Fab City Global Initiative

Fab City Global Initiative Fab City is an initiative which emerged from the global Fab Lab Network to develop locally productive and globally connected self-sufficient cities.

Kamakura, a city in Japan, had its only waste incineration facility shut down in January 2025. The city had to find anot...
16/06/2026

Kamakura, a city in Japan, had its only waste incineration facility shut down in January 2025. The city had to find another way.
The answer didn't come from policy alone, but from a community-built tool that fits even on a balcony.

FAB de Chiero is an eco food waste processor that uses soil microorganisms to decompose kitchen waste, with no electricity required. Designed through a collaboration between FabLab Kamakura, Keio University SFC, CAINZ, and Kayac, it transforms an inventor's hand-crafted solution into something anyone can build themselves using a ShopBot CNC at a local DIY store.

The project addresses what centralised waste systems can't. The last mile of food waste, in apartments, on balconies, at schools, in neighbourhood associations.

📸 Explore photos of the project on Fab City Flickr, and find out more about this processor: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCVMtr

12/06/2026

"It's not so much what is human, what is not human, but what is compromising our life support systems at scale — what is actually regenerating them, and making it part of a way of living in which humans and non-humans can coexist."

Diez and Kaur in conversation during our Expert Talk earlier this week, on what regeneration actually asks of us.

Watch the full Expert Talk on YouTube, link in bio!

10/06/2026

“We don't start with land ownership, and governance, and we've gotta change the economy, and racialize capitalism, and economic and societal collapse at every supper club. (…) You've got to be able to understand the beat, the temperature, and the soul of a place.”

and in conversation yesterday during our Expert Talk, on neighbourhood change and what it takes. Moderated by

Full Expert Talk on YouTube! Link in bio!

Next Expert Talk in September. 🗓️

Most participatory processes collect data, very few collect feelings.When a site carries history, every decision about i...
03/06/2026

Most participatory processes collect data, very few collect feelings.

When a site carries history, every decision about its future carries weight. A building isn't just a building. A tool isn't just a tool. For some people, it's a livelihood. Designing can include emotional responses.

Emotion Networking, developed by the Reinwardt Academie in collaboration with the CENTRINNO EU, turns emotional connections into a methodology. Stakeholders gather around a single heritage object and map their emotional responses to visualize the range of perspectives.

The method is part of a broader ethnographic approach designed for Fab City Hubs, which work at the intersection of industrial heritage, circular economy, and social inclusion.

👉 "Emotion Networking Tool" is part of the Fab City Learning Hub → a growing repository of projects, frameworks, and tools developed by and for the network.

→ https://fab.city/learning-hub/resource-emotion-networking-tool

📌 · 🌐

A city buried under the Egyptian Delta. No maps. No complete records. Just fragments, ruins, and the gaps in between."Ta...
26/05/2026

A city buried under the Egyptian Delta. No maps. No complete records. Just fragments, ruins, and the gaps in between.

"Takes those gaps as its starting point." - Eslam ElShamy - student on the Master’s programme at Arts University Plymouth (AUP) and a participant in Fab City Research Intensives: Designing for a Distributed Future, a hands-on programme that activates the Fab City Plymouth.

His research asks what happens when communities get to reconstruct and interpret a lost world. Using open-source tools, archaeological fragments, and collective imagination, participants with no technical background co-author possible versions of the ancient city of Imet (Tell Nebesha).

The methodology moves between disciplines no one usually puts together:

Archival evidence → speculative worldbuilding → community workshops → immersive VR experience.

The result is an immersive VR experience built collectively, set to be presented at the largest 360° dome in the UK, and more importantly, an open methodology any community can adapt to their own fragmented histories.

This is locally-driven heritage production. The community not as audience, but as co-author.

Read the full piece→ https://tinyurl.com/4nn2h6h2

Arts University Plymouth × Real Ideas × Fab City x Fab Lab South West x Hochschule Anhalt

Every year, millions of shared bikes break down across cities, and most of them go unrepaired and are abandoned.The shar...
15/05/2026

Every year, millions of shared bikes break down across cities, and most of them go unrepaired and are abandoned.

The shared mobility industry grew fast enough to reshape urban transport in a decade but didn't build the infrastructure to handle what happens when the hardware fails. The end of a bike's life wasn't part of the design.

Re-Bicycle, developed by Shimiao Zhou as a final project for the Master in Design for Distributed Innovation at IAAC, maps exactly that gap, and proposes a full-stack circular strategy to close it.

The goal isn't just recycling. It's extending the life cycle of an asset that cities already depend on, and building the local ecosystem to sustain it. The demand exists. The system just needs to be built.

👉 "Re-Bicycle: A strategy plan For broken Shared bikes" is part of the Fab City Learning Hub → a growing repository of projects, frameworks, and tools developed by and for the network.

📌 Zhou · · in Design for Distributed Innovation

🌐 https://fab.city/learning-hub/resource-re-bicycle

Fab City is landing in Brussels.From 9 to 13 June 2026, the New European Bauhaus Festival takes over the Art & History M...
12/05/2026

Fab City is landing in Brussels.

From 9 to 13 June 2026, the New European Bauhaus Festival takes over the Art & History Museum & Parc du Cinquantenaire — bringing together communities, creators, and changemakers around one topic: Drive forward Europe’s clean transition through future-looking, innovative ideas.

Five days. NEB Festival will combine music and artistic performances with exhibits of innovative projects, hands-on workshops, and panel discussions.

Fab City will be there, and also at its satellite event in Barcelona.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks.

🔗 new-european-bauhaus-festival.eu

New European Bauhaus | European Commission | Art & History Museum

A co-innovation hub where a software entrepreneur builds electronics. Where musicians become engineers. Where anyone cur...
05/05/2026

A co-innovation hub where a software entrepreneur builds electronics. Where musicians become engineers. Where anyone curious enough to walk in can start making something real.

"Resonator in Sofia, is not a makerspace, not a coworking space, not just an event venue; it's all three, built around one idea: shared infrastructure lowers barriers, and proximity between disciplines creates the conditions for something new."

Founder and CEO Mihajlo Nikolic started by closing a gap. What emerged is a city-wide hub with fabrication and electronics , sound and content studios, a public showroom, and a growing network of , engineers, artists and NGOs building together.

Share tools → exchange knowledge → build confidence → scale.

From controllers for musicians to open federated networks. From VTOL drones powered by hydrogen to early warning communication systems.

Read the full interview with Mihajlo Nikolic → link in bio!

A co-innovation hub where a software entrepreneur builds electronics. Where musicians become engineers. Where anyone cur...
05/05/2026

A co-innovation hub where a software entrepreneur builds electronics. Where musicians become engineers. Where anyone curious enough to walk in can start making something real.

"Resonator in Sofia, is not a makerspace, not a coworking space, not just an event venue; it's all three, built around one idea: shared infrastructure lowers barriers, and proximity between disciplines creates the conditions for something new."

Founder and CEO Mihajlo Nikolic started by closing a gap. What emerged is a city-wide hub with fabrication and electronics , sound and content studios, a public showroom, and a growing network of , engineers, artists and NGOs building together.

Share tools → exchange knowledge → build confidence → scale.

From controllers for musicians to open federated networks. From VTOL drones powered by hydrogen to early warning communication systems.

Read the full interview with Mihajlo Nikolic → https://tinyurl.com/4schx8wa

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