Fab Labs Research Articles

Collaborative innovation for sustainability in Nordic cities

New integrative, collaborative, and innovative approaches are needed to overcome global sustainability challenges. Exploring the diversity of collaborative innovation in six Nordic cities, this study aims to advance our understanding of collaborative innovation for sustainability in urban contexts. By adopting a multiple case approach, we investigate 49 cases aiming at collaborative innovation for sustainability, including co-working spaces, Fab labs, green public procurement, hackathons, hubs, makerspaces, participatory budgeting, and living labs. Our findings reveal a diverse range of models supporting collaborative innovation for sustainability. Further, we develop a conceptual framework that identifies four archetypes of collaborative innovation and apply it to analyse how those archetypes advance sustainability. The results illustrate how collaborative innovation archetypes contribute to sustainability in urban areas.

Promotion of Social Innovation through Fab Labs. The Case of ProteinLab UTEM in Chile

Fab Labs as manufacturing laboratories that stimulate innovation and collaboration are nowadays proliferating within universities. Given the new social challenges, framed within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), we formulate the following research question: Are Fab Labs an effective tool for the promotion of social innovation from universities? To answer this question, a mixed analysis has been carried out focusing on the case of ProteinLab UTEM. The approach aims to generate a model for the promotion of social innovation from universities through Fab Labs, linking the quadruple helix actors. The objective of this model is to show how Fab Labs can become an effective instrument to promote social innovation from universities. The contribution of this article lies in linking Fab Labs with social innovation through the university’s third mission. Our approach considers Fab Labs as an instrument for the development of social innovations within the university, which contribute, through the third mission, to the social and sustainable development of its environment. As a result of this research, a model is presented for the development of social innovation from universities through Fab Labs. Our research concludes that Fab Labs are an effective instrument for the promotion of social innovation from universities.

Déterminants d’une expérience inclusive de loisir dans des ateliers créatifs au sein de bibliothèques publiques

Public libraries are becoming a third place dedicated to community life, with new spaces promoting exchanges and co-creation, such as Fab Labs (digital creation activities) and Art Hives (artistic activities). This participatory research, using a Living Lab approach, aimed to identify key elements that promote inclusive leisure experiences of people living with disabilities in creative workshops. Data were collected during four Fab Lab workshops and four Art Hives artistic workshops in two public libraries, with eight participants living with disabilities, using video recordings, photos, and two focus groups. Findings suggest that inclusive leisure experiences involve the physical access to places and activities (e.g., signalling of accessible entrances); opportunities for experiencing positive interactions (e.g., quality of reception on arrival); and engagement in meaningful activities. This experience is built before (e.g., organizing transport), during and after the activity. Suggestions for concrete actions for the various stakeholders are derived from these results.

The show must go on! Strategies for making and makerspaces during pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic is challenging for Fab Labs and makerspaces where the use of digital fabrication machines and working with physical materials in collaboration with others are at the heart of the activities. We have been actively promoting children's technology education both by training local teachers and by working with children themselves. The restrictions have resulted in limiting the number of participants or moving to online working, or even closing the workspaces and cancelling the events. To continue our work, we needed to explore new solutions for the situation. We have provided online training for teachers, experimented with working in family groups and fully online, while access to the digital fabrication machines and children's engagement in online activities were the largest challenges we encountered. We report in this paper our experiences with different solutions as well as challenges we have faced, both as regards technology education of children and collecting research data related to that.

Digital Fabrication and Theater: Developing Social Skills in Young Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

An action research project was carried out, using theater workshops and basic digital fabrication technology workshops to improve social skills—such as the expression of emotions, communication, self-control, and teamwork—in a group of 10 young individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This article focuses on the digital fabrication workshops, where participants worked on the fundamentals of electronics and programming, as well as 3D design and printing, to make props that were later used on stage in the theatrical performances in which they participated. These workshops were systematized through observation guides. According to the results, it was evident that the participants not only enjoyed and gained technological knowledge, but that their social skill development needs were addressed. Professionals from the Special Education Faculty and the Fab Lab Kä Träre, both from Universidad Estatal a Distancia in Costa Rica, were in charge of the study during its first phase, executed in 2016 and 2017.

