Co-creation for Urban Biodiversity: The experience of a public participation process in a living lab in Milan, Italy

This contribution investigates the fine line between engaging citizens on topics related to urban biodiversity and experimenting with co-creation processes in a real living lab setting in Milan, Italy. The participatory process established within the “Laboratorio per la Biodiversità Urbana” (LABU) provided an opportunity to test a novel co-creation methodology, supported by the local municipality’s commitment to redesign an area characterized by high urban biodiversity, the Sorelle Mirabal Garden, in the eastern part of the city, currently closed to the public. The process draws on the understanding of the often-invisible relationships between humans and nature embedded in the collective memory of the Garden, aiming to reactivate it as a public space. Testing co-creation methods for enhancing urban biodiversity in a living lab setting has led to significant participant engagement and awareness, fostering recognition of the importance of more-than-human species. It has also enabled the collaborative definition of design solutions that promote inclusivity across different social groups. The measures proposed benefited from the experts’ input and the local knowledge provided by citizens. Moreover, the urban living lab approach revealed to be an appropriate environment for managing frictions that originate when jointly addressing the needs of different human and non-human communities within emerging concurrent solutions in the use of space.