From nature-based solutions to naturing infrastructure: towards a care-centred approach for urban living labs

Urban living labs and nature-based solutions (NbS) are often promoted as pragmatic ways to act under uncertain conditions, combining experimentation with co-benefits for climate risk reduction, health and public spaces.

Yet many NbS-focused urban living labs remain locked in pilot mode. They deliver visible ‘assets’ while overlooking the harder political work that underpins them, including negotiating responsibility, resourcing maintenance and building accountability.

This briefing advances the principle of ‘naturing infrastructure’: designing urban living labs to build ‘care infrastructure’ around NbS, including capabilities to notice risk, coordinate stakeholders, negotiate power and mobilise external support when needed.

It showcases how Doh Eain and the Neighbourhood Network used small greening interventions in Yangon, Myanmar to strengthen ‘restart’ capacity, collective voice and the conditions for durable, just adaptation under resource constraints.