From Hacking to Making

Abstract This article explores the history of contemporary Spanish Do-It- Yourself (DIY) spaces (hacklabs, hackerspaces, fab labs, makerspaces and after-school academies) and the growth of each type since the 1990s. The development of these types of spaces is reflected against the commodification and commoditisation of DIY in Spain. The article argues that the removal of the political layer of the early Spanish DIY techno-tactical movements allowed a higher degree of dissemination within society in general, while reducing the emancipatory potential of these new spaces. However, the analysis of the degree of commodification and commoditisation of types of spaces in relation to the amount of spaces per type shows an anomaly for makerspaces. The authors reflect upon this anomaly and whether a data set enlargement could correct it. For their analysis, the authors constructed a data set of events of the Spanish DIY history through the design of an ad hoc mixed method. Tracing events and spaces could not be done in a simple way due to the long time span of the study: older spaces existed in the pre-social network days, and new ones exist only in dedicated platforms for niche communities of practice. This method of tracing events and spaces is another contribution of the article as it could be used to make similar causality analyses of historical data in other case studies.

ShARe-IT: Ad hoc Remote Troubleshooting through Augmented Reality

10 years ago, Castellani et al. (Journal of Computer Supported Cooperative Work, vol. 18, no. 2–3, 2009, pp. 199–227, 2009) showed that using just an audio channel for remote troubleshooting can lead to a range of problems and already envisioned a future in which augmented reality (AR) could solve many of these issues. In the meantime, AR technologies have found their way into our everyday lives and using such technologies to support remote collaboration has been widely studied within the fields of Human-Computer Interaction and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. In this paper, we contribute to this body of research by reporting on an extensive empirical study within a Fab Lab of troubleshooting and expertise sharing and the potential relevance of articulation work to their realization. Based on the findings of this study, we derived design challenges that led to an AR-based concept, implemented as a HoloLens application, called shARe-it. This application is designed to support remote troubleshooting and expertise sharing through different communication channels and AR-based interaction modalities. Early testing of the application revealed that novel interaction modalities such as AR-based markers and drawings play only a minor role in remote collaboration due to various limiting factors. Instead, the transmission of a shared view and especially arriving at a shared understanding of the situation as a prerequisite for articulation work continue to be the decisive factors in remote troubleshooting.

Preliminary assessment of solid waste in Philippine Fabrication Laboratories

<abstract> Solid waste management is seen as a response to the increase in waste generation due to the rising number of industrial facilities. This includes digital manufacturing facilities such as Fabrication Laboratories (FAB LAB) which acts as innovation centers that generates prototypes using a common set of digital fabrication equipment. Previous studies have tackled with the environmental impacts of FAB LABs in a macro-level scale; however, there has been a lack of research specifically assessing the solid waste of laboratories, more so on Philippine FAB LABs. A baseline assessment study on FAB LABs of the Philippines could be applicable in future implementations of solid waste management systems through the crafting of institutional policies and guidelines for environmental sustainability. Using data gathered from 11 respondent FAB LABs, this study quantified percentage compositions of the waste according to waste type as well as the relative waste generated by each respondent FAB LAB. Machine availability was seen as a factor in waste generation resulting in the high generation of wood and plastic waste. Moreover, it was observed that earlier established laboratories generally had more active makers than recently established ones, hence the older FAB LABs statistically produced more waste. Approximately 53% of the overall waste produced was considered recyclable by Philippine standards but the actual recyclability of the waste was still undetermined due to the ambiguous criteria for recyclables and the lack of feedback data from recycling facilities. The initial findings suggest that an implementation of continuous waste monitoring, sufficient in-laboratory protocols, and coordination between FAB LABs and recycling facilities could improve actual waste recyclability and—by extension—the environmental sustainability of Philippine FAB LABs. </abstract>

El Diseño y estudio de producto mínimo viable MVP para Tocte Taller Creativo

The goal of this project is to show the importance of an MVP ( Minimum Viable Product) which allows testing and getting valuable information to develop products within an ideation process such as Design Thinking The project highlights the results of releasing an MVP to the market as a first step, optimizing time and resources by getting the market's feedback and monitoring if the product meets its needs. In this case, the product analyzed is Domun, an MVP of the furniture children brand "Trompo Mobiliario Infantil" and its slogan "Growing with the kids". Domun was created in the fab lab "Tocte Taller Creativo". The analysis involves Domun's development and the first feedback of its manufacture. This feedback allows to analyze results, resolve problems, and pivot (if needed) towards a more precise and functional result by adjusting measurements, redesigning, or even releasing new products.

