SDG+ Lab Work and Economy
The kick-off exhibition on 29 October 2025 at the SDG+ Lab of UNI:lokal marks the start of the theme year ‘Transformations in Work and Economy’, which opens up new perspectives on value creation, work and sustainable structures. The focus is on the question of how alternative models, such as cycles, reuse and shared resources, can contribute to a sustainable economy.
In this context, the department will use two thematic focal points to show how sustainable urban and regional development can be brought to life: by addressing structural change and bioeconomy, as well as simulation and gaming as learning spaces in the exhibition rooms and at joint theme evenings.
Structural Change and Bioeconomy
Our research focuses on how regions can actively drive the transition to a sustainable economy. We explore the opportunities that regional structural change offers for jobs, production, and urban and regional development through innovative approaches such as the bioeconomy. Drawing on experiences from automotive hubs like Bochum and Wolfsburg, as well as transformation regions like the Rhenish Revier and Lusatia, we examine how transformation succeeds when local strengths are leveraged, land is reimagined, and networks are renewed.
The SDG+ Lab provides a space where change becomes visible and sustainable development can be experienced firsthand.
Simulation und Gaming as Learning Spaces
Digital simulations and games open up new opportunities to experience the interactions between urban development, sustainability and economy in a vivid way. They offer interactive learning spaces where participants can try out scenarios, understand connections and question their own decisions.
This potential becomes tangible in the SDG+ Lab: at the GameChanger:Desk gaming station, urban planning can be actively designed in the video game ‘TheoTown’, while a VR simulation shows a student simulation game on the circular economy in a revitalisation project in Kassel. This makes sustainable development processes directly tangible.
Links to the event series:
SDG+ Lab at UNI:Lokal
Wilhelmsstraße 21
34117 Kassel
Opening hours
Tue-Fri: 12 noon-6 p.m.
Sat: 12 noon-4 p.m.