OpenCultures publishes annual report for 2025

The 2025 annual report from OpenCultures shows how interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research is opening up new perspectives for climate-friendly urban design.
  • November 21, 2025
  • 1 min. Reading time
Annual report OpenCulturesAnnual report OpenCultures

The Climate Future Lab's 2025 annual report, “Open Planning Cultures. Design Principles for Transformative Spaces,” documents the first year of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration. The publication provides insight into a research process that deliberately focuses on openness rather than narrowing: on sharing perspectives, making different forms and practices of knowledge visible, and critically reflecting on power relations in knowledge production.

The focus is on the question of how knowledge can be used for climate-friendly urban design without leveling differences. The situatedness and plurality of knowledge are understood not as obstacles, but as prerequisites for joint action. Accordingly, the first year of the project was characterized by diversification, questioning, and testing alternative forms of collaborative research.

The volume depicts this process as a narrative series of images. It tells of atmospheres, methods, and formats, of local encounters, challenges, and emerging spaces of possibility—thus conveying the dynamism and openness of a project that not only researches transformation but also practices it.

Download the annual report

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  • Black woodpecker in the Lower Saxony forest – its calls and drumming are recorded acoustically in the DIVERSA project.Black woodpecker in the Lower Saxony forest – its calls and drumming are recorded acoustically in the DIVERSA project.

    Is the black woodpecker endangered in Lower Saxony due to the loss of coniferous wood caused by calamities?

    A guest contribution by Dr. Marcus Schmidt and David Singer from the Northwest German Forest Research Institute

    3 min. Reading time
  • Interview with UMEX-HOPE speaker Prof. Dr. Björn MarongaInterview with UMEX-HOPE speaker Prof. Dr. Björn Maronga

    Taking a holistic approach to climate adaptation in cities

    Interview with UMEX-HOPE speaker Prof. Dr. Björn Maronga

    7 min. Reading time
  • Panel discussionPanel discussion

    Big visions, but quick small steps

    Social sustainability arises when different actors take responsibility, act together, and combine big visions with concrete, small steps.

    4 min. Reading time