Fab City Hamburg e. V. to focus on digital local production

9 December 2020

Initiative to close material cycles using digital production

The Fab City Hamburg e.V. association has been set up to further the idea behind the Fab Cities Alliance, which is bent on making cities climate-neutral and to produce as much as possible by means of globally networked, digital production. The idea originates from the Fab Lab movement, which allows private individuals to use cutting-edge production methods in open workshops. The Fab Labs and Open Labs typically provide 3D printers and laser cutters. Hamburg became the first German city to join the Fab(rication) City Foundation and thus a member of the alliance in June 2019.

Opening of Fab City Labs planned

Benedikt Seidel, Board Member of the new association, remarked: "We are not letting ourselves be surprised by the digital revolution. But we are becoming a circular economy in which many good jobs are created with our strong local and international partner organisations. The first step will be to set up a digital and physical infrastructure that connects Hamburg to the global Fab City network." The association plans to use an interactive map of Hamburg to network people who are interested in establishing Fab City Labs in their district early next year. Construction workshops based on open source hardware will be held there and in keeping with Fab City standards.

Fab Cities to benefit from mutual exchange

Launched in 2014, the Fab City movement followed an appeal by the Mayor of Barcelona that cities should produce everything they consume themselves locally by 2054. The Fab Cities network includes Paris and Amsterdam as well as Shenzhen, Detroit, Boston, São Paulo, Barcelona and Hamburg among others. The 28-strong network of cities boosts open workshop infrastructure like Fab Labs, Open Labs and digital manufactories to develop new ideas and encourage knowledge exchange.

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