Fab14 Toulouse – Fabricating Resilience

Starting with a quick and dirty trial at Fab8 in Wellington, New Zeeland, the Fab Lab community has produced a considerable body of research over the past seven years. Together with colleagues Betty Barrett, Tomas Diez and Cindy Kohtala I’ve been carefully developing this endeavour to collect and present research that has been done at FabLabs, with FabLabs, through FabLabs, and for FabLabs. In this paper I recount how the research papers stream developed, I track the topics and how the...

Extreme environments enable harnessing the capabilities of digital fabrication the most. During the three weeks EEI Workshop in 2017, a group of students and instructors explored how to fabricate with native materials in the extreme environment of the Atacama Desert in Chile. Universal Projects (UP), the workshop organizers, proposed the exercise of designing a research centre that would last for one year for four scientists. Material supply processing onsite was requested, for minimizing mat...

Digital fabrication provides people with a range of opportunities to produce innovative products. These range from small to large, e.g. micro-controllers, drones, Internet-of-Things-devices, motorized vehicles, orthotics, machines and even houses. The possibilities seem to be unlimited and FabLabs, Maker-Spaces, or similar community places are promoting this development. However, not many of these makers completely consider the sustainability of their products. Quite often, questions of envir...

This contribution describes the current state of the ongoing German federal research project ‘FAB101’ which explores Fab Labs and their role in German academia for three years by way of a real-world, action-oriented research infrastructure of four existing (Fab) Labs at universities. Currently, the results point to infrastructure, collaboration aspects and governance as well as educational concept issues as main factors influencing the more widespread adoption of personal digital ...

The Fab Lab at California State University, Bakersfield provided a 1-week, half-day summer program for local area middle school students. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect this summer program had on their attitudes towards science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The theoretical framework used for this study was based on Bandura’s (1977) self-efficacy theory. Self-efficacy, or one’s belief in his or her ability to perform behaviors necessary to pr...

We researched the work process between traditional artisans and architects with programming and fabricating skills in Latin America. Kinnunen (2015) proposed that craft inside maker culture must grow resilient against, or adapt to, exogenous forces. In this research, we analysed the contribution of Latin America FabLabs in the context of contemporary making practice with traditional craft, showing as stated by Borges (2015:11), that Latin American craft is produced collectively in advers...

The present paper shows the design of a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM), which incorporate digital fabrication and Do-It-Yourself philosophy to make possible an effective scientific experience in public schools from vulnerable areas. This low cost STEAM education program is oriented to health and humanitarian response and has been designed based on the context of areas where the El Niño–Southern Oscillation event caused damage last year (2017). This ...

This paper discusses the challenges encountered by a Fablab in a developing country as well as the approaches taken to addresses these challenges at ‘Fablab UP Cebu’. The three major challenges identified are: finding funding; organising procurement; and, promoting a maker culture. Fablab UP Cebu is funded by public funds, grants and user contribution. The current funding model relies on generating enough research, industry and community output to create positive visibility to su...

This study presents the current status of two work-in-progress experiments of citizen’s participation in the design and self-definition of the resilient city developed in the Open Urban Lab of eTOPIA art and technology centre and in the Harinera communitarian art centre in Zaragoza (Spain). Both pilot projects are part of a main framework of research about the potential role of Informatics and communication technologies, citizen science experiment, self-fabrication and maker's tools...

The number of Makerspaces around the world has grown exponentially in recent years. These creative spaces offers non-expert users the opportunity to engage with digital fabrication tools alongside traditional craft tools. Recently, the humanitarian sector has become interested in Makerspaces as a way to empower people to meet their own needs. A number of Makerspaces specifically aimed at crisis-affected communities have emerged. However, to date there has been virtually no research on how the...

Open-access makerspaces are popping up everywhere. They claim to provide their communities an essential portal to a world of opportunities. How do we know if they achieve this? This review summarises the available literature on the effect of open-access makerspaces on the communities in which they exist, and discusses potential measures of those effects. The open-access makerspace is something of a new concept that doesn’t fit neatly into traditional economic models. A makerspace offer...

Materials are essential part of making. They enable designers, artisans, architects, sculptors, and engineers to prototype their ideas. Materials impact not only on the visual but also on functional aspects of a design. The process of selection and manufacturing is part of the design process which is not always considered explicitly enough. Rather then just using materials, the exploration of materials as fundamental part of the design process can create new value to the outcome. It enables t...

A mobile fab lab can radically improve access to digital manufacturing tools in the places it travels to. It also has potential to encourage local communities, schools, universities, and businesses to support and launch makerspaces and fab labs in their own cities. A mobile fab lab which also provides entrepreneurship training can attract a wider audience and reach a more diverse group of people wherever it travels to as well as being able to support local startups with their prototyping nee...

Providing support structures for new businesses is seen within most developed economies as a policy priority and efforts in this regard have attracted considerable levels of academic interest. Various authors have tracked the evolution of different forms of incubation provider. Unfortunately, the various services provided by makerspaces has not attracted an equivalent level of academic interest within business journals. This development paper attempts to produce a comparison between makerspac...

Chronic stress is one of major causes of important disorders and risk-conditions on health, such as heart diseases. Nonetheless, people who suffer it often overlook the stressful circumstances, until health damage is evident. Monitoring the levels of our hormones on real-time is a prospective solution. The presented prototype, a dermal implant, is the first step forward real-time hormones concentration measurement. It takes advantage of the endocrinology properties of the second layer of the ...

We describe the design and manufacturing process of an automation prototype for a workshop machine. We decided to augment and automate a Through Hole Plate machine in use, instead of buying a new one. To that end, we have built off-the-shelf modules that can be easily attached to the machine.  The modules either augment the machine with new functionality, or utilize the actual mechanical actuators of the machine to automate desired tasks. The machine is in daily use and thus the automat...

Digital fabrication allows users to fabricate objects without the need of measuring. However, designing digital 3D objects is generally done using callipers, rulers, protractors and other physical measurement tools. By translating physical dimensions to a digital design, it is possible that errors occur. Where traditional crafts, for example can make precise woodworking joinery by constantly checking and adjusting the progress of the joint, in a digital fabrication process it is not feasible ...