Living Labs Europe Competition

A European energy competition on neighbourhood level

Transforming cities to be climate neutral. Collectively improving climate protection in Europe. Increasing the renovation rate of buildings. These are the goals of an EU-wide district competition to be launched by Project Management Juelich, Germany on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, together with its partners of the Driving Urban Transition Partnership and the SET-Plan.

The end-use sector accounts for a large part of energy consumption. To reduce its impact on climate change, a far-reaching transformation of entire cities and change of habits will be necessary. The competition encourages cities and municipalities and people in Europe who want to transform their districts in a sustainable way. It shall take place regularly at a main venue and in participating districts. Juries will evaluate and monitor the transformed districts according to aesthetics, affordability, inclusion, social compatibility and creativity, as well as climate protection goals, sustainability and circular economy.

The competition showcases different parts of the transformation process via multiple competition disciplines. Architectural contests take place within the early planning phase. District transformations in process are exhibited and accompanied. Transformations that have been realised will be compared with each other on the basis of defined evaluation criteria. From conceptualisation to construction to evaluation in the first phase of use: during the competition, the various phases of transformation are thus discussed, presented and awarded.

You can find more information about the competition in our concept outline and in a summary as a onepager (see downloads).

LLEC Workshop

During the Solar Decathlon Europe (SDE) in June 2022 in Wuppertal, Germany, representatives of ministries and funding agencies, scientists and partners of the Driving Urban Transitions Partnership (DUT) met to discuss the concept of the LLEC. The initiative was presented by Project Management Juelich (PtJ). Other parts of the workshop were input presentations on designed and already existing formats in the urban context such as TRUELAB, SDE and New European Bauhaus. Opportunities and challenges of using competition formats as innovative funding instruments for urban transformation were discussed and debated. The workshop was rounded off with participation in the final award ceremony of the SDE, which conveyed well the enthusiasm that competition can create. A more detailed insight into the workshop can be found in the booklet, which is available for download here.

The LLEC is not a current call. The initiative is in the concept phase. Submissions are not possible.