Abstract
This chapter explores how real-world laboratories (RWLs) can serve as experimental infrastructures for governing sustainability transformations through design-led, participatory approaches. Using the case of the “Tiny Fop Mob”—a mobile real-world lab constructed from regenerative materials and deployed in rural South Tyrol—the chapter illustrates how governance, design, and transdisciplinary research intersect in practice. Drawing on literature from action research, transformation design, and the “experimental turn” in governance studies, the chapter outlines key principles and challenges of RWLs, including process complexity, evaluation limitations, and stakeholder engagement. The Tiny Fop Mob exemplifies how co-designed infrastructures can catalyse eco-social learning, foster civic participation, and support situated experimentation outside urban centres. The chapter highlights how design functions as both a process and a governance tool, enabling actors to collaboratively shape and reflect on transition pathways. It concludes with reflections on the broader implications for future-oriented governance, arguing for a shift from control-based management models towards facilitative, reflexive, and design-integrated approaches to complex societal change.