Living Lab NRW

What Living Lab NRW does

Living Lab NRW is a publicly funded research and education platform operated by Bergische Universität Wuppertal's Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering, focused on climate-neutral and sustainable urban construction. The platform was established following the Solar Decathlon Europe 21/22 competition and opened to visitors in May 2023 on a nearly 7,000 m² campus in the northern part of Wuppertal's Mirker Quartier, directly adjacent to the Nordbahntrasse. The site features eight demonstrator buildings constructed by international university teams from Valencia, Taipei, Delft, Prague, Pécs, Biberach, Aachen, and Düsseldorf, selected by a specialist jury in January 2021, together with an Energy Center (Energiezentrale) operated in partnership with WSW Wuppertaler Stadtwerke.

The platform combines physical infrastructure with a set of structured engagement programs. Educational and research offerings include guided campus tours, a virtual reality tour, the Dienstags-Dialoge dialogue series on climate-friendly building and renovation with wood, the Kistenweise Wissen educational program (shortlisted for the 2024 BUW Sustainability Prize), student competitions such as Gateway Wuppertal and VDI, the annual BauImpulse event, and the Kompetenzforum BAUEN NEU DENKEN series. A Research College (Forschungskolleg) brings together faculty researchers — including Janine Bardey, Francisco Carrasco, Steffen Kubik, Fabian Wüllhorst, and Tatiana Zuchowska — conducting studies on topics such as the effect of residential building design on user comfort and sustainability. The platform's outreach extends beyond NRW, including participation at Woche der Umwelt (Week of Environment) in Berlin hosted by the Federal President and DBU.

Living Lab NRW's business model is grant-based rather than commercial. Primary funding comes from MWIKE (Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of NRW), and operations are governed by BUW's academic leadership under Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karsten Voss (Chair of Building Physics and Technical Building Equipment) with Dr.-Ing. Katharina Simon as project lead. The team comprises approximately six staff including research assistants, a building services manager, secretariat staff, and student assistants. Access to tours and educational programming is free of charge; no commercial pricing, recurring revenue streams, or third-party investor capital is disclosed. The platform functions as a public knowledge-transfer and engagement asset rather than a revenue-generating enterprise.

Name

Living Lab NRW

Legal name

Living Lab NRW (Plattform der Bergischen Universität Wuppertal)

Website

https://livinglabnrw.uni-wuppertal.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Living Lab NRW is a publicly funded research and education platform operated by Bergische Universität Wuppertal, focused on climate-neutral and sustainable construction. The 7,000 m² campus features eight international demonstrator buildings and offers tours, research, and educational programs to students and the public.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Sustainable Building Research and Education

NAICS

Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (712), Nature Parks and Other Similar Institutions (71219)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Makerspace, Innovation Lab & Fab Lab Operations (Tools, Safety, Programming) (EDAEAGAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Makerspaces & Fab Labs (Open Build Studios) (EDAMADAC)

Keywords

• Sustainable construction research
• Climate-neutral building
• University research platform
• Demonstrator buildings
• Sustainable architecture education

Headquarters

HQ city

Wuppertal

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Project Funding: Living Lab NRW is funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of NRW (MWIKE). The project is operated by Bergische Universität Wuppertal at the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Living Lab NRW operates a publicly accessible research and exhibition campus of nearly 7,000 m² featuring eight demonstrator buildings from the Solar Decathlon Europe 21/22 competition, showcasing innovations in climate-neutral and sustainable urban construction. The platform combines physical infrastructure (demonstrators plus an Energy Center / Energiezentrale) with educational and research services including guided tours, the Dienstags-Dialoge dialogue series, a Virtual Reality tour, the Kistenweise Wissen educational program, student competitions, and a Research College (Forschungskolleg) conducting studies on building design, user comfort, and sustainability.

