Urban Experiments

29/03/2019

This video explains the 'why' of the SmarterLabs-project. More information at: SmarterLabs.eu

31/08/2017

Successful project end of URB@Exp

Three years have passed in the blink of an eye and the URB@Exp project arrived at the end of its term. During the last years, URB@Exp explored a great variety of urban lab experiments and contexts through close collaboration between five city partners, practitioners and researchers. The project’s action research approach ensured that various urban actors became effectively involved in the co-creation of our final deliverables: a small book with Guidelines for Urban Labs (http://www.urbanexp.eu/guidelines) and a LAB kit for (future) urban lab practitioners (http://www.urbanexp.eu/labkit).

The guidelines are intended for team members and managers of urban labs and, more generally, for civil servants and facilitators in cities working with experimental urban governance processes to tackle complex challenges. They aim to support the everyday practice of collaboratively experimenting and learning how to create more sustainable and inclusive cities.

The LAB kit has been designed as a tool for inspiration to help municipalities or other stakeholders in a city on their way in drafting or sharpening the outlines of an urban lab. The LAB kit helps to raise and discuss key questions that are worth asking before engaging in such an endeavour. We hope these outcomes provide inspiration for lab practitioners, policymakers and urban stakeholders thinking about and struggling with experimental collaborative approaches and wanting to learn about new forms of participatory urban governance.

The URB@Exp consortium thanks all involved actors and interested followers! If you have further questions, please visit our website www.urbanexp.eu or contact our lead partner ICIS - Maastricht University via email under [email protected] or [email protected].

Guidelines for urban practitioners interested in urban laboratories are one of the key outcomes of the urb@exp research project.

07/08/2017

City Partner Exchange Graz - Berlin - Potsdam
From 3rd to 4th of August partners from the City of Graz and the University of Graz had an inspiring city exchange meeting with Berlin and Potsdam (Germany). In Potsdam, we gained insights in their innovative approach towards a systematic citizen participation from the perspective of Dieter Jetschmanegg (Head of Communication of Potsdam), Nils Jonas and Thomas Geisler (Department of Citizen Participation of Potsdam). In Berlin, we discussed the contribution of a systematic approach towards citizen participation in the background of sustainable urban development with Stephanie Bock (German Institute of Urban Affairs, Difu) and Sylvia Euler (District Management Coordinator). We elaborated with all actors how the URB@Exp Guidelines for Urban Labs and the URB@Exp LABkit could help them in their daily work.

27/06/2017

Check out our current contribution to the JPI Urban Europe website and newsletter!

Results of 3-years transdisciplinary research co-funded by JPI Urban Europe From 7-8 June 2017, the URB@Exp project consortium held a final conference in the city of Graz (Austria) to present and…

23/03/2017

Last Thursday, Nicole Rijkens (ICIS & Pantopicon) and Gert Vandermosten (Citylab2050, Antwerp) introduced the prototype of the Urb@Exp inspiration kit. This kit in development can assist cities in setting up and running an urban lab. Together, 80 civil servants of the Eurocities network tested the kit. End conclusion of the workshop: the kit is promising.

The final version of the kit will be launched during the final conference of the Urb@exp project (Graz, 7-8 June). Registration for the conference will be opened on 1/4/2017

10/11/2016

URB@Exp Project meeting in Lund: working hard on our tool kit and guidelines on how to create an urban lab. Transdisciplinary knowledge exchange between academic and city partners at its best :-)

14/10/2016

How can sharing initiatives render urban contexts more sustainable? Which future sharing initiatives can we develop for Antwerp? Which levers might help these initiatives gain traction and grow? What might be the role of local authorities in all of this? Around these and other questions Stadslab2050...

13/07/2016

On June 3rd 2016, our partners from MaastrichtLab and Maastricht University organized a feedback workshop with urban lab initiatives from the Netherlands on the inspiration kit developed by the Antwerp based foresight and design studio Pantopicon. The practically-oriented L.A.B.kit for urban lab practitioners offers a stepwise approach for the effective implementation of urban labs as a new form of urban governance. Thereby, the insights learned from the Dutch urban lab initiatives provide valuable inputs for the further development of the kit.

30/05/2016

A nice article about the URB@Exp project.... check it out!

Urban labs have much to teach us. About co-creation, for instance, and about new forms of local governance. And they might just help us to address big...

29/04/2016

Last week our URB@Exp consortium had a very productive project meeting in the beautiful city of Antwerp. On Wednesday the foresight and design studio Pantopicon organized an inspiring learning journey through the town to experience some of the initiatives that are supported by Antwerp Citylab2050. On Tuesday we discussed the preliminary results from the action research activities in our five partner cities that are the basis for guidelines and design principles for establishing and running urban labs. Moreover, a prototype of the inspiration kit for urban labs was presented and discussed extensively. On Friday the academic partners worked out some ideas for scientific publications and tackled organizational aspects regarding our future initiatives.

11/04/2016

Today our academic partners from the University of Graz had a very productive bi-lateral city exchange meeting. Together with their city partners from Graz and Leoben they discussed key aspects of implementing a city lab. We are looking forward to see the results in Antwerp next week at our URB@Exp project meeting.