Visit by Prof. Neil Gershenfeld (Director of MIT The Center for Bits and Atoms) at the OpenLab Hamburg

Starting the year with a new collaboration between the New Production Institute and the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms

LOCALLY PRODUCED. GLOBALLY CONNECTED – The Fab City project aims to establish resilient and sustainable cities by pursuing an integrative approach. This approach includes the sharing of knowledge within a global network and the systematic characterization of infrastructure technologies for local production.

⫸ One focus is on developing and scaling a broad range of capabilities relevant to local production in key areas such as food, energy and shelter. This is where the new cooperation between the New Production Institute at Helmut-Schmidt-Universität/Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Center for Bits and Atoms comes in.

⫸ A multidisciplinary team from HSU and MIT is researching new technologies within various domains. This also includes cataloging the best methods for Fab City technologies, including in the areas of fabrication machines, measuring instruments, materials, furniture, clothing, consumer electronics, data networks, robots and transport. The development of innovative ideas to quantify material and energy flows in and out of a city, costs and benefits, productivity and scalability, as well as metrics to identify priorities relevant to the future of Fab Cities is crucial.