Zukunftslabor Stuttgart – Shaping the future together
The Future Lab wants to contribute to future viability with science, education, culture, business and civil society.
Team name: INITIATIVE ZUKUNFTSLABOR STUTTGART
Authors: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuster, Shirin Frangoul-Brückner, Germany
How do we want to live in the future? What can we in the Stuttgart region do together with science, research, education, culture, business and civil society to contribute to sustainable development far beyond the region's borders? How can the younger generation in particular get involved in shaping the future? As an international city, Stuttgart has many advantages thanks to its global network. This gives rise to obligations and opportunities to contribute to future sustainability not only regionally but also internationally with our innovative strength.
The Stuttgart Future Lab
The Future Lab is a place, a platform for encounters and exchange in order to help shape interdisciplinary, international and integrative transformations for a sustainable future in social, ecological and economic terms. As a showcase and workshop for innovative solutions, the Future Lab promotes the active participation of the younger generation.
1. Local-global cooperation for sustainable development
Sustainable development requires local-global cooperation between universities, colleges, research institutes and companies with their international networks. They can contribute to climate protection measures such as CO2 neutrality, biodiversity and the circular economy. This applies to urban development, construction, mobility, energy, agriculture and food as well as sustainable economic activity through environmentally friendly production/products and future work through digitalization and AI.
2. Helping to shape transformation processes sustainably
Implementing the sustainability goals will lead to significant changes in the way we live our lives, i.e. how we eat, work, move around and educate ourselves. Citizens and companies must therefore be included and actively involved in these changes, e.g. through interactive science communication, workshops, hands-on experiments, gaming for playful learning and exploration, innovation awards, science festivals, showcases for innovation and examples of best practice.
3. Target groups
The Future Lab is open to everyone: not only to children and young people as futurologists, but also to schools and further education institutions (e.g. adult education centres), associations and organizations (e.g. citizen science groups).
4. The building as a real laboratory
Shaping the future is a complex, continuous learning and development process with different participants, topics and tasks. The building as a learning and research project should be sustainable in its construction and operation as well as open and flexible: rooms for workshops, for learning and discussion, with interactive media and immersive experience offerings, science labs, and a variety of other facilities.n
Jury statement
Stuttgart has been internationally successful as a city of inventors and engineers since the 20th century. With the idea of “Zukunftslabor Stuttgart”, the A3 area and thus Stuttgart Rosenstein can continue and visibly strengthen this quality in the 21st century. The idea impresses with its clear focus on the task of cooperatively shaping the future, bringing together innovation, business, education, culture and society from kindergarten to students and senior citizens and bringing them into the center of the city.
There is a clear focus on a well-coordinated mix of uses, which aims to be a real laboratory, meeting place and showcase for the central issues of Stuttgart's urban and economic development. With the planned flexible uses, such as citizen science labs, restaurants, workshops, learning and event venues, a high level of footfall can be achieved for many target groups throughout the year at all times of the day and night. At the same time, the consistent implementation of the idea in the region and for international visitors/students/professionals can be a real magnet.
A positive aspect to be emphasized here is that the submission deliberately dispenses with architectural considerations and clearly focuses on the content concept. The proposed building volume allows for further possible uses of the space. The idea also closes a significant gap in the city center's current offerings - for the future of Stuttgart, innovation must be experienced and shaped much more in the heart of the state capital. This could be achieved by the “Stuttgart Future Lab” through further development and implementation.