Munich Startup: What does your Wow Urban Utopia do? What problem do you solve?
Wow Urban Utopias: Urban public spaces are limited and are individually used and claimed by various interest groups. Especially in times of change, adapting our cities to meet their needs is essential for a livable future. City centers are facing structural challenges such as increasing vacancy and the disappearance of pedestrian zones. Urban mobility is changing more dramatically than ever before, and the first effects of climate change are becoming noticeable. Our public spaces should use this change as an opportunity for change.
Our startup focuses on sustainable urban development and relies on tactical urbanism to create livable spaces and demonstrate alternative uses. Our goal is to make urban space more tangible and transform it from gray to green. Among other things, we offer alternatives to conventional parking space use by reactivating public space and making it usable for people. Overall, our goal is to enhance a wide variety of urban living spaces and offer innovative solutions for sustainable coexistence. Our services range from consulting and information to customized solutions for small and large urban transformation projects.
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Wow Urban Utopias: Our offering is previously unavailable and stands out due to its unique design and project-specific, customized, complete solutions. Although similar offerings already exist in other cities, we are the first to individually meet this high demand in Munich and the surrounding area. Last year, we already had to prioritize certain projects and cancel others due to insufficient capacity.
Wow Urban Utopias: From private project to startup
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Wow Urban Utopias: During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, we began installing furniture in a square without a permit, transforming an unused space into an open meeting place for the neighborhood. In 2021, we were given the opportunity to professionally build the first parklet as part of a city pilot project and with financial support. The positive response generated a lot of interest in the project, leading to the first inquiries from other cities. Given the continued demand, we decided to professionally design street furniture and offer our consulting services to cities, municipalities, and other interested parties.
After pop-up workshops in various temporary locations throughout Munich, we were finally able to open our first own workshop in 2023 and have been offering professional, customized solutions for our customers ever since. When we designed the first professional parklet, we painted a standard-sized parking space (12 square meters) on the workshop floor, and we became aware of the sheer amount of space a car takes up in public spaces.
Munich Startup: Changes in public space are sometimes hotly contested, such as in Columbus Street last yearHow do you win people over for your projects?
Wow Urban Utopias: We win people over not only for our projects, but above all with them, by focusing on participatory planning and collaborative construction. Through construction workshops and interactive opportunities, we involve people directly in our projects. Interestingly, former critics have often now developed a supportive attitude towards our projects. Acceptance increases significantly when people recognize the added value the resulting space offers them, providing a pleasant environment. We integrate a variety of services into our parklets that appeal to a variety of interests. These include swap lockers, bulletin boards, bike stations, and raised garden beds, which help meet a wide range of neighborhood needs. People feel cared for and connected.
© Wow urban utopias
“We hope for simplified and accelerated internal city processes”
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Wow Urban Utopias: In a year's time, we aim to develop projects that we can prepare and build during the cold season. We hope for simplified and accelerated city-internal processes that will enable more projects to be implemented in different neighborhoods. The city itself should have a greater interest in promoting and facilitating transformation processes. As a consulting and implementation company, we want to support these processes and significantly influence the design of public space offerings. Another goal is to allow parklets to remain in place during the winter, enabling their use during the cold season and integrating other offerings and construction methods.
In five years, we aspire to be permanently commissioned by cities and other clients. Our goal is to enable early planning so that projects can be deployed in spring with the first rays of sunshine. We want to enter into collaborations with sharing mobility providers and other partners to create mobility hubs and revolutionize inner-city mobility. We also want to expand our consulting services in future-oriented urban development topics for cities and municipalities across Europe and establish the Wow name.
“Street space experiments are increasing and creating real laboratories in the city”
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Wow Urban Utopias: In Munich we have the Startup-location is experienced as challenging, but with potential. The will to promote innovation "Made in Bavaria" is there, but some administrative processes appear cumbersome, inefficient, and ineffective. The city should be more daring and not put additional obstacles in the way of young entrepreneurs. Finding an affordable office or workshop, for example, was a long process, and ultimately only a bit of luck played a role. Street space experiments are increasing and creating real-world laboratories in the city. In this way, the general public is becoming increasingly aware of the topic of street space repurposing, but at the same time, the projects are being hampered by a rigid German bureaucratic framework.
One absurd example was a requirement that required us to install 33 street signs at the parklets for a municipal project, naturally at our own expense. In comparison, other cities like Helsinki take young entrepreneurs and startup funding more seriously, offering space for experimentation, networking, and growth, and making it easier to start your own business.
Munich Startup: Public transport or bicycle?
Wow Urban Utopias: Choosing between public transportation and cycling is difficult, but the right combination makes for truly flexible mobility. Micromobility through sharing services or with your own bike, combined with a functioning public transport and rail network, represents the fastest, cheapest, and most sustainable form of mobility. Depending on our needs, we use different modes of transport, such as trucks, cargo bikes, racing bikes, or express buses, enabling multimodal mobility in the city.
But if we really had to choose, we personally prefer cycling, especially in Munich, because it promotes health, keeps you fit, is fun, and always offers the most direct and usually fastest route. Plus, you don't have to deal with connection problems and train cancellations.