Fashion lab como fator de inovação no design autoral de moda

As transformações oriundas pós - revolução industrial seguem ecoando em nossa sociedade, permitindo avanços na área de tecnologia, produção e consumo de produtos em diferentes segmentos, em especial o da moda. Diante disto, o presente artigo propõe compreend er, de forma inicial e conceitual, a utilização do espaço Fashion lab por designers autorais de moda. Considera - se que o uso desse laboratório pode qualificar o processo de inovação durante a produção de novos produtos. Neste trabalho, utilizou - se a pesqui sa básica com abordagem qualitativa descritiva e a fundamentação teórica contempla os conceitos de inovação, fab lab, Fashion lab e design autoral. Por fim, os resultados da pesquisa indicam que os princípios de compartilhamento, experimentação e prototipa ção corroboram para a inovação no design autoral de moda em fashion labs.

Assessing the effect of 3D printing technologies on entrepreneurship: An exploratory study

The aim of this paper is to critically assess the effect of 3D printing technologies on entrepreneurship. While 3D printing technologies (also known as ‘additive manufacturing’) have been considered as highly transformative technologies, they have been so far (despite over 30 years of existence) restricted to niche markets, and until recently, it seemed that only the largest firms were able to take advantage of those technologies. However, the cost of use of such technologies has sharply decreased over the past few years, and an increasing number of service companies offer both offline (Fab Labs, makerspaces, bureaus) and online (3D printing platforms) access to 3D printing capacities, enabling to “bridge the gap” and provide access to 3D printing technologies to everyone.In this context, using a case-based exploratory methodology, this research aims to explore the benefits of 3D printing technologies for entrepreneurs and new ventures, in particular in relation to overcoming specific challenges these smaller and younger structures face. After identifying the key types of hurdle faced by entrepreneurs – NPD issues, technical issues, market issues, financial issues, and business model issues – this article investigates the manner in which different forms of usage of 3D printing technologies – prototyping, tooling, direct manufacturing, distributed and localised manufacturing – can help alleviate each of those types of barrier.The results of this research indicate that 3D printing technologies are indeed likely to enable entrepreneurs to overcome the five main types of barriers they generally face. Furthermore, because of the very particular situation of entrepreneurs and new ventures and the specific challenges they face in terms of scale, access to markets, and lack of financial resources, 3D printing may in fact be more transformative for smaller and younger structures, than for larger and well-established corporations. However, this research also indicates that benefits for entrepreneurs derived from the use of 3D printing may depend on the degree of involvement of 3D printing in the overall productive process – the more the merrier – and that using 3D printing only at design and tooling stage, although helpful to some extent, may not be so impactful.

Development Model of Fab Lab in India: Focused on Fab Lab Vigyan Ashram

팹랩(Fab Lab)의 설립목적은 전세계 지역 커뮤니티의 지속 가능한 발전을 도모하는 것이다. 이를 위해 팹 재단(Fab Foundation)은 2054년까지 도시의 자급자족률을 50% 이상을 유지하는 자원 순환형 사회를 준비하고 있다. 팹랩은 선진국에서 창업이나 전문가를 위한 제작 공간뿐만 아니라, 학습과 창조를 위한 개방형 혁신 공간으로 자리매김하고 있다. 또한, 신흥국에서는 개인 혹은 커뮤니티의 요구를 반영하는 적정한 신기술을 제작하고, 공유하는 디지털 제작터의역할을 수행하고 있다. 인도 전역에 70개의 팹랩이 있으며, 이는 러시아의 48개를 앞서는 신흥국 최대 규모이다. 인도의 팹랩은 6개월마다 주기적인 모임을 통해 협업 프로젝트를 진행하고, 많은 스타트업을 양산해내고 있다. 본 연구의주제인 팹랩 빅얀 아쉬람은 인도 농촌의 대안학교에 디지털 랩의 개념을 이전하는 장소로 정의하고 있다. 본 연구에서 구루쿨라(Gurukula) 제도의 현대판인 빅얀 아쉬람이라는 농업공동체 대안학교가 팹랩이라는 디지털 패브리케이션과 성공적으로 결합하여, 제4차 산업혁명의 새로운 시민주도의 메이킹 커뮤니티로 거듭난 사례를 살펴보았다. 이를 바탕으로 현지 실정에 맞는 인도 팹랩의 발전 모델을 탐색해 보았다.

