Urban living labs are dedicated places providing
evidences on new solutions and technology helping larger
implementation.”
Thomas Johnsson, E.ON
The Emerging Landscape of Urban Living Labs | Characteristics, Practices and Examples 7
TYPES OF URBAN LIVING LABS
We identify 3 configurations of urban living labs – strategic, civic and
grassroots. These can be considered as ideal types that do not fully
represent ‘reality’ but capture the essence of different ways to design
urban living labs.
Strategic – these urban living labs are led by government or large
private actors, use urban areas as an arena for the pursuit of the
interests of other actors, and often operate in the whole city area with
multiple projects under one umbrella.
For example, an urban
Civic – these urban living labs are led by urban actors such as living lab could be a
universities, cities and urban developers, focus on economic and strategic platform in that a
sustainable urban development, are represented by either stand-alone city government received
projects or city-districts, and often have co-funding as central to a funding from the national
partnership model. government to establish a
platform for experimenting
Grassroots – these urban living labs are led by urban actors in civil with energy efficiency in
society or not for profit actors, focus on a broad agenda of well-being buildings.
and economy, often host micro-projects or single issue projects and
have limited budgets.
“Who is involved and what kinds of knowledge and competencies are
prioritised by urban living labs plays a key role in determining their
goals, outcomes and ultimately their broader impact.”
Jonas Bylund, JPI Urban Europe
We suggest that urban living labs have distinct capacities – or potential
to effect change – which are shaped by their disposition. Here we identify Another example could be
4 types – the trial, the enclave, the demonstration and the platform. an urban living lab that is
a grassroots enclave where
Trial – controls time and space in the urban arena in order to test, under local citizens organised an
what are often termed ‘real world’ conditions, particular products, urban gardening initiative.
technologies, or processes.
Enclave – seeks to undertake innovation under protected conditions,
a form of ‘niche’ in the traditional sense of innovation studies but one
that is usually protected through spatial segregation.
Demonstration – a managed form of contingency, demonstration
provides a showcase or exhibition of what the urban could resemble.
Platform – seeks to create an arena in which different interests are made
coincidental and foster the emergence of new urban configurations.
8 The Emerging Landscape of Urban Living Labs | Characteristics, Practices and Examples
PROF. JAMES EVANS, MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY
What are the key features of urban living labs?
“Urban living labs usually represent a bounded geographical, organisational or institutional
environment. This facilitates various types of interventions. Living labs were about ICT in the
beginning. But now urban living labs encompass many more areas and topics – from energy
transitions to community gardening.”
“Urban living labs open up a forum or space for a greater involvement of citizens and other
stakeholders in urban planning and development. The involvement of citizens calls for a more
sophisticated response to complex urban challenges, which stretches beyond surveys and focus
groups. Citizens can have great ideas. They can have visions of new possibilities.”
What are the key benefits for partners in urban living labs? And what positive impacts can
urban living labs have on cities?
“Cities can seek to innovate, adapt, and transit to a more sustainable future. This is where
experimentation comes in, which can help cities adopt and develop the ideas of sustainable cities.
At the same time, the funding available to municipalities often does not meet the spending required
to achieve ambitious goals. There is a funding gap, which calls for innovative approaches, where
business as usual is not an option.”
What are some pitfalls or common mistakes to avoid with urban living labs?
"The real challenge in operating an urban living lab is to make it possible for the partners involved
to really learn about what works in practice and put this knowledge to work. Often the monitoring
and evaluation required to make this happen attracts less budget. Furthermore, large projects have
to be presented to funding bodies as successes whatever, while more valuable learning is often
associated with what did not work.”
“Finally, it is important to have a clear idea of how the learning produced by urban living labs
can be incorporated into broader activities, policies or strategies in order to scale up impacts and
transform practice."
The Emerging Landscape of Urban Living Labs | Characteristics, Practices and Examples 9
STRATEGIC URBAN LIVING LAB EXAMPLES
Renewable Wilhelmsburg Climate
Protection Concept
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Lead partner: International Building
Exhibition (IBA)
Partner types: Government (local and
national) and business
Web: http://www.iba-hamburg.de/
Using the IBA showcase area, which extends from Veddel to Harburg upriver port, this
urban living lab illustrates how urban planners, architects, the public and planners can
make creative use of energy savings, energy efficiency and renewable energy potential. In
2015, half of the electricity needs of all buildings on the Elbe islands is produced on site by
climate-friendly and renewable energy, whereas by 2025 the entire electricity supply of the
buildings will be produced on site. The coverage of the heat demand is aimed for by 2050.
