The Urban-Rural Living Lab: an experimental research framework for integrated territorial planning – insights from Nordhausen, Germany

Abstract Urban-rural linkages have gained prominence in both academic research and planning policy. Yet, coherent and integrated territorial planning approaches that can adequately address functional urban-rural linkages are still lacking. This paper introduces the Urban-Rural Living Lab as an experimental research framework to generate transdisciplinary knowledge about urban-rural linkages and their planning implications — characterised by a cross-boundary spatial orientation and a multiscalar perspective that situates places within their broader urban-rural systems. Drawing on the case study of the Urban-Rural Living Lab Nordhausen (Germany, 2022), the first of three implementations within the Urban-Rural Assembly research project, we examine to what extent Urban-Rural Living Labs can serve as experimental frameworks for integrated territorial planning at the urban-rural interface. Using a case reporting scheme for sustainability-oriented labs and experiments, the paper characterises the Nordhausen case and reflects on its contributions to territorial planning and governance and to Living Lab research. The analysis shows that the approaches tested within the Urban-Rural Living Lab demonstrate clear potential: participatory, cross-boundary, and multiscalar visioning processes can generate integrative knowledge about urban-rural systems that formal planning instruments are not designed to produce. At the same time, operating without a formal planning mandate and outside regular planning cycles limits the real-world relevance of the results — a structural challenge shared with informal planning instruments more broadly, and a central consideration for future Urban-Rural Living Lab implementations.