NPI and MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms

Fab City Technologies

The New Production Institute at Helmut Schmidt University is conducting a comprehensive research collaboration with the Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on the systematic development and testing of Fab City technologies. The aim is to identify, analyze, and further develop technological and social innovations that enable sustainable, resilient, and locally organized production in urban areas.
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Research Objectives

Development of innovative approaches to urban production

The aim of the cooperation is to systematically identify, evaluate, and further develop technological and social innovations in a practical manner in order to promote sustainable and resilient local production in urban areas. The research focuses on establishing a Fab City Lab as a reference model for decentralized urban production systems. This laboratory serves to integrate and optimize proven technologies and methods from various production areas—including food, energy, mobility, furniture, clothing, consumer goods, and mechanical and digital manufacturing systems—and enables their exemplary testing.

Technological analysis and evaluation of decentralized production systems

The MIT Center for Bits and Atoms is contributing its comprehensive technical expertise to this collaboration. Together with the New Production Institute, technological approaches are being systematically analyzed in terms of resource efficiency, scalability, cost structure, and potential benefits, existing technology gaps are being identified, and potential further development strategies are being developed. In addition, technical solutions will be compared and supplemented by the development of methods for recording and analyzing urban material and data flows, based in part on the Fab City Index.

Social impact and acceptance of new forms of production

In addition to the technological perspective, the social dimension is also a focus of the collaboration. The New Production Institute will examine how Fab City technologies have economic, cultural, and educational impacts on urban spaces. Among other things, this involves questions of accessibility, dissemination, and social acceptance of new forms of production.

Establishment of a knowledge platform and scientific transfer

Another goal of the cooperation is to develop a Fab City technology portal that will serve as a central platform for research, knowledge transfer, and the exchange of proven solutions. At the same time, the findings from the collaboration will be published in joint scientific publications in order to further advance the global discourse on sustainable urban production.

Research

Key Points

Development of a Fab City technology portal as a platform for research, knowledge transfer, and international networking
Establishment of a Fab City Lab as a reference model for urban production
Comparison, evaluation, and further development of technological approaches with regard to resource efficiency, scalability, costs, and benefits
Development of methods for analyzing and optimizing urban material and data flows
Research into the social, economic, and cultural impacts of new forms of production
Joint scientific publications to strengthen global discourse

Dictionary

Fab City Index

The Fab City Index is a methodological tool for evaluating urban production systems. It assesses how well a city implements local, circular, and open forms of production based on criteria such as material flows, data infrastructure, education, and political framework.

Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA)

The CBA at MIT explores the interface between digital information and the physical world. It co-founded the Fab Lab movement and is one of the world’s leading research centers for digital manufacturing.

Social innovation through technology

Fab City technologies have not only a technical impact, but also a social one: they create new places of learning, promote participation, and strengthen local communities. Here, innovation means not only “new,” but also “useful for many.”