Online Seminar: Urban Living Labs – Experimenting for sustainable urban transformations
Posted on December 17, 2020
Organized by: ENRICH in Brazil, JPI Urban Europe
Date: 17 December – 12:30-14.00 CET (Brussels); 08:30-10.00 BRT (Brasilia)
Introduction & Background
Smart city concept originated from using information and communication technologies for urban areas. However, after a decade of developing and demonstrating projects the need for rethinking for planning smart and sustainable cities became evident. As a result, it’s meaning has been expanded towards inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and human settlements, as in line with the Societal Development Goals of the United Nations (SDG#11).
Due to rapid urbanization, many cities around the world are facing serious challenges such as ensuring adequate housing and infrastructure to support growing populations, to confronting the environmental impact of urban extension, to reducing vulnerability to disasters.
Even though the challenges are similar, urban contexts (socio-economic, historic, political etc.) are very different from one city to the other, and in many cases even within a city. Therefore, experimental methods, such as urban living labs can make the difference. Urban living labs (ULL) are arenas for innovation and transformation while providing test grounds in a real-world environment to co-create and test new urban solutions and bring them into different contexts. They are a place and mode for experiments for multiple stakeholders and on suitable scales.
Over the last decade, ULLs have been dealing with multifaceted urban challenges and tools to maintain science-policy-society co-creation process. ULLs may address a wide range of specific challenges in urban transitions, such as urban governance, water management, e-participation, mobility management, inter-ethnic co-existence, stakeholder involvement, etc. Due to their territorial anchoring they are very context specific.
Objective: In this webinar participants will gain knowledge and understanding of the ULL concept, its characteristics, as well as its tool for how to address the city solutions in an innovative way. Furthermore, two cases will provide concrete examples. Question and answer session will allow participants to clarify their understanding and further elaborate on the topic.
Watch the video here:
Background Documents / Videos on Urban Living Labs:
- Brochure: Urban Living Labs by JPI Urban Europe (https://jpi-urbaneurope.eu/app/uploads/2018/01/Urban-Living-Labs-info-sheet-201027.pdf)
- Video/ Keynote: Urban Living Labs – Learning for Urban Transitions? by Timo von Wirth
Speakers
Berna Windischbaur, ENRICH in Brazil
Johannes Riegler, JPI Urban Europe, Moderator
Jonas Bylund, JPI Urban Europe and the Swedish Centre for Innovation and Quality in the Built Environment
Elena Maranghi, SoHoLab, Politecnico di Milano
Tatiana Schreiner, Urban Governance Researcher, UFSC Urban Mobility Observatory
Marcus J. Rocha, Head of Science, Technology and Innovation, Florianópolis City Hall
