The CityLAB would not be the same without its exhibition. Here, at Platz der Luftbrücke 4, all the features that characterise the CityLAB come together: completed projects, new prototypes, current ideas and inspiring things that make you think. This year, three new exhibits have been added to our exhibition, which we have taken as an opportunity to celebrate together with you. During our LABissage #2, we not only presented the exhibits, but also our new audio guide, gave a tour of our redesigned foyer and provided an insight into the Kiezlabor’s first tour through the various neighbourhoods of Berlin. In this photo review, we want to share with you an insight into the various tours and reminisce together.
The Foyer: Methods to go
At CityLAB, we support employees of the Berlin administration in structuring innovation processes. Our focus is on supporting them in the development of digital processes and products that centre on the benefits for citizens. We test different methods and tools in workshops, training sessions and through joint dialogue. Our aim is to use the “train-the-trainer” approach to provide the tools to enable long-term and sustainable transformations of administrative processes. In our CityLAB foyer, we present the various phases of an innovation process on display walls. Through practical examples, we provide insights into how we apply the methods not only in theory, but also in our daily work. Our “Wissensspeicher” (knowledge repository) bundles these methods and provides easy access to our range of services, approaches and tools – open source-ready for direct download. It is also a growing repository, because we learn something new every day!
The Exhibition
In addition to our redesigned foyer, three more exhibits have moved into our exhibition, which we presented at our LABissage #2 and briefly introduce to you here:
- Hilf-Mir.Berlin: In collaboration with the Senate Department for Science, Health and Care (SenWGP), CityLAB has developed a digital platform with the aim of helping people in problematic life situations to find suitable contacts with as few clicks as necessary. The result is the digital guide Hilf-Mir.Berlin, which for the first time offers a barrier-free and clear presentation of over 230 counselling facilities and can be filtered according to various topic keywords.
- The Chatbot “Public Design”: We have transformed our service design standard work, the “Public Design” handbook, into an AI chatbot that can make the handbook’s collective knowledge available in a matter of seconds. This can range from general questions about the handbook, such as “What does the handbook help me with?” or “What are the phases presented in the handbook?” to questions that arise from a specific need, such as “What do I need to consider when preparing a workshop?” or “Which methods are suitable for brainstorming ideas?“
- The Kiezbot: At CityLAB, we don’t just focus on innovative methodological approaches, but also on the latest technological developments that can help drive forward the digitalisation of administration in Berlin. The hype surrounding the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has of course not gone unnoticed at CityLAB and we have experimented with AI. This has resulted in various applications, including our Kiezbot, in which we let a voice AI take on three different roles. The cheeky Currywurst Ernst has even made it into an article in the Tagesspiegel!
In addition, our colleague and project manager Myrian Rigal reported on the Quantified Trees project (QTrees for short). In the project, CityLAB, together with Birds on Mars and the Technologiestiftung Berlin, asked the question: Can artificial intelligence support the irrigation and care of urban trees? The answer is yes! Among other things, the project has created an application based on a specially developed AI forecasting model that, in addition to the Baumblick app, has developed an expert dashboard that can support districts in the irrigation of urban trees by using the forecast.
Special exhibition Kiezlabor
The year 2023 was marked by a special event in the CityLAB calendar: the opening of our Kiezlabor! The Kiezlabor is a project implemented by CityLAB as part of the Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin strategy. Under the motto “Without you, we’re just a container”, we turned an old shipping container into an energy self-sufficient tiny house. The plan? To bring our prototype approach to Berlin’s neighbourhoods together with you! You can find out how the first tour with five locations in different districts worked out in this annual review interview with the Kiezlabor team. At the LABissage, the team gave a tour of the various locations and shared insights from the first year on tour.
It was a fantastic evening and we are delighted to have so many guests! If you missed the opportunity to experience our LABissage #2, we cordially invite you to visit our exhibition. Come by and let our audio guide, in which team members themselves talk about their projects and provide exciting background information, guide you through our premises!
