We had a good visit to the Barcelona Fab Lab. We met with Tomas Diez the project manager of the Fab Lab. The Lab is a part of a technical school IAAC (Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia). It's located in a large industrial warehouse type of space which is great for creating things! They even built a solar house in the space. I think the partnership between the Fab Lab and IAAC really helps the sustainability and the creativity of the Fab Lab. It's great to have continuous students use and create the machines and share their projects. See a video of the machines below. They have a laser cutter, modela, 3d printer, 2 Makerbots, perhaps a plasma cutter, a large bed laser cutter, Fab at home machine, and other machines that are a part of the architecture program. They are also making machines from their machines! Which is great for expansion and sustainability.
Tomas provided us with an overview of the projects that they have created from a solar house to creating their own shields to make a create a device that senses pollution. Tomas and Zorzano talked a lot about development and Zorzano mentioned that we can definitely do a workshop and teach the student the GSM shield sometime in October, and see if there are some potential ideas from the students! Zorzano also mentioned that we may be able to assist them with some software as they create the Smart/Sensor City.
While the Fab Lab is a great place and has some very exciting and creative projects there are a few general concerns. First is funding and economic sustainability. It is not clear what the continual funding sources will be in order to financially maintain the lab. Presumably they are looking to partner and be sponsored by companies, etc. They have a grand and inspiring vision to create 10 Fab Labs and make Barcelona the first Fab City, however we are not sure how soon or how realistic this is. Though we strongly encourage and support the spirit! They will likely add 2 more Fab Labs in the next 2 to 3 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment