Living lab for smart city at Komatsu city,

Living lab for smart city at Komatsu city, Ishikawa Prefecture aims at conceptualise, design and develop a future library combined with a museum, through co-creation among citizen, designers, architecture, municipal mayors and civil workers involvement. Since 2023, every year, the municipality together with design researchers organises the five workshops, the five board meetings and several related activities to achieve the objective.

The Komatsu Living Lab is positioned as a participatory design living lab project conducted in Asia. Compared to Europe and North America, there have been relatively few research on the practice and analysis of living lab projects. This project aims to examine how European theories are applied—or not applied—in living labs conducted in Japan, thereby identifying cultural differences in the practical implementation of living labs. In particular, the study will analyze cases from the perspectives of democracy, citizen participation, empowerment, and power dynamics. Based on this analysis, the research will explore the applicability of eastern participatory theories and consider whether a distinct "Komatsu-style" living lab model can exist. If such a model is feasible, its defining characteristics will be discussed.

Komatsu Living Lab