Smart City Lab Basel Concludes with Final Event

(Basel) Traffic is increasing, the demand for residential, work, and recreational spaces is rising, and the energy supply is being restructured. Furthermore, demographic change, the need for urban densification, and climate change present new, complex challenges for urban development and spatial planning. In light of these challenges, SBB and the Canton of Basel-Stadt launched the Smart City Lab Basel in the former freight station Wolf in 2018 and opened it in 2019. The goal of the lab was to work together with stakeholders from business, science, and administration on new sustainable solutions in an urban context – which can also be concretely integrated into the planned transformation of the Wolf area from a freight station to a smart and sustainable urban district starting in 2024.

Urban Living Lab with over 40 Pilot Projects

For over five years, networking, development, testing, and experiences took place in the lab. In total, around 60 lab partners have developed over 40 pilot projects during this time in the areas of buildings, mobility, city logistics, and energy – including solutions for low-emission city logistics with electric vehicles and cargo bikes, greening concepts for climate-adapted urban development, planning tools and inventories for the reuse of building components, second-life energy storage from used e-mobility batteries, and a playful approach to renewable energies with an ‘Escape Room’ as well as a test track for a bicycle elevated railway.

“For SBB and the Canton of Basel-Stadt, the lab is an idea laboratory for urban development to tackle current and future challenges – agile, sustainable, and always with people at the center,” says Susanne Zenker, member of the management board of SBB Immobilien. For Lukas Ott, head of Canton and Urban Development Basel-Stadt, the results of the Smart City Lab are not isolated: “On one hand, the pilot projects themselves have a model character and thus the potential to be applied in the future Wolf area, in Basel, and beyond. On the other hand, the overall project Smart City Lab serves as a model for us as an administration. The ‘Lab’ approach has proven itself from our perspective. As an enabler of innovation, we benefit as an administration from the impulses and partnerships that the lab and its creative community have provided. Therefore, the Canton and Urban Development is working with potential new partners to further develop this approach within the framework of a possible follow-up project.”

New Urban District on the Wolf Area

The tested solutions will also flow into the development of the future urban district on the Wolf area, which is being developed by SBB. The development plan for the Wolf area was approved by the Grand Council of the Canton of Basel-Stadt in spring 2023 and is legally binding. Over the next few years, around 550 apartments will be built on an area of 16 hectares – one third of which will be non-profit – along with spaces for offices, businesses, retail, and gastronomy, as well as new green and open spaces. The freight handling in the eastern part of the area will remain and will be complemented by a city logistics hub. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2025. Some of the companies from the Smart City Lab Basel will remain as tenants on the Wolf area until that time and will continue to drive the transformation into the new urban district.

Open House Day

On Friday, September 29, 2023, starting at 4 PM, the Smart City Lab Basel invites you to an open house day. On this occasion, the pilot projects can be experienced live on-site one last time. Details about the program can be found at www.smartcitylabbasel.ch/veranstaltung/abschlussevent-smart-city-lab-basel/.

Experience Report Smart City Lab Basel

An experience report has summarized and reflected on the project. In addition to the facts about the lab, the most important insights from the perspective of the participants were documented.