August has been a remarkable month for the New Production Institute as our team embarked on a journey to Mexico to participate in two significant events: the Fab Conference and the Fab City Summit.
These events provided an exceptional opportunity for exchange and networking with like-minded individuals who share our Institute’s ideals and goals.
Fab Conference: Fabricating Equity in Puebla
The Fab Conference – held at the Ibero-American University in Puebla from the 26th July to 9th August and organized by the Fab Foundation in collaboration with The Center for Bits and Atoms (MIT) – kicked off with the Fab Challenge and the Fab Festival. This year’s theme, Fabricating Equity, resonated deeply with the principles of the dtec.bw project “Fab City”.
Key Highlights:
- 3rd and 4th August: During the Fab Festival, our Fab Challenge participants, Juan Manuel Grados Luyando (Greening Communities: Bee conservation for equitable futures) and Jan Peuckert (Collaborate and Create: Innovative entrepreneurship to empower neighborhoods), showcased their innovative solutions to local issues. Their hard work was recognized with certificates awarded in the shadow of the Santuario de la Virgen de los Remedios. Congratulations to them!
- 5th August: The opening session featured welcome speeches and an engaging cultural dance performance, setting a vibrant tone for the days ahead.
- 7th August: Juan Manuel Grados Luyando led a workshop titled Microfactories: Revolutionizing Local Production for a Sustainable Tomorrow. He emphasized the crucial role of microfactories and local production in advancing FabCity ideals, focusing on the integration of automation and resource monitoring to enhance efficiency and track product footprints.
- 8th August: Gerrit Rüdebusch facilitated the workshop Mobile Labs United, where participants were introduced to the concept of the OpenLab Mobile—a mobile makerspace. The session sparked discussions among Mobile Lab managers and trainers about the future of these labs and the formation of a working group for further development.
- 9th August: Tobias Redlich, alongside Niels Boeing (Fab City Hamburg Association), Tomas Diez (Fab City Global Initiative), and Ekaterina Kormilitsyna (MIT Media Lab), participated in the Fab City Initiative Panel on Fab City Technology and HR. They presented the Fab City Ideals and FabCity Metrics, a tool designed to quantitatively measure the impact of Fab City practices in local contexts.
Fab City Summit: Reflecting on a Decade of Progress
Following the Fab Conference, the great experience continued in Yucatan with the Fab City Summit 2024. Organized by the Fab City Foundation and Fab City Yucatan, with the support of the Center for Bits and Atoms and Fab Foundation, the event was not just about networking and reconnecting with familiar faces but also about contributing to meaningful discussions.
Key Highlights:
- 12th August: At Anahuac Mayab University, Jan Peuckert led the Fab City Metrics Workshop: Approaches to Measuring Progress in Realizing the Fab City. His presentation on the network’s mission and the idea of a universal metric sparked a lively discussion on the Fab City Full Stack and its various layers, all aimed at realizing the vision of a circular city.
- 14th August: Jana Koppe took part in the (Meta)Global Collaboration Roundtable, where she presented the Fab City OS concept and addressed critical topics like trust and conflict management within the community.
This year’s Fab City Summit was particularly special as it marked the 10th anniversary of the Fab City Global Initiative (link). While we celebrated the progress made over the past decade, the event also served as a platform to plan the next steps toward our ultimate goal: enabling Fab Cities to produce (almost) everything they consume by 2054.
Reflecting on the experience
The New Production Institute is honored to have participated in such inspiring events, showcasing our progress with the dtec.bw project Fab City. Being part of this vibrant community of innovators reinforces our commitment to pushing the boundaries of decentralized, sustainable production. We look forward to continuing this journey and contributing to the global Fab City movement.
Fab City – Decentralized digital production for urban value creation is funded by:
