Beyond experimentation: how are urban nature-based solutions living labs in Europe and Latin America designed and implemented for transformative change?

Nature-based solutions (NbS) have emerged as a key approach to address the increasing socio-environmental challenges of urban areas. Despite their co-benefits, such as climate regulation and biodiversity enhancement, conventional engineering solutions dominate urban environments. To address this imbalance, living lab (LL) projects – with their multi-stakeholder and experimental approaches – have been widely promoted as stepping-stones for the co-creation and uptake of NbS. However, their potential and intentions for broader impact remain insufficiently understood. This study explores how LLs are designed and implemented to support NbS adoption and foster socio-technical transitions in Europe, where both NbS and LL are more developed, and in Latin America, where these specific concepts are less commonly used. Drawing on six urban LLs in Barcelona, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Turin, and Lisbon, this article investigates the underlying institutional motivations of key actors, the formal objectives of each LL, and the planned and implemented activities as these aspects shape the capacity of LLs to establish NbS. Based on an in-depth document review and semi-structured interviews with key actors, this study aims to advance the understanding of LLs as vehicles for change. The findings reveal differences in the design and implementation of NbS LLs in Europe and Latin America, with a higher desire for transformative change found in the latter. Additionally, they highlight the potential of NbS LLs to contribute to broader sustainability discourses and identify ways to enhance their impact.