HAMBURG WASSER & Stromnetz Hamburg: Concept for sustainable & temporary multiple use of space

In the Cross Innovation Lab, a team from HAMBURG WASSER and Stromnetz Hamburg developed a platform that enables companies to utilise space in multiple ways in order to fully exploit the potential of urban areas.

The challenge

Major cities like Hamburg face a key challenge: space and land are scarce and expensive. At the same time, the potential of private and semi-public spaces that are not subject to the usual market utilisation logic is far from exhausted. And this is particularly true with regard to sustainable use. Various users can realise sustainable projects on these spaces that offer direct added value to the urban community.

HAMBURG WASSER and Stromnetz Hamburg, which themselves own sites, parts of which could be made available for temporary multiple uses, have asked themselves in the Cross Innovation Lab how sites and potential uses can be brought together while taking sustainability criteria into account.

Output

The result is the prototype of find (space, ideas, network, thinking), a platform that brings potential users together with companies that have space available.

In order to post spaces on the platform, companies have to provide precise information about the spaces: the location, size, surroundings, type of space, facilities, security requirements and the potential utilisation period for their space.

Users, on the other hand, can filter all available spaces on the find platform according to these categories and thus find the right space for their planned use.

Once the right space has been found, users apply to the companies with their idea. The companies check whether the enquiries meet the requirements and fulfil find' s sustainability standards.

If the idea fits the space and one of the corresponding usage categories, all further details are discussed individually.

find offers the opportunity to make space available for sustainable use in densely populated areas such as in a city like Hamburg.

The project is currently looking for follow-up funding to put the idea into practice.

The utilisation categories are: Biodiversity, mobility, neighbourhood, education & social affairs, housing, art & culture, gastronomy, leisure & sport, sustainable energy, organic farming.

Creative experts: Leonie Sophie Werner, Lisa Heidenblut

People from the corporate side: Dr Franziska Meinzinger (HAMBURG WASSER), Silvio von Neuhoff (Stromnetz Hamburg), Dr Oliver Trede (Stromnetz Hamburg)

Format & method

In the Cross Innovation Lab, companies come together in changing constellations over a period of six weeks to work together on product developments in a stimulating environment. Experts from the creative industries are specifically involved in the process.

• Field research: At the beginning, the challenges of the companies are analysed in a new kind of depth in collaboration with creative professionals - and their fresh perspective from the outside.
• Workshop phase: In a total of four workshop/lab days, the companies develop new solutions together with selected creative professionals.
• Feedback loops: Between the labs, a concept review takes place with all participating companies in order to further improve the products through joint feedback and exchange.

In the iterative work process, companies develop new products or product adaptations in a significantly reduced amount of time.