Urban labs, or ‘urban living labs’, are a way to organise approaches to dealing with urban complexity and urban challenges. Labs are geographically or institutionally bound arenas that stimulate intentional collaboration between researches, citizens, companies, experts and local authorities. They can also be platforms for experimenting with governance. Labs come in an enormous variety of forms. Labs have the advantages that a dedicated space, capacity and methodology is used to address complexity and city or systemic innovation.
In the experience of the Antwerp Citylab2050 outputs of a lab are: increased knowledge among participants, coalitions and networks around innovative practices, increased engagement of stakeholders, and policy changes with and by stakeholders.
Labs
