Lund University Living Lab - Testbed for social innovations in student housing

Purpose and goal:

Lund University Living Lab will be a part of student housing Cassiopeia that will be built between LTH campus and Ideon in the city of Lund. The Urban Arena research network at Lund University and Akademiska Hus will work together on issues concerning future student housing. LU Living Lab will be a testbed for exploration, development and testing of innovative solutions, services and processes that aim to incorporate social values as well as environmental and economic values to future student housing through a systemic approach and tenant participation.

Expected results and effects:

LU Living Lab will offer different types of cluster apartments as well as shared indoor and outdoor spaces. The expected results are new knowledge about how student housing should be designed to foster community, health and social sustainability. The newly developed methods, products and processes will be assessed and then applied by Akademiska Hus in future student housing projects.

The results could also be applied in other types of housing. Arkitema, Region Skåne, Sensus studieförbundet, Future by Lund and Share Future Living will contribute to the dissemination of knowledge. Approach and implementation:

The project will be conducted during four years and is divided into three work packages (WPs). In WP1, LU’s researchers and Cassiopeia´s design team collaborate to design the testbed for ensuring that it will satisfy the needs of different actors. WP2 focuses on building the organizational platform, developing a network consisting of local organizations, and further developing the research network.

WP3 deals with the first year of operation, focusing on testing and evaluating various innovative solutions. In parallel, funding for research projects at LU Living Lab are applied for.