City brand

Challenges

A strong city brand that evokes positive associations, finds innovative answers to the questions of our time and is attractive to the various target groups attracts investors, workers and guests – and not least increases the quality of life for residents. But how does a city become a strong brand? How can the perception and attractiveness of a city be increased and its economic and social functions improved? And how can the group of stakeholders, in which local politicians, entrepreneurs and citizens often pursue different interests, be integrated into a joint creation process?

Case Study I — A City Lab for the Digital City of Darmstadt

Darmstadt is one of the first cities in Germany with a comprehensive digitalization concept. In 2017, the fourth-largest city in Hesse won the Bitkom competition Digital City and has since been developed into a nationwide model digital city. To make this transformation tangible and accessible for citizens while involving them in its design, Digitalisierung Darmstadt GmbH launched the Stadtlabor Darmstadt (City Lab Darmstadt) in 2020. Together with CLB Berlin GmbH, Novamondo was commissioned to establish this project.

Through various interviews and co-creative workshops, we gathered expectations and desires for the City Lab from companies, research organizations, citizen initiatives, local government representatives, and residents. This process led to a shared vision of goals, a strong sense of identification with the project, and the foundation for four key initiatives that we subsequently made accessible and engaging:

Mobile City Lab: An electric cargo bike brought the Mobile City Lab literally onto the streets and into different neighborhoods. It visited elderly citizens where they live and go about their daily lives.

Citizen Science Project on Environmental Issues: In a hackathon (a combination of hacking/tinkering and marathon), small groups developed solutions for digitally supported water supply management in the city within just 24 hours.

Digital Learning Workshop: Various educational formats facilitated dynamic exchanges on topics related to digitalization, 21st-century education, and everyday digital challenges such as remote work.

Prototype for the City Lab: To illustrate what a physical City Lab—combining event space, exhibition area, workshop, training center, and lecture venue—could look like, students from TU Darmstadt participated in an exciting competition. We transformed the winning prototype into a Virtual Reality model and hosted an exhibition showcasing all designs.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all City Lab event formats were adapted into digital events.