Living Lab Approach for Son La City, Vietnam, Innovations for Climate Change Solutions

The paper summarizes some outstanding innovation points, while participating in the urban design process of the experimental workshop to answer the challenge of climate change for Son La city, in the north-west region of Vietnam. The workshop has adopted a participatory approach of multi-stakeholders, including international sponsors, local residents, local managers, and authorities. The workshop also fosters an interdisciplinary approach by encouraging students and lecturers of architecture, urban planning, landscape, interior design, and graphics faculties to engage in the process of site studying and designing. For the first time, the question of climate change has now been carried out and proposed by future artists, architects, and urban planners in collaboration with the people. The university, students and lecturers have formed a circular connection between stakeholders in order to come up with possible solutions, making a significant contribution to the improvement of urban city and landscape planning and urban space. Even though this started out as a pilot activity, the workshop has shown an effective model and method while implementing urban research and design, increasing the feasibility of proposed solutions for climate change by community participation.