Launch of the real-world laboratory – ‘Urban Production for Saxony’

Project duration: March 2022–December 2022

Digitalisation, customisation and globalisation are also bringing about lasting change to the German industrial sector. Grey, noisy industrial production sites are a thing of the past, and resource-efficient, clean and low-emission manufacturing is making inner-city production viable once again. At least, that is the theory behind urban production, which is currently being discussed both nationally and internationally as part of the debate on the ‘productive city’. Initial studies are already pointing to a re-urbanisation of industry (see, for example, Gornig and Werwatz 2018). Not least, the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine demonstrate that there is a need for small-scale (productive) economic structures which, being locally based, can respond flexibly to global upheavals.

The aim of the SMWK research project is to launch a real-world laboratory entitled ‘Urban Production for Saxony’. To this end, through dialogue with representatives from the manufacturing sector, public administration, academia and politics, the project will identify the framework conditions as well as the relevant stakeholders and networks that are to contribute to the establishment of such a real-world laboratory. In the process, specific concepts and spaces will be discussed and implementation scenarios drawn up. The project thus builds on the findings of the predecessor project ‘Urban Production – Is Production Returning to the City?’, which examined suitable industrial sectors and cross-cutting location factors.

The Urban Production real-world laboratory aims to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology to small and medium-sized enterprises, thereby exploring the framework for innovative industrial production in an urban environment and providing a testing ground for various regional stakeholders. To this end, the search is underway for specific locations and spaces in which to establish such a model factory, particularly in small and medium-sized towns.

Concept and Work Steps

A series of dialogue-oriented and co-creative workshops will be held with representatives from the industrial manufacturing sector; these will serve both to identify specific framework conditions and location factors, and to develop an implementation-oriented concept for a real-world laboratory in Saxony. Various methods, such as design thinking, will be employed. Based on this, the concept will be developed for a specific location, enabling the realisation of a real-world laboratory for the experimental testing of urban production in small or medium-sized towns in Saxony.

Research team

Project Leader: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Schaaf, Institute for Sustainability and Property Management

Research Associate: Marie-Luise Baldin, M.A., Research Associate at the Institute for Sustainability and Real Estate Management

The research project ‘Launch of the “Urban Production for Saxony” Real-World Laboratory’ runs from 1 March 2022 to 31 December 2022 and is funded by the Saxon State Ministry of Science, Culture and Tourism.