02.07.2014 - 07:41
Ever since the idea was born at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a decade ago, “laboratories” full of digital manufacturing or “fabrication” tools—that is, “fab labs”—have spread all over the world. With “fab labs” in more than three-hundred fifty cities (including Alacant, Barcelona, and Valencia), the promoters and followers of this network of production spaces with digitally controlled machines, laser cutters, 3D printers and computers meets annually in a world congress. This year, the FAB10 congress takes place in Barcelona, from today until next Tuesday, with three major focuses: digital manufacturing, emerging communities, and the new concept of productive cities.
FAB10 proposes the conversion of Barcelona into a “fab city” with all sorts of open, accessible events related to advances in digital technology, presented both for digital experts as well as to citizens of the city.
Because, in addition to the conferences for representatives of the “fab labs” and the Fab City symposium next Monday, the local organization has included on the program activities for adolescents (Fab Kids) as well as the weekend’s Fab Festival, which will fill the Disseny Hub Barcelona (Barcelona Design Hub) with inventions and experiences from this community of digital producers, as well as hands-on workshops for all ages.
Vistors to the Super Fab Lab in the Plaça de les Glòries will be able to see how food can be printed in a 3D printer, and how a prosthetic hand can be printed at home. And, during the week, they will see how a house and a car can be built.
On the last episode of L’internauta, one of the FAB10 organizers in Barcelona, Mariona Aloy explained why the 10th Fab Labs conference is being held in the Catalan capital: in 2007 the city was the first European home to one of these laboratories and now it is the first city in the world in which a public network of “Manufacturing Athenaeums” will be established, one in each city district.
