Wonderland’s Role in POSEIDON’s Urban Living Labs

Wonderland is leading the development of Urban Living Labs across POSEIDON’s six participating cities, drawing on our longstanding expertise in Positive Energy Districts (PEDs), energy equity, and participatory governance. Our experience in organizing inclusive workshops and fostering cross-sector dialogue is central to how we design these Labs: we create spaces where municipalities, citizens, and technical experts can engage meaningfully and co-develop solutions.

We integrate storytelling and artistic practices as vital tools for surfacing local narratives and translating complex challenges into shared understanding. Each Urban Living Lab is tailored to its local context, with content and formats co-designed in collaboration with local actors to ensure relevance and impact.

In Marseille, our focus was on identifying social vulnerabilities within the municipalities and exploring how PED tools can be applied to address them. During a two-day stay, Wonderland facilitated hands-on workshops where local actors reflected on critical issues such as energy poverty, access, and inclusion. These insights were enriched by comparing them with findings from citizen surveys. We also worked closely with municipal representatives to co-develop a social programming framework for the POSEIDON cities, ensuring that each city’s unique challenges are directly addressed.