KIT spark is the new home of ITAS’s Sustainable Futures Lab (SFL). The SFL complements transdisciplinary research approaches in real-world laboratories with virtual experiences and experiments. The SFL’s permanently installed virtual environment, the “Cube,” brings stakeholders together using data, simulation, visualization, and interaction components, enabling them to collaboratively design future scenarios and experiment virtually with potential solutions. This facilitates learning processes between science and society.

In addition, the SFL uses a mobile showroom with projection surfaces that can be flexibly combined and deployed at various locations. The showroom is transported in the PartiziVan, a specially modified electric vehicle that also provides other participatory tools, such as mixed-reality glasses. This allows researchers to collaborate with local people even outside of Karlsruhe.