UrbanTestbeds.JR - Project Story

Engaging Young Citizens to build a sustainable Urban Future

UrbanTestbeds.JR was a transnational project under the Interreg Baltic Sea Region program, focusing on how communities can engage with young citizens to co-create sustainable urban futures. At its core, the project emphasizes capacity building through hands-on experiences in developing urban future scenarios, incorporating artificial intelligence, urban data, and urban ideation into the co-creation processes.

The project brought together a diverse coalition of stakeholders, including local public authorities, higher research institutions, and interest groups from Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Latvia. Cultural institutions acted as connectors to young citizens and co-facilitators for the young citizens’ engagements. This collaboration aims to strengthen participatory capacity, a crucial element for fostering inclusivity in resilient communities.

The project’s outcomes are encapsulated in the “Playbook – UrbanTestbeds.JR,” a multi-perspective guide that explores young citizens’ engagement in the context of co-creation, urban experimentation, artificial intelligence applications, and storytelling, with a multitude of transnational use cases.

UrbanTestbeds.JR was led by HafenCity University Hamburg, in partnership with Aarhus University, Luleå University of Technology, and, along with Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, municipalities and organizations such as the City of Hamburg, Aarhus Municipality, Luleå Municipality, Valmiera Municipality, Children’s Museum Hamburg, Code for Hamburg, ARIC Artificial Intelligence Center Hamburg, Central Library Hamburg, Coding Pirates Denmark, DOKK1 Central Library Aarhus, Teknikens Hus (Science Center) Luleå, and AI Sweden.

Programme Manual Online

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