Aplicações da fabricação digital em arquitetura, design e construção: processos de apropriação tecnológica e adequação sociotécnica em experimentos na América do Sul

O artigo apresenta uma taxonomia de projetos relacionados à aplicação das tecnologias de fabricação digital na arquitetura, design e construção, desenvolvidos no contexto da América do Sul. Como parte de uma pesquisa em andamento, o material remete aos temas da apropriação tecnológica, adequação sociotécnica e inovação social. O objetivo é elencar alguns dos experimentos projetuais identificados durante a pesquisa, para apresentar uma perspectiva local das estratégias de produção. Os métodos utilizados englobam a revisão da literatura e revisão sistemática, mapeamento, questionário e estudos de caso. O contexto recente de instalação dos laboratórios de fabricação digital, iniciado em 2007, foi se ampliando nas instituições por meio do ensino e pesquisa, além da consolidação do modelo Fab Lab. Os resultados práticos são muito heterogêneos, ainda limitados em escala e fortemente baseados na articulação híbrida entre o analógico e o digital, devido aos materiais disponíveis, tipo de maquinário acessível e da especialização técnica necessária para produzi-los, mas já direcionados às dinâmicas de solução de problemas no aspecto social.

Fostering skills for the 21st century: The role of Fab labs and makerspaces

Based on a study of a network of fab labs and makerspaces, this article investigates the role that such ‘fabrication spaces’ can play in fostering 21st century skills. Using a combination of the two main 21st century skills frameworks—DigComp and EntreComp—developed by the EU Commission, we study by the means of two combined qualitative research methods—semi-structured interviews of 13 fab lab/makerspace founders, followed by a focus group with founders and policymaker—the entrepreneurial and digital skills that are fostered by these fab labs and makerspaces. Our findings are that while fab labs and makerspaces naturally foster some entrepreneurial 21st century skills, only explicit and proactive entrepreneurship and education programme enable to foster the whole spectrum of these skills. In regard to technical skills, fab labs and makerspaces enable to develop skills beyond what is generally considered as 21st century digital skills, because they combine digital skills with hands-on ‘making’ skills, since they are themselves mixed environment, both digital and physical. Consequently, the growing importance of ‘maker technologies’ may force to redefine what 21st century skills should be.

Exploring technology-oriented Fab Lab facilitators’ role as educators in K-12 education: Focus on scaffolding novice students’ learning in digital fabrication activities

Abstract In makerspaces, such as Fab Labs, students have opportunities to participate in activities where they can engage in exploring, inventing, and realizing abstract ideas and creating tangible artifacts with digital technology. Often, the participating students do not have previous knowledge and experience in digital fabrication. Being aware of how people learn may significantly affect the success to attract students to ill-structured problem-solving and maintain their motivation and resilience toward possible setbacks when learning new topics. The aim of this study is to explore how technology-oriented Fab Lab facilitators can scaffold novice students’ learning in digital fabrication activities. We examined three cases of digital fabrication activities for K-12 students in a makerspace. Based on the participants’ perceptions of the current activities, the study suggests four essential elements for designing digital fabrication activities for K-12 education in makerspaces: (1) consider how people learn as a base for activity design; (2) provide instructional scaffolding to improve learning; (3) familiarize teachers with ill-structured assignments and digital fabrication; (4) establish collaboration between teachers and facilitators. The study contributes to the FabLearn community by providing makerspace facilitators with concrete examples to reflect on and improve the activities to foster students’ engagement and learning through digital fabrication.