MK: SMART
Location: Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Lead partner: The Open University
Partner types: Government (mainly
local), academia, business (multinationals,
state-run, SMEs), and NGOs
Web: http://www.mksmart.org/
Milton Keynes was one of the 30 cities in the United Kingdom that were shortlisted in the
competition to be a Future Cities Demonstrator. MK:Smart was initiated in 2014. Universities
play a major leadership role in Milton Keynes future city development. There is a particular
focus on the urban ‘smart’ elements of making good use of city and citizen-generated
data. Key environmental objectives cover the transport, energy and water sectors with a
heavy information and data focus. The most striking aspects of this urban living lab are
its connection with the enterprise ecosystem in the city, the engagement of citizens in its
Smart Citizen Labs, and its educational components, including technical teaching kits, a
postgraduate certificate and educational programmes for SMEs and business students.
10 The Emerging Landscape of Urban Living Labs | Characteristics, Practices and Examples
DOMAINS OF URBAN LIVING LABS
Urban living labs can be categorised into 5 different domains –
community/local sustainability, ICT, mobility (or e-mobility) and energy,
social interaction/integration, and spatial/area development.
Community/local sustainability – often a focus on integrating
diverse stakeholders in research and innovation projects with
different thematic focus.
ICT – often a focus on the implementation of technical innovation in
the fields of energy, buildings and mobility.
Mobility and Energy – often a focus on sustainable transport,
e-mobility and energy.
Social interaction/integration – often a focus on establishing a
new sense of community.
Spatial/area development – often a focus on revitalizing buildings
and districts.
DR. CARINA BORGSTRÖM-HANSSON, WWF
Why do we need to design and develop sustainable cities?
“Given the impact of today’s urban lifestyles in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and appropriation
of ecological productivity and the fact the global urban population is expected to double within
the next couple of decades, we need to design and develop sustainable cities both to stay within
planetary boundaries and to enable a good life for billions of future urban residents.”
What are some key transitions to make towards sustainable cities?
“Shifting towards a more compact, green and diversified cityscape will be key to enable more easy
access to the city for all while using limited space and energy much more productively and equitably.”
What role does urban
experimentation (or urban
living labs) play in creating
sustainable cities?
“Today’s sustainability chal-
lenges urgently call for new
urban solutions which in its
turn require experimentation
on suitable scales and with
multiple stakeholders. This is
where urban living labs have
a key role to play.”
CIVIC URBAN LIVING LAB EXAMPLES
Urban.Gro.Lab
Location: Groningen, the Netherlands
Lead partner: University of Groningen
and Municipality of Groningen
Partner types: Local government,
academia, consultancy, artists, cultural
festival, business and entrepreneurs,
and NGOs
Web: http://urbangrolab.nl/
Urban.Gro.Lab is a creative breeding ground for people, questions, creativity, inspiration
and technology in the city of Groningen. It is an initiative of the Municipality of Groningen
and the Department of Planning of the University of Groningen. The city of Groningen is
used by the urban living lab as a ‘testing ground’ for high quality applied research that
focuses on current spatial and societal issues. The urban living lab wants to be a source of
knowledge and inspiration for the livable city of the future where science and practice are
intertwined in a dynamic urban experiment.
MEDIALAND Living Lab
Location: Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
Lead partner: Municipality of
Issy-les-Moulineaux
Partner types: Government (local),
academia and business
Web: http://www.issy.com/en/home
Issy-les-Moulineaux follows (since 1995) an ambitious digital technology strategy and it is
therefore one of the most connected French towns or districts (90% of the population) with
the most innovative online services (from payment of parking fees through mobile phone,
to online registration on voter lists, or management of children registration in schools and
recreational centers). This urban living lab has indeed developed a proactive policy to build
a local information society which is innovative and open to all.
12 The Emerging Landscape of Urban Living Labs | Characteristics, Practices and Examples
GRASSROOTS URBAN LIVING LAB EXAMPLES
Stapeln Open Maker-Space (STPLN)
Location: Malmö, Sweden
Lead organisation: STPLN
Partner types: NGOs, local government,
universities, SMEs and individual activists
Web: http://stpln.se/
STPLN is a cultural house that hosts a co-working facility, a venue for performing arts, a
space for exhibitions, performances and workshops and several do-it-yourself-workshops
for textile printing, sewing, carpentry, digital production, bicycle service and construction,
and creative reuse/recycling of waste materials from industry. It is targeted at people active
within the arts, technology and innovation, design, education or crafts. In most cases, people
may use STPLN for free, but in return people pay with time and knowledge. The building,
where STPLN operates, is owned by the City of Malmö, which also provides financial support.
This urban living lab provides new solutions for work and leisure for all citizen groups
in Malmö, and encourages more sustainable lifestyles among citizens, enhances social
cohesion, and allows for new ways of interaction, learning and exchange of skills.
