Living Labs is a sustainable design and engineering firm for cities, from micro cities to macro cities. We design every component of a place, measure it, and value-engineer it down to the nut and bolt. Our festivals and tours are micro cities, and they are our test ground for the cities we want to build.
A festival: stages, power, water points, sanitation and a crowd, built as one micro city.
Buildings and construction use 32% of global energy and produce 34% of global CO₂ emissions. Early design choices shape much of that, long before anything is built. UNEP, Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2024/2025, published 17 Mar 2025
Most of a city is planned once and then tested for decades by the people who live in it. By the time anyone measures, the cost and the carbon are locked in.
A festival gets no such grace. Power, water, sanitation, food and a crowd of thousands have to work on the first night and come apart cleanly on the last. Every system runs at once, on a fixed date, with every meter switched on.
Our team brings live production, engineering and design to one table. Each build shows us what lasts, what it really costs over its life, and what people actually use.
So we lead by going first. We test at our own builds, measure in the open, value-engineer what we keep, and carry what works from a weekend to a district to a city. Every lesson is written down, so the next build starts where the last one finished.
We try it at our own builds before a client pays for it.
Every result names its baseline and who checked it.
A system that does not earn its cost will not last.
Three disciplines on every project, from a one-night festival to a whole city.
We take a design apart component by component across power, water, sanitation, materials and data, and make each part sustainable, cutting its fuel, water, waste and material use. Then we test each one against a baseline we state up front.
Every part is priced and questioned over its whole life: what it does, what it costs to buy, run, maintain and take apart. If a part does not earn its cost, we redesign it or remove it.
We build large-scale events, immersive festivals and tours. Each one has power, water, sanitation, food and a crowd, built and struck on a fixed date. Every build runs our system, and finds the innovations worth taking to permanent places.
| Component | What it does | Whole-life cost | Measured by | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stage generator set | Power for one stage | [$ hire + fuel + service] | Metered litres, load, downtime | Redesign |
| Water point | Drinking water for the crowd | [$ per 1,000 litres] | Litres served, refills, waste | Keep |
| Toilet block | Sanitation for a zone | [$ per user per day] | Users, servicing trips, water used | Redesign |
| Temporary fencing | Crowd lines and security | [$ per metre per build] | Metres reused next build | Keep |
| Single-use signage | Wayfinding | [$ per sign] | Kilograms to landfill | Remove |
Example rows show the format. Figures are filled in from each build once measured.
Each step is a bigger test of the same system, measured against the step before.
Each project runs the same six steps inside a two to eight week time box and ends in a live test.
We write the hypothesis down before anything is built.
The smallest real thing that tests it: a power plan, a toilet block, a water loop.
It runs at a real build with a real crowd.
For the planet, for people and in the black, with the method stated.
Keep, redesign or remove. We write the decision down.
The lesson changes the next design, so it is learned once.
If we replace two diesel generators with a battery and grid link at one festival stage, we expect fewer litres burned with no lost show time, measured by metered fuel and uptime against last year's stage.
Each one is a fixed fee, quoted after a 20-minute call once we understand the place and the people.
Every future city has to buy the same things: power, grids, storage, water, sanitation and materials. This is where that money is going, and the public companies that make the kit.
Global energy investment set for 2025, about $2.2 trillion of it clean energy (IEA estimate).
IEA, World Energy Investment 2025About $400 billion spent on electricity grids worldwide each year.
IEA, World Energy Investment 2025Needed for US drinking water infrastructure improvements over the next 20 years.
US EPA, 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey, 2023Needed across 50 countries to 2040, with a shortfall of more than $18 trillion at current spending.
Global Infrastructure Hub, Global Infrastructure Outlook| Company | What it sells into a city |
|---|---|
| Quanta Services PWR | Grid construction |
| GE Vernova GEV | Generation and grid equipment |
| Eaton ETN | Power distribution |
| Hubbell HUBB | Grid and electrical components |
| Vertiv VRT | Power and cooling for data |
| Fluence Energy FLNC | Battery storage |
| Xylem XYL | Water and wastewater |
| WM (Waste Management) WM | Waste and recycling |
Listed for context, as examples of who makes each system. Read 11 Nov 2026.
Market information from H3+ research, shared for context. It is not investment advice and not an offer of any security. Living Labs does not invest or raise money.
We work with startups whose product a city needs, and put it to work at a live build alongside every other system, under real conditions.
A short form: what it is, where it has run, and what it needs to prove.
We check every application against the published criteria below.
Twenty minutes to agree one written hypothesis, the baseline and the pilot terms.
Your product runs at one of our events, alongside every other system.
A measured report you can use with your own buyers.
What proves itself moves up the ladder to the next, larger build.
We publish a result only when it has been measured against a stated baseline and checked by someone independent. Until then we call it modeled, and say so. Our first measured stage is a goal for the 2027 festival season.
Crew health and safety, local hires, and a better night or a better home.
Fuel, water, waste and materials, measured with the method stated.
Value-engineered, so the system pays its way for the owner.
Every result reads like this
Six questions about your festival, venue, building or site. You get a read on each system and the service that fits best. Nothing is sent unless you attach it to a brief.
Your read builds as you answer.
Leads the company, design strategy and business development.
Leads the physical engineering: power, water, structures and systems.
Founded the company and chairs it.
A few lines is enough. We reply to book a 20-minute call.
Prefer email? Write to
antony@h3venturestudios.com