What if urban development directly included the roadmap for a human-centred, sustainable and digital future? This question was also at the centre of the delegation trip to which CityLAB Berlin was invited. What began as a visit to an exhibition in Berlin last year has developed into a lively collaboration with a strong impact.
This article documents our impressions on site from the joint delegation trip with the Build4People research project and draws thematic lines to related experiences in Paris, Jakarta, Bangkok and Copenhagen and our projects, which are now providing global impetus for urbanisation.
Shaping growth: Phnom Penh in transition
Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is one of the fastest growing cities in Asia. This change brings with it opportunities and challenges: traffic congestion, infrastructure, housing, digitalisation. This is precisely where the Build4People project comes in, initiated by the University of Hamburg and funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, which translates scientific findings into concrete planning. Six years of joint scientific work have produced valuable findings that open up a wide range of possibilities for sustainable urban development. A Smart City Innovation Hub that is currently being set up is part of this. The aim of this so-called ‘twin transition’ is to work with local and international partners to create new strategies and tools for more liveable cities in Cambodia and to promote sustainability and digitalisation as parallel ongoing goals as a cross-cutting task.
We are working with the city administration, academia and civil society to develop analogue and digital tools, six toolkits, which will enable better decisions, participation and data use in urban planning. As new project partners, we intend to work with the Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture at TU Dresden to bring in additional perspectives during the implementation phase: For example, on the creative use of technology, urban resilience and new participation formats. We have already seen in Paris and Copenhagen how digitalisation, participation and urban design can be combined.
Shared challenges, shared learning: from Ho Chi Minh City to Jakarta
A highlight: in addition to project visits, discussions with partners in science and administration as well as workshops with the Royal University of Phom Penh, a short trip was made to Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of neighbouring Vietnam, where urban planners met for an intensive exchange. The masterplan recently developed there (2040-2060) impressed with its combination of green infrastructure, digital transformation and public transport as the backbone of urban life. Particularly noteworthy: the clear will to combine modern technology with local identity. An approach that is also becoming increasingly important in Phnom Penh.
Bangkok and Jakarta also show how cities in the global South are facing similar issues and finding their own unique answers. In both metropolises, it became clear how digital tools can help to improve informal neighbourhoods or make administrative processes more participatory, provided these tools are context-sensitive, low-threshold and locally anchored.
Sharing knowledge and actively shaping it: Urban development as a learning process
Whether visiting the Impact Hub Phnom Penh or the final conference high up in the Rosewood Tower, it was clear everywhere that urban development today is more than just technical planning – it is teamwork, a matter of attitude and a long-term learning process. International collaborations such as Build4People bring in new perspectives and tools that are further developed on site and anchored locally, supported by a young, committed urban scene between coworking, graffiti and participatory practice.
The desire for a place where experiences, methods and insights are not lost – both physically and digitally – was a recurring theme. This is where formats such as the knowledge repository (Wissensspeicher) or the CityLAB Berlin exhibition come in: As open resources that document real-world laboratory formats, tools and reflections. Together with the local hub team, we came up with the idea of developing an adaptable version of this: the Smart City Hub as a local innovation hub where local expertise is pooled, made visible and shared learning is made possible, similar to our Stadtlabor2Go project. The experiences from the LabCamp show that this approach works and that digital tools do not have to be perfect, but rather empowering.
Our last delegation trip also made it clear how much is already possible: Paris shows how closely digitalisation and cultural policy can interact. For example, in the design of public spaces, where design, data and participation go hand in hand. Phnom Penh takes up this perspective, for example through creative co-design by students. Copenhagen, on the other hand, stands for institutionalised innovation policy and established urban data platforms. Phnom Penh is still at the beginning here, but it is precisely this room for manoeuvre that opens up freedom for experiments, new narratives and processes that can also inspire European cities.
Conclusion: Shaping the urban future together
What began as a one-off exchange has developed into an international learning field for urban development, characterised by cooperation, openness and the courage to try out new things. Phnom Penh is exemplary for many cities in the global South, where urban transformation is taking place with great dynamism and a strong will to create. It is precisely in these contexts that the importance of partnerships that work on an equal footing, learn from each other and support locally anchored solutions becomes clear.
The emerging Smart City Innovation Hub has the potential to become a place for transfer and reflection on the urban future. It cannot be created single-handedly; it can be shaped and requires appropriate negotiation processes that take contexts seriously, incorporate diversity and enable new approaches. This journey was a beginning and at the same time an invitation to think further together.
Despite all the differences, the challenges are similar and it is worth learning from each other. Regional and international dialogue opens up new perspectives and makes it clear how important long-term structures are in order to develop sustainable transformation paths from one-off projects.
