From bouncy castles to cinemas to nonsense benches – numerous citizens from Hünfeld collected lots of ideas for the inner city laboratory at a workshop.

Hümfeld – The ideas workshop for the new inner city laboratory lived up to its name: The participants put together lots of suggestions – from bouncy castles to cinemas to nonsense benches – on Monday evening in the #zuseworks co-working space at Hünfelder train station, thereby filling the future inner city laboratory with life.

The city of Hünfeld applied for a so-called inner city laboratory as part of the state program “Future Inner City”. 150,000 euros in funding are available for this purpose. The first ideas were collected that evening as to exactly what the money should be used for.

Citizens collect ideas for inner city laboratory at workshop

Mayor Benjamin Tschesnok (CDU) explained: “With this project we want to set the course for further development so that the city center can continue to develop.” The town hall boss made it clear that there are no limits to the possibilities for using the inner city laboratory, but they should correspond to the ideas of the citizens. He was hoping for a lot of good suggestions – and they didn't take long to arrive.

The event was moderated by “Kommune Zukunft”, which, as a consulting company, supports municipalities in transformation processes, among other things. Managing director Moritz Meidert emphasized: “We want a city center that is fun.” Project leader Madalena dos Reis Gonçalves encouraged workshop participants to contribute their ideas and also to “think three times outside the box”.

Things should be tried out in the inner city laboratory. “Hünfeld has a great city center. We want it to stay lively,” she said. The participants became active in small groups and wrote down their dreams for the Hünfeld city center laboratory – initially without any restrictions.

Numerous ideas were collected: cinema, after-work market, bouncy castle days, indoor playground, a mobile kitchen, chill zone, workshop café, beach volleyball, pop-up store, crime dinner, breakfast mile, chat bench and much more. In a second round, the participants selected individual suggestions and, in groups, considered what compromises could be made to implement and break down these “dreams” for Hünfeld.

The mayor praised the citizens' good ideas. In the following weeks, “Kommune Zukunft” will compile and evaluate the suggestions. The ideas from the future workshop, which the mayor has developed over the past few weeks together with Wigbert, Jahn and Konrad Zuse students, are also incorporated. In addition, the topics from the mission statement and suggestions from the participation card for the inner city development concept are taken up again.

The commissions for urban development, for children and youth affairs and the cultural commission are also dealing with the inner city laboratory. There will be another event as a citizens' workshop in mid-June 2026. The results are then presented to the magistrate as a recommendation for action.