THE HABITATION LAB AS A PLATFORM FOR SUSTAINABLE INNOVATIONS IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT: A CASE STUDY

Paper in proceeding, 2016

Household consumption is the ultimate driver for all production in our economies, and a significant part is direct consumption that takes place within physical boundaries of the household, which we call the home. Important consumption categories include utilities like water, electricity, heating and cooling, but also the food we eat and the clothes we wear. To facilitate sustainable innovation in the built environment, reducing innovation cost and product time to market a co-creation open innovation approach is proposed, which is expected to lower thresholds for new innovation project for all actors, and in particular small to medium enterprises (SME's). In the Habitation Lab academia, public bodies, industry and users come together to form a quadruple helix of innovation. The open innovation process involves multiple stakeholders, and end users take on the role not only as test subjects, but also as active contributors and co-creators of new products and services. A newly built Habitation Lab in Gothenburg, Sweden, containing 29 apartments, a co-creation studio and 2,000 sensors is presented as a case study.