The Living Lab NRW covers almost 7,000 m² and is located directly on the Nordbahntrasse, a 22-kilometre-long urban pedestrian and cycle path on a former railway line. The eight houses of the student teams from Valencia, Taipei, Delft, Prague, Pécs and Biberach as well as the two North Rhine-Westphalian teams from Aachen and Düsseldorf show different innovations, guiding ideas and diverse approaches for future-proof and sustainable building and living in the city. They all originate from the international student competition Solar Decathlon, which attracted over 115,000 visitors to Wuppertal last summer, and represent residential units from multi-storey, urban buildings. In addition, a local heating network with an energy centre and central solar collector field represents an innovative approach to sustainable heat supply in the city.

Forum as a prelude to further events

The event on 9 May is the public kick-off for the Living Lab NRW and the start of a whole series of events that will also address the interested public in the future. The first event will look back at the results and experiences from the Solar Decathlon with expert presentations and a panel discussion with participating actors. The target group of the 1st Living Lab NRW Forum is primarily employees of universities and research institutions, students and funding bodies. The discussion will be held under the motto "Teaching, learning and research in the age of climate change".

The event is free of charge and will take place at the Haspel Campus of the University of Wuppertal, but registration is required. A tour of the Living Lab NRW is planned for the afternoon. Programme and registration at https://livinglabnrw.uni-wuppertal.de/de/forum/

While the Solar Decathlon Europe was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, the Living Lab NRW is funded by the state's Ministry of Economics, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy. The project partners for the energy centre are the Wuppertal public utility company.