In times of multiple crises and profound transformational challenges, spatial visions are key to proactively shaping socio-ecological transitions – particularly at regional scales, where urban-rural metabolic flows and socio-economic interdependencies can be integrated. Collaborative processes are essential for producing robust transdisciplinary knowledge and widely supported regional visions. When diverse actors participate – across sectors, governance levels, and knowledge domains – the resulting visions are richer, more communicable and better anchored in local realities.

International case studies reveal variations in how such processes can be designed, facilitated, and equipped with tools. This paper will present insights from two transdisciplinary, living lab-based research projects funded by the BMBFTR – PolyUrbanWaters (2019–2027) and Urban-Rural Assembly (2019–2025) – which explore spatial transformation in the rapidly urbanizing regions of Huangyan (China) and Sleman (Indonesia). Both projects apply vision-building with communities and municipalities to generate action-oriented knowledge for sustainable regional futures. A broad range of tools was developed, tested and evaluated across the two contexts, including collaborative mapping and sketching, voting and narration, and the use of film. The strengths, limitations and transferability of selected tools will be assessed. Particular attention will be given to the relevant spaces and resources, the context-specific and imaginative nature of the tools, their value for co-creation, and how they mediate between short-term community concerns and long-term regional transitions.

The comparison will contribute to debates on methodologies for transformative research, futuring, and co-creation, highlighting how universities can act as laboratories for experimenting with new tools of imagination to support inclusive and transformative regional governance.