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Theme Smart City

CityLAB Berlin

How can Berlin shape digital transformation together with its vibrant urban community? A Smart City is not achieved simply by digitising processes. It requires the sovereign use of new technologies in ways that address both the needs and the barriers experienced by all. CityLAB Berlin operates as a public innovation lab at the intersection of urban society, public administration and academia.

Target group: Urban society and administration
Topic: Smart City
Running time: Since June 2019

The team of CityLAB 2023
The CityLAB offices are located in the former Tempelhof Airport.
Prototyping is about obtaining feedback from stakeholders and potential users and integrating it directly into the design.
Gieß den Kiez is a platform for coordinating the watering of Berlin's trees and invites all citizens to participate in the preservation of our endangered tree population.
Citizens can use the Gieß den Kiez app to find out about the water requirements of trees in their neighborhood and mark when and how much they have watered.
The Kiezlabor model project shows what participation in the city can look like: With an energy self-sufficient Tiny House that is touring Berlin's districts - and shaping the city of tomorrow with digital content.
The Kiezlabor is a so-called mobile urban laboratory. As a tiny house, it can be set up and dismantled at different locations as it is made up of just a few components.
The Parla software prototype is based on artificial intelligence and enables the searchability of over 10,000 public administration documents.

What is CityLAB Berlin?

CityLAB is Berlin’s experimental innovation lab. It provides impetus for the digital transformation of the city in collaboration with administrative staff, residents and other urban stakeholders. Founded at the former Tempelhof Airport, CityLAB was established with the objective of

identifying the challenges and potentials of urban digitalisation,
discussing them with a view to practical implementation, and
addressing them through prototypical applications.

The goals of CityLAB are to:

strengthen digital competencies within public administration and among other urban stakeholders,
develop high quality digital services in both content and technical terms and test them as prototypes together with relevant target groups,
create new forms of digital participation and promote a cultural shift in public sector digitalisation.

How does CityLAB Berlin work?

CityLAB works with digital solutions and participatory methods to make life in Berlin more sustainable and liveable:

Digital participation and administrative digitalisation

Across all projects, CityLAB focuses on generating tangible value for the City of Berlin and its residents. To achieve this, it works directly with the Berlin public administration and the urban community.

In Bürgeramt der Zukunft, CityLAB collaborates with the Berlin public administration to develop user centred solutions for services and physical spaces within citizen service centres. Through co design and testing phases, processes, forms and information pathways are reviewed, prototypes iterated and tested in real situations, from clearer language to well defined touchpoints along both in person and online journeys. The results inform pilot locations and guidelines, making administrative services more accessible.

CityLAB works to strengthen digital participation in Berlin so that public sector digitalisation reflects the actual needs and requirements of the entire urban community.

Prototyping & Open Source

CityLAB develops digital applications and prototypes that simplify everyday life in Berlin. The Gieß den Kiez app supports residents in watering trees. Parla facilitates access to administrative information. Fairgnügen tests digital tools for fairer access to cultural offerings.

Everything produced by CityLAB is made publicly available. All source code is released under open licences for reuse as open source software.

Participation and knowledge transfer

CityLAB promotes participation through structured engagement processes and formats that support Berlin’s path toward a sustainable and public interest oriented Smart City. A dedicated team currently supports the implementation of the Berlin strategy Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin.

As a public venue, CityLAB serves as a platform for exchange between civil society, business, public administration and academia. Through events, workshops and networking formats, it brings together diverse actors to develop solutions for the challenges of a changing city and society.

Participation also takes place beyond the physical CityLAB space. Kiezlabor, an energy self sufficient Tiny House, travels through Berlin’s districts and creates on site spaces for co creation. Stadtlabor2Go transfers this approach to other municipalities together with Wiesbaden and Mönchengladbach. Local innovation spaces are established that combine civic participation, service design and user centred administrative services.

Interdisciplinary research and education

Alongside project implementation and prototyping, interdisciplinary research plays an important role at CityLAB. Projects such as QTrees use artificial intelligence to identify vulnerable urban trees. Freemove explores anonymisation methods for mobility data in support of sustainable urban planning.

In its public exhibition, CityLAB presents interactive exhibits that provide insights into ongoing projects and highlight the work of network partners. Educational programmes are often combined with excursions for university lectures, school classes or seminars.

We are working to make Berlin a city in which public sector digitalisation is shaped competently, practically and in the interest of its residents.

Dr. Benjamin Seibel :
Leitung CityLAB Berlin

Exhibition

Experience the city of the future in interactive exhibits. Due to current Corona regulations, the exhibition will remain closed until further notice.

What's next for CityLAB Berlin?

Since the end of 2022, Berlin has had a new Smart City and digital strategy, to whose development CityLAB contributed. The strategy Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin strategy was adopted by the Berlin Senate and entered implementation in 2023 with five pilot projects. As part of the implementation phase, CityLAB continues in 2025 to support the measure teams both methodologically and technically and to organise exchange and networking formats.

Kiezlabor is one of these formats implemented by CityLAB within the framework of Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin. In 2025, the mobile urban lab will again travel to various locations across Berlin to develop solutions for the city of tomorrow together with actors from civil society and public administration.

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