In order to solve the complex challenges of our time, research must also break new ground - including the creation of living labs. It is important to leave unidirectional knowledge production and transfer behind and instead move towards collaborative and co-creative research modes.

In order to identify and pursue innovative paths for smart and sustainable solutions for sustainable urban development, the research cluster considers the Wilhelminenhof campus at HTW Berlin a living lab. Questions of sustainable urban development are discussed in dialogue with a wide range of actors from science, business, politics, administration and society. This is also against the background of the further development of HTW Berlin as an open and innovative university which embraces the Citizen Science approach.

In recent years, living labs have established themselves as a new research format and infrastructure against the backdrop of the growing relevance of sustainability-oriented transformational research (cf. Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung für Globale Umweltveränderungen (German Advisory Council on Global Change) 2016, p. 20; Schneidewind 2014, p. 1).

In the context of transformative research, a living lab refers to an institutionalised setting in which various real-life experiments are conducted. In a process of co-design, co-production and co-evaluation of diverse actors from science, business, politics and civil society, solutions for sustainability challenges are developed, tested and implemented in this real space in a transdisciplinary manner. As a result, change processes are initiated and scientific as well as societal learning processes are co-evaluated and perpetuated (cf. among others Schäpke, Stelzer et al. 2017, p.10; Parodi, Beecroft et al. 2016, p. 17; Schneidewind 2014, p. 3; Defila & Di Giulio 2018, p. 9).

Living Labs operate at the interface of knowledge production, transfer and application. System-based, target-related and transformational knowledge derived from different disciplines and actors from the fields of science and practice are combined within the framework of co-creative cooperation (cf. Schneidewind & Singer-Brodowski 2013, p. 72, p. 125). As a viable platform for transdisciplinarity, living labs thus contribute to the further development of transformative knowledge for the Great Transformation (WBGU - German Advisory Council on Global Change) (Schneidewind 2014, p. 1; cf. among others Augenstein et al. 2016, p. 169f).

Living Labs are motivated by the guiding idea of developing co-creative transformation paths: how can we start to shape the path to a desirable sustainable future together in the here and now?

Literatur:

Augenstein, Karoline; Haake, Hans; Palzkill, Alexandra; Schneidewind, Uwe; Singer-Brodowski, Mandy; Stelzer, Franziska; Wanner, Matthias (2016): Von der Stadt zum urbanen Labor – eine Einführung am Beispiel des Reallabors Wuppertal. In: Kegler, Harald; Hahne, Ulf (Hg.): Resilienz. Stadt und Region – Reallabore der resilienzorientierten Transformation. Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main

Beecroft, Richard; Parodi, Oliver (2016): Reallabore als Orte der Nachhaltigkeitsforschung und Transformation. In: TATuP 25 (3), S. 4–8. DOI: 10.14512/tatup.25.3.4.

Di Giulio, Antonietta; Defila, Rico (Hg.) (2018): Transdisziplinär und transformativ forschen, Band 1. Eine Methodensammlung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Schäpke, Niko; Stelzer, Franziska; Bergmann, Matthias; Singer-Brodowski, Mandy; Wanner, Matthias; Caniglia, Guido; Lang, Daniel J. (2017): Reallabore im Kontext transformativer Forschung: Ansatzpunkte zur Konzeption und Einbettung in den internationalen Forschungsstand. Leuphana Universität. Lüneburg (IETSR Discussion papers in Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research). Online verfügbar unter www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/168596 (Zugriff: 24.08.2023)

Schneidewind, Uwe (2014): Urbane Reallabore – ein Blick in die aktuelle Forschungswerkstatt. pnd | online III. Online verfügbar unter: epub.wupperinst.org/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/5706/file/5706_Schneidewind.pdf (Zugriff: 24.08.2023)

Schneidewind, Uwe; Singer-Brodowski, Mandy (2013):Transformative Wissenschaft. Klimawandel im deutschen Wissenschafts- und Hochschulsystem. Metropolis: Marburg