Vienna Shares
Location: Vienna, Austria
Lead organisation: Vienna Shares
Partner types: NPOs and private
individuals
Web: http://www.viennashares.org/
Vienna Shares is a non-profit organisation in Vienna, founded in 2014. Vienna Shares sets
out to bring people together and contribute to a sustainable city. By creating a space for
sharing and exchanging goods, skills and ideas on a local level, Vienna Shares aims to reduce
waste and strengthen the community of Vienna. But this urban living lab also views itself as
an information platform regarding all kinds of topics around sharing past and present, the
understanding of sharing and the possibilities to foster a sharing culture.
The Emerging Landscape of Urban Living Labs | Characteristics, Practices and Examples 13
DR. JONAS BYLUND, JPI URBAN EUROPE
What are the key features of urban living labs?
“It is a forum for innovation, applied to the development of new products, systems,
services, and processes, employing working methods to integrate people into the entire
development process as users and co-creators, to explore, examine, experiment, test
and evaluate new ideas, scenarios, processes, systems, concepts and creative solutions
in complex and real contexts.“
What are the key benefits for partners in urban living labs? And what positive
impacts can urban living labs have on cities?
“Empathy is one crucial benefit for any designer or implementer (at a minimum, to
understand other, non-familiar and ‘irrational’ behaviours – perhaps not necessarily to
share them) who is convinced of co-creation or co-design as a way to shape more robust
practices and socio-technical systems. Hence, urban living labs open ‘access’ to and paves
the way to learn your ecosystem!“
“Positive impacts include the opportunity to tackle – in diverse ways – democratic deficits
in urban development and transitions. Urban living labs also come with a promise of
an increased sense of ownership through mutual learning among affected publics (or
‘stakeholders’).“
What are some pitfalls or common mistakes to avoid with urban living labs?
“It is not uncommon in policy to confuse urban living labs with ‘demonstration’. But to
only characterise urban living labs by ‘demonstration’ obfuscates their trial and innovation
co-creation aspects and objectives as well as the mutual learning and re-configuration
among all directly involved actors.“
ROLE OF MUNICIPALITIES IN URBAN LIVING LABS
Municipalities are often important stakeholders in urban living labs.
We identify 3 functional roles for municipalities – promoter, enabler
and partner. Municipalities can play multiple roles over the ‘life‘ of an
urban living lab.
Promoter – The role of promoter refers to when a municipality
initiates, finances and implements an urban living lab, or when a
municipality plays a leading role in the design and development of
an urban living lab.
Enabler – The role of enabler refers to when a municipality has an
interest in facilitating an urban living lab. Municipalities can open up
opportunities for collaboration and create supportive conditions for
urban living labs.
Partner – The role of partner refers to when a municipality engages
in an urban living lab in partnership on fairly equal terms with other
stakeholders. This often means shared leadership and participation,
but where the municipality has an explicit function.
MR. THOMAS JOHNSON, E.ON
Why do we need to design and develop
sustainable cities?
“Cities can substantially impact the
conditions on our planet”.
What are some key transitions to make
towards sustainable cities?
“The use of renewable sources of energy and
smart means of transportation.”
What role does urban experimentation
(or urban living labs) play in creating
sustainable cities?
“Urban living labs are dedicated places
providing evidences on new solutions and
technology helping larger implementation.”
STAGES IN URBAN LIVING LABS
These checklists can help actors planning or running or evaluating an
urban living lab to do a quick diagnosis. Guiding questions can help to
go through all the dimensions relevant for the design, operation and
evaluation of urban living labs.
EVALUATION DESIGN
OPERATION
Checklist for the DESIGN of urban living labs
• What is the shared vision for the future? How can an urban living
lab contribute to this vision?
• How can the population living in the area of the planned urban
living lab be characterised (e.g. socio-demographics, milieu)?
• Which stakeholder groups are passive or active in the creation of
an urban living lab?
• How will stakeholders be addressed and involved in the proposed
urban living lab?
• What kind of local experiments will be organised within the urban
living lab?
• Why should local actors participate in the urban living lab?
• What is needed to motivate actors to join and support the urban
living lab?
• What kind of impacts or benefits can people living in the area
expect from the urban living lab?
16 The Emerging Landscape of Urban Living Labs | Characteristics, Practices and Examples
Checklist for the OPERATION of urban living labs
• What will the urban living lab deliver in the course of its operation?
• What are the expected or intended outcomes of the urban living
lab?
• What are the milestones for the operation of the urban living lab?
• What resources (e.g. personnel, know-how, materials) are needed
for the operation of the urban living lab?
