Living Labs

The concept of a Living Lab was first coined in 1998 by William Mitchell, an architect and urban studies professor at MIT. Its roots, however, can be traced back to Scandinavia, where it emerged as a response to traditional research and development approaches that often lacked real world relevance and did not fully involve the people most affected.

Since then, the Living Lab approach has expanded well beyond its early focus on technology and innovation. It is now used across a wide range of sectors, including healthcare, education, urban planning and social research. What connects these different uses is a shared commitment to working with people rather than doing research on them.

At its core, a Living Lab is a participatory and collaborative way of doing research. It brings together people with different perspectives to explore ideas, co-create knowledge and develop new ways of understanding. It emphasises the importance of involving those with lived experience alongside researchers and practitioners, so that learning is grounded in real life contexts.

This approach typically includes:

• working with multiple stakeholders
• using a range of creative and reflective methods
• engaging people in real life settings
• creating opportunities for co-creation and shared learning

Importantly, Living Labs are not linear. They support iterative learning, where participants reflect on their experiences, test ideas, adapt approaches and build on what emerges over time.

This way of working aligns closely with the core idea behind Project CREATE: we understand more when we learn together.

In CREATE, we used a Living Lab approach to create shared spaces where young people, researchers and creative practitioners could come together as equal partners. These were not just workshops or meetings, but environments where ideas could be explored, challenged and developed collectively.

Rather than researchers working in isolation, Living Labs in CREATE brought different perspectives into conversation as things unfolded. They were collaborative, creative and grounded in lived experience, making space for curiosity, uncertainty and reflection.

Each Living Lab built on what came before. We began with reviews of key challenges in arts based mental health research, and then brought those questions into the Labs to explore them together. Across four distinct spaces, we worked collectively to better understand:

• how we talk about mental health
• how we interpret creative work
• what supports change in young people’s experiences
• how mental health and wellbeing can be meaningfully measured within arts based practice

Across the four Living Labs, CREATE created spaces where difference was not something to overcome, but something to work with.

Each Lab contributed a different piece of the picture, but together they have helped shape a more connected and collaborative approach to research. One that values creativity, lived experience and shared understanding alongside evidence and analysis.

At its core, the Living Lab approach allowed us to ask better questions, listen more carefully, and develop methods that feel meaningful and usable for the people they are intended to support.

You can also listen to Prof. Nickie Shaughnessy speak more about Living Labs and how they have been integrated into Project CREATE.