Urban Living Labs

Cities worldwide are facing many social, economic, and environmental challenges on their path to sustainable urban development. Conventional top-down approaches often do not suffice as tackling these interconnected issues requires creative and collaborative efforts. The Urban Living Labs (ULL) approach supports cities in developing and testing innovative and participatory solutions.  Through the Urban Living Labs, GIZ and BMZ intend to enrich the dialogue with development cooperation partners on the guiding principles of German development cooperation and aim to match these principles with real-life projects. 

This interactive Practitioner’s Guide is a condensed and application-focused overview. It quickly takes you through each step of the Urban Living Lab approach. 

What Are Urban Living Labs and Their Benefits?

Urban Living Labs provide an experimental platform for different stakeholders to develop concrete and innovative solutions that are tested in real-world urban contexts. A Living Lab brings together different levels of government, civil society, private sector actors and the local communities to put a demand concerning a common goal into practice.  It promotes participatory and multidisciplinary interventions organising workshops, activities for awareness-raising and small construction measures that foster decent, sustainable and safe neighbourhoods. 

Urban Living Labs are characterised by 5 features:

1. They are tested in real-life environments directly in the city.
2. The approach is centred around the process of learning and experimentation.
3. Urban Living Labs are based on the participation of diverse stakeholders.
4. One or a few so-called local champions are in charge of coordination and leadership.
5. Innovations are tested, evaluated and improved to be spread, replicated or adapted in other neighbourhoods or countries.

Learn more about the benefits of these five characteristics at the example of the Urban Living Lab in Dar es Salaam in this video:

Implementing Urban Living Labs

Implementing the Urban Living Labs Approach follows a systemic framework to ensure all aspects of the project are integrated coherently and all participants are actively engaged. These five steps are crucial to the approach:

1. Inform: Raise awareness and understanding of the innovation addressed within the Urban Living Lab.
2. Inspire: Showcase successful projects to motivate the participants. It is important to engage the necessary stakeholders and work collaboratively.
3. Initiate: Gather potential solutions in a co-development process that identifies challenges and opportunities.
4. Implement: All participants co-create sustainable urban solutions by working together on refining, developing and implementing them.
5. Impact: Co-evaluate the outcome and effectiveness of the implementation to upscale and adapt solutions.

Explore more details of each step at the example of Belo Horizonte in this video:

Urban Living Labs in Development Cooperation

1. Potentials

• Involving the community in urban development is a priority of ULLs. The participatory and inclusive approach engages residents and stakeholders in the decision-making process.
• ULLs create solutions that are contextually relevant and customised to unique local needs.
• ULLs foster innovation through collaboration, experimentation, and co-creation among stakeholders.
• ULLs can be platforms to share knowledge and exchange learning between local actors, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.
• Scalability and replicability: Successful projects can serve as a blueprint for implementing similar interventions in other neighbourhoods, cities, or even countries.
• ULLs pose a holistic and integrated approach to city development that considers social, economic, and environmental aspects.

2. Challenges

• Organisational and structural barriers include a lack of political will and long-term commitment, a lack of supportive policy frameworks, as well as insufficient human and financial resources.
• Cognitive and behavioural barriers can occur when ULLs are perceived as too complex or due to negative past experiences and reluctance to risk and change.
• Knowledge and process barriers may arise due to the unknown value and benefits of ULLs.
• Other barriers can involve temporality and efficiency.

3. Research Results

GIZ Sector Programme Cities cooperated with the Wuppertal Institute, a leading international think tank for sustainability research, to jointly explore the method of Urban Living Labs and its use for sustainable urban development in international development cooperation.

You can read and download the research’s results here:

• Urban Living Labs as Tools for a Just Transition: Adapting the Living Lab Approach into the Development Cooperation Context (Guide)
• Urban Living Labs as Tools for a Just Transition: Policy Paper on Innovation Projects in Development Cooperation

Urban Living Labs in Practice 

1. Cities CHALLENGE

The Cities CHALLENGE ideas competition serves to test innovative approaches for integrated urban development in four partner countries. In its latest edition, four Urban Living Labs in South Africa, India, Mexico, and Bangladesh contributed to the creation of climate-adapted, connected, and liveable neighbourhoods in their cities.

For information on the previous Cities Challenge, see our report Cities Challenge: 2030 Agenda meets Urban Climate Action with insights from the Urban Living Labs in Ecuador – The Guardian of the Hills, Jordan – Urban Micro-Lungs, Namibia – Climate-sensitive Urban Development and Serbia – The Food Shifters.

2. City WORKS

City WORKS is a digital toolbox that aims to localise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the development of local and regional approaches. Two projects in Egypt and Bangladesh explored the potential of localising the SDGs through an Urban Living Labs approach.

Find out more about the projects and more success stories from City WORKS on our website www.localising-global-agendas.org.

3. Other Case Studies

BELO HORIZONTE

The Belo Horizonte tested the concept of so-called EcoZones in three neighbourhoods within the city to increase road safety and improve the local air quality.