The Maker ABC project is here to better define and promote the maker movement across Europe and aid in the gaining of complementary skills of makers and makerspace coordinators to develop entrepreneurship and sustainable development competencies.
The project kicked off with the visit of our two partners from IAAC – The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and MakerConvent from Trànsit Projectes here in Bucharest at Nod Makerspace, we discussed the goals of the Maker ABC Guide, we presented the Nod Makerspace business model, and learned how we can use communication as a tool for entrepreneurship. We also had our go at some intercomprehension exercises that helped us connect and brainstorm compelling ideas for the future endeavors.
First field trip to Barcelona: SDGs
Afterwards we headed to Barcelona to exchange good practices between makerspaces, communities of makers & local stakeholders and the consultation of experts from Catalunia.
We visited together with Trànsit Projectes the IAAC Fablab where we discussed how a community of like-minded people from across the world can contribute to distributed design systems, how to reuse materials to become more sustainable, and how hacking existing technology can help building new designs. Also, we had a great discussion on how the circular economy can help local communities to become more resilient and can increase the well-being of the people in the cities.
We met the amazing team that created Remix El Barrio, an ambitious community project that offers a learning space and nurtures new practices based on food-waste crafts. We learned about biomaterial design and how to make zero-waste and eco materials from food scraps by using artisanal techniques and digital fabrication. Also, we visited a fashion design lab that creates innovative organic clothing designs with… mycelium and mushrooms.
On the last day of our first trip, we went outside the city boundaries to discover a farmhouse where international students are researching new ways to process different types of wood found in the nearby forest and organic materials to implement in architectural eco-designs.
Second field trip to Barcelona: Community
How can we involve the community more in participating in the development of shared urban spaces? How can we develop a more sustainable approach to creating a connected city open for all of us? How do art and making work in creating new designs using digital technologies? These are just a couple of questions we explored on our second visit to Barcelona at the headquarters of Trànsit Projectes .
We had the opportunity to share knowledge and experiences as part of the #makerabc_eu European project, together with the team from IAAC, and got inspired and learned about community building from the soulful team of Makerconvent.
They are not just makers, they involve the people from the neighborhoods, children or adults, impoverished or from more wealthy barrios, encouraging the maker movement in civil society and educational activities to promote social inclusion.
And even if we knew it, we observed so deeply how important the support of the public authority is in building diverse, inclusive, and resilient communities around #making.
We had a great time learning about projects for society, exploring the more underprivileged parts of Barcelona, and we got more and more motivated to get the making out in the streets!
Maker ABC Partners
The three partner organizations of the project are innovators and forerunners of the maker movement:
Nod Makerspace is the first makerspace in Romania – a reference in the field. It has shared expertise and supported the development of such organizations throughout the country.
Transit Projectes focuses on community engagement and uses the maker movement to promote human rights and education, and fight social exclusion.
Fab Lab Barcelona is managed by the Institut d’Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya (IAAC) which pools resources from academia to develop research and education projects stemming from the maker movement.
All partner organizations have identified a need to better define and refine their practice, bring together resources and share their know-how on business modeling, community engagement and sustainable development goals to address environment and climate change objectives through their activity. In order to achieve this goal, we will be mapping organizations, communities and informal groups of makers throughout Europe, relevant to the maker movement, question their practices and bring together this know-how on challenges and opportunities identified on business models, community engagement and sustainable development practices into a best practices guide, The Maker ABC, freely available to all who wish to adhere to the values of the maker movement and transition into making this a sustainable entrepreneurial activity with impact in their communities.
More information about the Maker ABC project can be found here: makerabc.eu
More resources:
https://www.centrinno-cartography.org/
https://class.textile-academy.org/2020/loes.bogers/files/recipes/bioresin/
http://el-recetario.net/recipes/
https://www.makeatuvida.net/acciones/prototipado/mobiliario-para-colectividades/
ABOUT THE MAKER ABC PROGRAM
The Challenge
Knowing about making and managing spaces for makers requires different skill sets, the same way as making things and learning how to put them out into the world and selling them are two different things.
The Solution
The Maker ABC will bring together information from maker movement organizations across Europe to align and exchange best practices in the field of environment and climate change by integrating the UN sustainable development goals in the activity of the beneficiary organizations.
Type of Project
Small Cooperation funded by European Union’s Erasmus+ programme under Grant Agreement 2021-2-RO01-KA210-ADU-000051270.
Project Outputs/Applied Technologies
Small Cooperation funded by European Union’s Erasmus+ programme under Grant Agreement 2021-2-RO01-KA210-ADU-000051270.