Innovators in Urban China: Makerspaces and Marginality with Impact

In China, the emergence of makerspaces, hackerspaces, Fab Labs, and innovation labs reflects top-down and bottom-up dynamics. The grassroots movements and governmental efforts promoting innovation and creativity are part of the maker trend linked to the rise of the Internet and access to digital tools. The urban imaginary of the maker culture creates networks and events both globally and locally. The first makerspaces opened in Shanghai and Shenzhen in 2010 and attracted the attention of the government, which published an initiative in 2015 that influenced the typology of makerspaces in China. The ephemeral spaces for innovators, hackers, makers, and entrepreneurs shaped by this cultural context and local ecosystem are urban phenomena investigated with social anthropological and experimental methodologies to better understand the extension and platformisation of these autonomous and co-opted communities and narratives. This research fills the knowledge gap on makerspaces in China in recent years, showing the impact of governmental initiatives on a grassroots culture, the possible roles of makers, and the complexity and unlimitedness of the maker culture through international partnerships for projects such as Designed in Ethiopia and Kabakoo Academies.

STEAM in Oulu: Scaffolding the development of a Community of Practice for local educators around STEAM and digital fabrication

There is an increased interest to integrate STEAM methodologies and digital fabrication processes into formal education. However, teachers have repeatedly reported a set of impediments that hampers them to succeed. This integration requires a set of changes in the school organization, resourcing and a proper teacher training. A Community of Practice formed by different stakeholders of a local educational community might provide the necessary grounds to lead to this transition. In this paper, we report our experience of creating and scaffolding a local Community of Practice for a period of ten months. We present the different activities we carried out during this period, emphasizing a digital fabrication training that we conducted, at our university Fab Lab premises, for teachers and school principals separately. We also explore the influence of this training on scaffolding of the development of the Community of Practice. We expect the training structure, discussion and insights presented in this paper would inspire other researchers and practitioners trying to bring digital fabrication to formal education.

A tale of two innovation cultures: Bridging the gap between makers and manufacturers

Maker communities have been widely popularized during the last decade throughout the development of numerous shared spaces in the form of makerspaces, fab labs and hackerspaces across the globe. This phenomenon has drawn the attention of many stakeholders interested in establishing bridges with them for exploring their innovation potential. However, synergies between producer innovation and free innovation paradigms remain quite uncertain. To meet this gap, the authors provide an analysis of the 22 collaborative innovations between makers and manufacturers funded by the OPENMAKER project as well as relevant empirical evidence gathered throughout 126 semi-structured interviews. The findings of this contribution stress the misalignment of makers and manufacturers in society as well as their different values and motivations around innovation, and the lack of shared spaces. At the same time, the paper highlights the benefits that the interaction between these two communities could have for meeting societal challenges, increasing social welfare and speeding up innovation processes if proper incentives and conditions are orchestrated. In this sense, we propose a set of considerations and implications based on the empirical material gathered, for providing future directions for innovation policies and research agendas.

Exploring the impact of Maker initiatives on cities and regions with a research through design approach

During the last decades, economic, social and technological phenomena have influenced the role, importance and perception of cities and regions. Cities and rural areas are increasingly divided because of manufacturing and its globalisation; digital technologies in manufacturing are introducing more automation in factories, reducing thus the workforce and aggravating these phenomena. But at the same time, the Maker Movement connects these two opposites by adopting such digital technologies with an open approach, enabling a distributed manufacturing ecosystem based on individuals and communities such as Fab Labs, Makerspaces and Hackerspaces that work locally but that are connected globally. How can we measure the impact of Maker initiatives over cities and regions? This article addresses this issue with a research through design strategy that connects both design research and practice focusing on a) a theoretical context that connects peer production, manufacturing and cities and regions, b) a model for measuring Maker initiatives and their impact on cities and regions and c) a tool for the visualization and exploration of such impact. In this way designers, makers and researchers can actively participate in intentionally building the future of the Maker Movement in cities and regions instead of only analysing its present and past.

New Geographies of Work: Re-Scaling Micro-Worlds

The recently emerging new types of collaborative work and unconventional workplaces indicate that shifting social and economic practices have odd spatial implications. The diversity of work, mostly based on hybrid social and economic logics, has brought forth a number of new contextualised spatial constructs in recent years: makerspaces, fab labs, open workshops, and co-working spaces now require detailed analytical reconstruction and conceptualisation. This article is a theoretical discussion of the nature of fluid and contingent spatialisation against the backdrop of binary explanatory categories (e.g. local-global; proximity-distance). Drawing upon modernised concepts of horizontal scaling, we propose a perspective on hybrid work which focuses on contingent multiple, multidirectional and temporal scalings created by a variety of users while developing their own micro-worlds of work.