An unsafe crosswalk, a public square that is difficult to enjoy, or a mobility service that does not meet residents’ needs: people who live in a city often know its problems well. Finding effective solutions, testing them on the ground, and determining whether they could work elsewhere is more challenging.
This is where urban Living Labs come in. They are real-world testing environments where residents, local governments, universities, businesses, and organizations work together to design and test innovations. They do more than collect suggestions: the people who will use a service also help shape, assess, and improve it.
Let’s explore what Living Labs are, how they work, and why they can help make cities more sustainable, inclusive, and smart.
Table of contents
What is an urban Living Lab?
A Living Lab is an open innovation ecosystem that involves end users in designing and testing new solutions. In an urban setting, it may focus on a neighborhood, a public service, or a challenge shared by several communities.
The Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers describes a Living Lab as a space where different stakeholders work together to address complex local challenges, test ideas and technologies, and evaluate them in real-world settings.
Its defining feature is co-design: residents are not merely the recipients of decisions already made, but active participants in the process. A Living Lab does not necessarily need a dedicated building or physical laboratory. It can take shape through meetings, digital platforms, street-level trials, and monitoring activities.
Living Labs and smart cities: why people matter as much as technology
Sensors, data, and artificial intelligence can help us understand how a city works. But a technologically advanced solution is not automatically useful, accessible, or accepted by the public. A public transportation app, for example, needs to be tested with people who travel every day, including older adults and people with disabilities.
Urban Living Labs connect digital transformation with people’s needs. Data analysis may provide a starting point, but the crucial step is engaging actual users, followed by testing and adjustments. This approach complements the technologies discussed in our article on digital twins and smart cities: simulations can inform decisions, while real-world testing with residents helps assess their practical effects.
How to organize a Living Lab: 7 practical steps
There is no single model that works for every city. Still, a Living Lab can be structured around seven steps, adapting activities and tools to local needs.
- Identify a specific problem. Start with a measurable need, such as access to a bus stop or air quality near a school, rather than with a technology to promote.
- Engage the people affected. Listen to residents, community organizations, local authorities, businesses, and researchers, including groups that are often underrepresented in public participation.
- Define goals and indicators. Decide in advance what improvements to measure: travel times, ease of use, participation, resource consumption, or user satisfaction.
- Co-design potential solutions. Use workshops, interviews, and digital tools to compare several ideas, documenting the needs and proposals that emerge.
- Run a small-scale pilot. Build a prototype or pilot project in a limited setting, with clear responsibilities and due attention to safety and data protection.
- Collect results and identify challenges. Combine field observations, quantitative data, and user feedback, rather than treating any single indicator as sufficient evidence.
- Improve and assess scalability. Fix what does not work and determine whether to expand, adapt, or discontinue the solution when results fall short.
The key is not to treat the first prototype as the final result. In a Living Lab, even a test that reveals a flaw can generate valuable insights for future decisions.
Three examples of Living Labs in cities
Urban mobility. Under the public MaaS for Italy initiative, Milan and Turin were selected to test connected, cooperative, and automated mobility solutions through dedicated Living Labs. The approach involves testing services in real-world conditions and engaging users in their evaluation. It shows how experimentation can come before a service is rolled out more broadly.
Air quality. The EU-funded iSCAPE project, featured on the CORDIS portal, used Living Labs to involve local communities in understanding and improving urban air quality. Sensors, awareness-raising activities, and dialogue with stakeholders helped connect scientific evidence with residents’ needs.
Urban regeneration and shared spaces. The EU-funded gE.CO Living Lab project studied and supported communities managing fab labs, hubs, incubators, and regenerated social spaces. In this case, innovation was about more than technology: it also concerned new ways for residents and institutions to work together.
What challenges need to be addressed?
Participation does not happen automatically just because a meeting is organized. It is important to clarify who makes decisions, which proposals can realistically be implemented, how collected data will be used, and how results will be communicated.
Common risks include engaging only residents who are already active, lacking the resources to continue after a pilot, and struggling to measure tangible benefits. Addressing these risks requires accessible activities, documented results, and realistic commitments from the organizations involved.
A Living Lab can therefore improve public decision-making, but it cannot guarantee that every experiment will become a permanent service. Being transparent about a project’s limitations is an essential part of meaningful participation.
Frequently asked questions about urban Living Labs
How is a Living Lab different from a traditional laboratory?
A traditional laboratory may operate in a controlled environment separated from everyday use. A Living Lab brings experimentation into real-life settings and directly involves end users in design and evaluation.
Who can take part in a Living Lab?
Residents, community organizations, businesses, universities, research centers, and public authorities. Participation arrangements depend on the project and its objectives.
Does a Living Lab have to use digital technology?
No. Digital tools can support data collection, dialogue, and experimentation, but a Living Lab may also address social, environmental, and organizational challenges without relying on any particular technology.
JO Education and innovation shaped together with local communities
A smarter city is not simply one equipped with new tools. It is a community that can bring skills, needs, and opportunities together. This is why urban Living Labs are closely aligned with the work of local innovation ecosystems.
Through Innovation Hub Catania, JO Education promotes awareness of digital transformation and connects residents, talented individuals, businesses, and institutions. Like Living Labs, this work emphasizes collaboration and solutions that meet local needs, without suggesting that the Hub is itself a formally established Living Lab.
Putting people at the center of innovation means listening before designing, testing before scaling, and evaluating before claiming success. These are the foundations of a smart city genuinely focused on quality of life.