THE OPPORTUNITIES OF A LIVING LAB IN NORDHAVNEN
‘ Why would using Nordhavn as a living laboratory have such a strong effect ?’, you might ask .
A good question ! Theoretical conceptualisations of the way technological and societal change takes place have stressed the notion of path-dependency : once a certain path of handling things is taken repeatedly , it becomes more and more difficult to deviate from this path , and very tough for new , alternative ways to emerge and break through . Once we have a certain conception about how mobility works , it is hard to think and get out of this box . Once we have computer models , which include many variables but ignore others ( such as behavioural change , car sharing , walking trips , etc .), we get blind for the ones left out . Once we have agreed on certain regulations , they become arduous to alter .
Others have made it to create those inspiring quarters . Let ’ s just take the example of Vauban in Freiburg : getting awarded to be an UN Habitat ‘ best practice ’ -example right away , it received huge attention far beyond the urban planning community . But this big and successful ‘ experiment ’ forgot , as many others , the central point : to learn , setup a strategy how to follow-up and diffuse the learnings in the rest of the cityscape . When implementing this perspective from the start , Nordhavnen offers the opportunity to handle the follow-up in an institutionalized way and shake free of the limiting factors raised