Product overview

Living Lab NRW is a research and education platform operated by Bergische Universität Wuppertal's Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering. The platform centers on the Living Lab NRW Campus, a publicly accessible exhibition of eight demonstrator buildings constructed during the Solar Decathlon Europe 21/22 competition, showcasing climate-neutral and sustainable urban construction. The offering combines physical infrastructure (demonstrators, energy center) with educational services including guided tours, the Virtual Reality tour, the 'Dienstags-Dialoge' dialogue series, and the 'Kistenweise Wissen' educational program. The campus operates in partnership with WSW Wuppertaler Stadtwerke, which provides a local heating network, and is funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of NRW (MWIKE).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Living Lab NRW Campus A nearly 7,000 m² research and exhibition campus featuring eight demonstrator buildings constructed during the Solar Decathlon Europe 21/22 competition, showcasing innovative approaches to climate-neutral and sustainable urban construction for researchers, students, companies, associations, and the general public.
• Führungen (Campus Tours) Publicly accessible guided tours of the Living Lab NRW Campus offered free of charge to private individuals, companies, associations, and educational institutions.
• Dienstags-Dialoge (Tuesday Dialogues) A dialogue series offered as a cooperation project between Bergische Universität Wuppertal and the City of Wuppertal, focused on climate-friendly building and renovation with wood and related sustainability topics.
• Virtual-Reality Rundgang (VR Tour) A virtual reality guided tour of the Living Lab NRW Campus that allows remote exploration of the eight demonstrator buildings and supporting facilities.
• Kistenweise Wissen (Boxed Knowledge)

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and primary.

• WSW Wuppertaler Stadtwerke GmbHcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022WSW (Wuppertaler Stadtwerke) is the holding company for municipal utility and transportation services in Wuppertal. WSW is establishing a local heating network (Nahwärmenetz) at the Living Lab NRW campus. The partnership enables energy infrastructure for the demonstrator buildings and supports research on energy systems.
• Bergische Universität WuppertalprimaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerBergische Universität Wuppertal (BUW), specifically the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering (Fakultät für Architektur und Bauingenieurwesen), operates Living Lab NRW. The university provides academic oversight, research leadership through Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karsten Voss (Chair of Building Physics and Technical Building Equipment), and project management through Dr.-Ing. Katharina Simon as project lead.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Passive House Institute: Independent research institute that develops and disseminates the Passive House standard for energy-efficient construction. Closely comparable mission — advancing climate-neutral building through research, certification, demonstration projects, and professional training — to Living Lab NRW's climate-neutral building platform.
• Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (IBP): Germany's leading applied research institute for building physics, energy efficiency, and indoor climate. Directly comparable to Living Lab NRW in its combination of academic-grade building-physics research, instrumented test environments, and public demonstration activities.
• Bauhaus-Universität Weimar: German public university with a leading faculty of architecture and civil engineering that conducts research on sustainable construction, building physics, and experimental building methods. Directly comparable as an academic peer producing sustainable-building research and student demonstrators.
• RWTH Aachen University: NRW-based technical university whose team built one of the Living Lab NRW demonstrators. Comparable as a regional academic peer with large-scale sustainable-construction research and close ties to NRW industry and policy networks.
• TU Delft — Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment: Dutch technical university whose team built one of the Living Lab NRW demonstrators. Comparable as a leading European architecture faculty with deep sustainable-building research capacity, experimental building programmes, and student-built demonstrators.
• TU Wien — Faculty of Architecture and Planning: Austrian university whose team won the Living Lab NRW–inspired Gateway Wuppertal competition. Comparable as a peer institution with active sustainable-building research, student-built demonstrators, and engagement with German-speaking sustainable-construction networks.
• ETH Zürich — Department of Architecture: Swiss federal university with world-leading architecture and sustainable-construction research groups. Comparable as a leading European academic peer combining deep building-physics research with experimental building and demonstration projects.

Broad incumbents

• Solar Decathlon Europe: The Europe-wide university competition (managed by the U.S. DOE with European partners) from which Living Lab NRW's eight demonstrators were selected. Directly comparable in that it orchestrates student-built demonstrators of sustainable housing, but operates at a pan-European competition level rather than a permanent research site.
• IBA (Internationale Bauausstellung): Long-running German programme of time-limited international building exhibitions focused on innovative urban and architectural responses to social and ecological challenges. Comparable in its emphasis on publicly funded, time-bounded, exhibition-style demonstrations of innovative building practice — including sustainable construction.

Others

• EUREF Campus Berlin: Public-facing demonstration campus in Berlin showcasing integrated renewable energy, smart grid, and sustainable mobility solutions from a broad consortium of utilities, corporates, and research partners. Comparable as a large-scale urban sustainability demonstration site, though broader and commercially oriented rather than university-led.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC7J_SsRaAa4R280iM5-pcQA
• Facebookfacebook.com/SolarDecathlonEurope21.22
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/livinglabnrw
• Instagraminstagram.com/SolarDecathlonWuppertal

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Living Lab NRW