Wroclaw as a living lab: the transformative power of collaborative ecosystems

At the URBAGR’INN Days 2025, Monika Onyszkiewicz delivered an inspiring and thought-provoking contribution during the “Collaborative Ecosystems” session, shining a spotlight on Wrocław’s Living Lab as an evolving example of citizen-driven transformation in the urban food system.

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Living labs: co-creation in real-life settings

Monika Onyszkiewicz reminded the audience that the Living Lab concept lies at the heart of transformative, systemic change. Over time, the approach has shifted away from top-down experimentation and now firmly centers the active role of users—residents, entrepreneurs, and civic actors—as co-innovators and co-creators. These users work within their own real-life environments, participating in everything from data collection to solution design and experimentation.

A Living Lab, she emphasized, can be scaled to various contexts—urban, regional, or local—and must embrace a diversity of actors: from food producers and consumers to municipal officials, grassroots activists, artists, and even vulnerable groups such as the elderly or youth. The richness of such ecosystems lies in this multidisciplinary and collaborative fabric.

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Wrocław: a Living lab in search of conviviality

Situated in the mild climate of the Silesian Lowland, Wrocław stands out as one of Poland’s most resourceful cities when it comes to food self-sufficiency. The city already boasts the largest area of family allotment gardens in Poland (4.7% of the city area – 1400 hectares, 60,000 plots) and a 6-hectare urban farm, producing vegetables for municipal nurseries and kindergartens. Since 2024, this City Farm is run by the Municipality in collaboration with the University of Life Sciences, embodying the Living Lab ethos of applied, interdisciplinary engagement.

In 2022, the city signed both the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact and the Wrocław Food Manifesto, demonstrating its strategic intent to align with broader food policy innovation. But the full potential of Wrocław as a Living Lab is yet to be realized.

Challenges: From Fragmentation to Integration

Despite these strengths, Monika Onyszkiewicz candidly addressed the risks and barriers Wrocław faces: most notably, a lack of shared vision and weak coordination among local authorities. This fragmentation leads to missed opportunities for synergy, and limited trust between actors.

“In Wrocław, we shaped the city—but now it shapes us,” noted Monika Onyszkiewicz, quoting Jan Gehl to emphasize how urban design and governance habits can lock us into patterns of disconnection. Poor infrastructure often leads to poor habits, reinforcing the status quo rather than enabling transformation.

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Reimagining the Urban Food System

Monika Onyszkiewicz proposed that hybrid markets could serve as a core innovation for reintegrating the food cycle within the city. These markets would be multipurpose spaces, encompassing:

• Spaces to grow, sell, buy, and compost food;

• Venues for social gatherings, artistic performances, and civic learning.

An example is the “Bazar Bizarre” initiative—an artistic, educational food-centered event held twice annually, organized in collaboration with the Guild of City Market Managers, aimed at revalorizing local markets and strengthening their role as equal partners to city governance.

Another noteworthy initiative is “Project Soil Rebirth,” led by the BWA Gallery and the Centrala group, which uses art and culture as powerful mediums to regenerate both soil and social connection.

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