• How is the financing of the urban living lab ensured?
• Who is the owner of the urban living lab?
• Who are the key actors in the urban living lab?
• Are decision and management processes defined?
Checklist for the EVALUATION of urban living labs
• What is the purpose of the evaluation of the urban living lab?
• What is the main question that needs to be answered about the
urban living lab?
• Should the evaluation be of summative, formative, or interactive
character?
• What kind of data is needed for the evaluation – qualitative or
quantitative?
• Which methods (e.g. interviews, surveys, observations) for data
collection should be used in the evaluation?
• What resources are needed to carry out the evaluation?
• What are the timeframes for the planned evaluation of the urban
living lab?
• Are there any ethical issues that need to be handled?
The Emerging Landscape of Urban Living Labs | Characteristics, Practices and Examples 17
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT URBAN LIVING LABS?
Greening the
A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on sustainable cities developed Economy:
and organised by Lund University features a range of films and readings Sustainable Cities
on urban living labs. The MOOC is available for free, and runs over 5
weeks involving 10 teachers and 35 films. SIGN UP HERE!
This course explores sustainable cities as engines for greening the economy. It places cities in the
context of sustainable urban transformation and climate change. Sustainable urban transformation
refers to structural transformation processes – multi-dimensional and radical change – that can
effectively direct urban development towards ambitious sustainability and climate goals.
It connects the key trends of urbanization, decarbonisation and sustainability. It examines visions,
experiments and innovations in urban areas. It looks at practices (what is happening in cities at
present) and opportunities (what are the possibilities for cities going forwards into the future).
This course brings together a collection of diverse short films and key short readings on sustainable
cities as well as interactive forums and a practical assignment to create an online learning community.
It provides key examples of activities to promote sustainable cities in Scandinavia, Europe and
around the world.
1 Week 1: Sustainable Urban
Transformation
Sustainable Urban Transformation
Sustainable Cities
2
Urban Climate Governance
The Efficient City
WWF Housing
ICLEI Participatory Urban Agriculture in Week 2: Infrastructure and Planning
Quito, Ecuador Infrastructure and Planning
3
Building Standards in the Built
Environment
Cities and Climate
Week 3: Urban Living Labs Lighting the Future
Climate Governance & Urban Experiments WWF Transport
Urban Living Labs ICLEI Building Urban Resilience in
Urban Innovation and Living Labs Boulder, USA
4
Governance of Urban Sustainability Transitions
WWF Positive
ICLEI Energy Housekeeping in Seoul,
Republic of Korea Week 4: Future Urban Visions
Visioning Cities for the Future
5
Smart Sustainable Cities
Earth Hour City Challenge
Visions and Pathways 2040
Week 5: Sustainable Urban Lifestyles WWF Food
Sustainable Urban Lifestyles ICLEI Carbon Literacy in Manchester, UK
WWF and Sustainable Cities
Cities and the Sharing Economy
The Sustainability Challenge
WWF Consumption
ICLEI Joint Climate Action in Joondalup,
Australia
ABOUT GUST
Cities face a pressing challenge – how to provide
economic prosperity and social cohesion while
achieving environmental sustainability? In response,
new collaborations are emerging in the form of urban
living labs – sites devised to design, test and learn from
social and technical innovation in real time. Funded by JPI
Urban Europe, the aim of the GUST project is to examine, inform and advance the governance of
sustainability transitions through urban living labs, which are proliferating across Europe as a means
for testing innovations in buildings, transport and energy systems. Despite the experimentation
taking place on the ground, there is a lack of systematic learning across urban and national contexts.
GUST APPROACH
• Design: research on the ways in which urban living labs are designed and how urban living labs
vary between urban contexts.
• Practices: research on how, by whom and with what impact urban living labs are put into practice.
• Processes: understanding the processes through which urban living labs create an impact.
GUST METHODOLOGY
• In-depth cases of urban living labs from Sweden, the UK, Austria and the Netherlands including
the cities of Malmö, Newcastle, Graz and Rotterdam.
• Snap-shot cases of urban living labs from across Europe.
GUST OUTCOMES
• A systematic framework for evaluating the design, practices and processes of urban living labs
to enable the comparative analysis of their potential and limitations.
• New insights into the governance of urban sustainability and improving the design and
implementation of urban living labs in order to realise their potential.
GUST PARTNERS
The GUST project brings together leading European research partners and practitioners from
Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands and Austria to investigate urban living labs.
The Emerging Landscape of Urban Living Labs | Characteristics, Practices and Examples 19
Urban living labs are
sites devised to design,
test and learn from
social and technical
innovation in real time.
www.urbanlivinglabs.net
