Our Cluj Project

OurCluj is a novel approach to urban innovation that activates values of care and trust in urban transitions. We call it a Values-Based Urban Living Laboratory (VBULL).

OurCluj design and research experiment was created with the goal of exploring these critical questions. It is a geographically localized innovation cluster of projects that takes the shape of a multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary “living laboratory”. It is optimized for the enhanced well-being of the city’s young residents, who are considered to hold the key to a better future. Living laboratories are usually focused on specific innovations like transport, energy systems or tourism – but in Cluj we center on the values of trust and care in project work. We find that prioritizing these values is a requirement for creating policies and programs that are optimized for outcomes such as enhanced well-being.

Community mapping

Artist Horațiu Coman

Logic Model

Cluj Atlas Workshops

OurCluj design and research experiment was created with the goal of exploring these critical questions. It is a geographically localized innovation cluster of projects that takes the shape of a multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary “living laboratory”. It is optimized for the enhanced well-being of the city’s young residents, who are considered to hold the key to a better future. Living laboratories are usually focused on specific innovations like transport, energy systems or tourism – but in Cluj we center on the values of trust and care in project work. We find that prioritizing these values is a requirement for creating policies and programs that are optimized for outcomes such as enhanced well-being.