Fab Lab Barcelona

“We are a little different from others labs since we’re within an architecture university. IaaC’s students are the first users, along with the FabAcademy students, the university staff, and the Fab Pro users. External people can’t come everyday to make stuffs, but have the OpenDays to visit and ask questions to the team and community.”

“Our students come from all over the world, creating a bubble of people coming and leaving. And though it’s the first Fab Lab in the EU, it’s not so well-known in Barcelona itself. People know more about the government/council Fab Lab “los ateneus de fabricació digital” with all the communication made around.”

What do they make here? “Academic students work on self-sufficient building and sustainable ways to make architecture and cities: green facades, water recycling, etc. With the pro members, we “make as a service”, like with Leka Restaurante people. All their interior design and furnitures were made here.”

To go beyond students one-time use, Fab Lab Barcelona is thinking of having them develop a real project for an outside company using the Fab Lab. “One request we had was to make an interactive lamp for a square, that would tell people if they’re making too much noise!”

Fab Lab Barcelona initial set up in 2007 cost 150.000 euros. A 3-people team deployed the project. The space work was operated by IaaC, where the Fab Lab is located. The machines were funded with partnerships and the other bought.

Today, the Fab Lab gathers a 15-people team, 150 IaaC students, 20 FabAcademy students and few Fab Pro users. The model? IaaC non-profit org combined to a private company, Fab Lab Network Ltd Company. Approx. yearly budget? 450.000 euros. The main income sources? One third from education activities: master program, FabAcademy, workshops. Another third from grants, (especially EU): research grants. And the last one from Fab Pro services. The Fab Lab created long-term partnerships with the Fab Foundation and the FabAcademy.

Tomorrow, Fab Lab Barcelona aims to increase its budget to be able to invest into projects, set up more established partnerships with large companies. “Not become bigger, but make it better”, help other labs to exist and develop the FabAcademy.

The success indicators according to Tomas Diez? “Find a mess when you enter, a beautiful mess, that is the very first thing a Fab Lab should show. A Fab Lab should be economically sustainable by supporting many other interconnected but independent projects around. I also think that the response from the team to outsiders also shows the state of the lab. A Fab Lab should be always ready to receive people, and give at least a smile!”

Now, the Fab Lab’s team has 15 members (10 full-time). A director, a coordinator, two people on Fab Pro, two on FabAcademy, one for IaaC students, one on FabTextile and others working on specific projects like Smart Citizen!

Coming here for the first time, “we’ll welcome you with smiles (laughs)! Fab Pro people have two ways: the “make it for me” (short-term consumer demand) or the “train me to make it myself” (specific trainings, advices). For the others, you should come here, tell us what you want to do. We’ll see what you can make on your own, point you at resources and give advices all along the way!”

Many events, classes and meetings rythm Fab Lab Barcelona’s life: two sets of workshops (all details here), bootcamps (one-week full days or two-week half-days) once a year, OpenDays once a month, plus conferences and talks!

There, you’ll also find the FabAcademy, six months to learn how to make (almost) anything and its new variations; the PreAcademy (bootcamps) and FabAcademy X (one or two months). And also the FabKids 10-workshop series aimed at 12-year old kids! They’re about educational and recreational activities, focused on design and digital fabrication.

“With the FabAcademy students, everything is documented. They have to create their own website to document all their project steps throughout the six months.” All the students websites are there.

“For the Fab Lab, it’s different. We had a wiki where we put all the settings and specs of materials, machines, machines use, etc. It’s not running at the moment though because we are changing servers. Regarding the projects, we have a dedicated page on the website. But it’s more a communication than a project documentation.”

“To document properly projects, we use GitHub and start to use fablabs.io. We don’t have just one platform or system where we share everything!”

With all these different tools, Fab Lab Barcelona people try to document the projects, the Fab Lab’s life, the specs details about materials and machines, among other things. “We don’t force anyone to document. Academic students make portfolios and project books for IaaC, but they don’t use the website or platform.”