Bali Fab Fest – FabXLive

Fab Labs have been democratizing access to digital fabrication and building a global research and innovation network over the last two decades. However, they still face the challenge of creating an impact beyond individual realization through learning new technical skills and small-scale projects. The Fab City Global Initiative complements Fab Labs in this respect and expands the purpose to transforming society. It brings technology available in Fab Labs to cities and rural areas, connecting ...

So-called digital fabrication laboratories (commonly referred to as fab labs) have recently challenged the dominant position of large-scale industrial manufacturing by revolutionising the ways in which people approach and interact with production. Fab labs are communal spaces and function as enablers for personal manufacturing. However, while the number of fab labs has surged in recent years, they are primarily concentrated in countries of the global north. This is in parts due to the high co...

Guided by the research question “What are the differences between the emerging Fab City Hub (FCH) model and other hub typologies, and how does this new hub typology seek to overcome the gaps and challenges of previous hubs experiences?”, this paper provides a conceptual discussion on the FCH model and empirical qualitative data based on four case studies. First, the article presents a literature review of the current state of the art of Creative and Productive Hubs (CPHs), context...

Among the different roles that can be assigned to fablabs, the one of a prototyping place to support InnovationLab is recurrent. In this context, the prototyping activity can take a broad scope, covering different phases of the innovation process, from problem definition and customer validation to project development. As a consequence, the role of fabmanagers extends to the one of prototyping coach. The projects supported can be products as well as services and the people may not be pure make...

Bottom-up initiatives from maker networks across the globe, such as the first aid response during the outbreak of the Coronavirus, are currently showing how responsible innovation is happening outside the constraints of profit- driven large industries. We are witnessing the development of alternatives to DIY and making as a hobby. In this process, critical, socially responsible making and a professionalization of the maker-driven open hardware movement resembles how open source software becam...

Circular Fab is a young network of public spaces with digital fabrication resources and entrepreneurship promotion focus. It is the product of cooperation between administrations - European, national, regional and local - with other institutions and companies. Several official regional fablabs have served as references since the definition and construction process. Since the end of 2021, the network is fully operational in six refurbished and equipped public spaces in relatively small towns (...

In the past decade, there has been a paradigm shift in promoting a more sustainable economy and society on a global scale. However, those policies are often designed for large cities like Tokyo and do not consider the context of rural areas. This paper describes the collaborative spearheading of a circular design lab, RE:STORE. The space was formerly a traditional rice shop that had been abandoned for the last decade in Satsumasendai City - a rural site in Kyushu. The renovation project was l...

Fablab Bohol as the first FABLAB in the Philippines together with the JICA Volunteers and local makers develop this machine called ‘’Heat Press Machine’’. This press machine allows to maximize the use of waste shopping bags thru converting it into an Upcycled Plastic Sheets as a new raw material. The main thrust of this study was to design, fabricate and assess the functionality of Upcycled Plastic Sheets as a Material for a Home Accessories Collection. This experiment...

The scope of the paper is to analyse and reflect on the educational approaches and frameworks implemented in the 20-21 academic year of the Master in design for Emergent Futures (MDEF) and its integration with the rapid prototyping course of Fab Academy alongside their design curriculum agenda. The paper outlines the learning theories applied in the design and implementation of the methodology as well as the resources required, instructors’ roles, instructional tools and support. Furthe...

In this study, we randomly expose Italian high school students from different majors to creative activities taught by FabLabs and assess the impact of this exposition on students’ career aspirations, university choice, interest and confidence in STEM university courses, attitude towards STEM subjects, creativity, and grit. We find that giving students the possibility to join FabLab activities has overall a positive impact on all the variables assessed, except for career aspirations and ...

En los últimos años, la fabricación digital ha estado impactando no solo en los procesos productivos, sino también en la manera en la que nos relacionamos con el patrimonio cultural inmaterial. La artesanía no es la excepción, pues sus procesos creativos han estado cambiando en la última década y lo seguirán haciendo. Esta investigación busca predecir el futuro de las artesanías desde dos miradas: una cuantitativa (estadística) y otra cualitativa (empírica). La perspectiva cuantitativa identi...

With the ability to quickly create prototypes and being necessary to run Fab Academy, laser cutters are the workhorse in every Fablab. Furthermore, because of their ease of usage, they are often the most used machines and the first to be approached by inexperienced makers. However, laser cutters are currently an expensive purchase for Fablabs, usually being the most expensive machine in their inventory and mainly available as commercial closed source products. In the concept of Fablab 2.0, th...

In this contribution we develop the contours of a Fab Economy and how it can be implemented with a well-fitting digital infrastructure. We do so by first analysing microeconomic and transaction cost economic characteristics of a “Data-in-Data-out” Fab Economy, where bits circulate globally and atoms circulate locally. Based on this, we derive an economic structure (governance) of the overall Fab Economy at different stages of its value chain. The findings are finally used to defin...

Over the last decades, there have been significant improvements in waste management in contemporary cities - notably technology, methods and policies to improve the collection and recycling of materials. However, the industrial practice of recycling - transforming objects back into material for manufacturing - equates at least in part to cutting short the lifetime of things that may still have value. In addition, it requires significant investment and has environmental impacts that should be ...

The FabCity model, shared public space, is an alternative model of social innovation that aims to involve citizens in local production by relying on the dynamics generated by third places. This project is based on a reflection on the production of urban commons in the public space (here a skatepark), establishing a cross dynamic of cooperation between the local community, the citizen contribution, and the private actors. This experimentation through this common operation, and visible to all,...