In order to discuss issues and identify strategies for makerspaces in sustainable development Professor Adrian Smith organised a two-day event on “How can makerspaces, fablabs and hackerspaces help cultivate sustainable developments?”. The workshop, which was funded by CIED and co-hosted with the STEPS Centre, took place over two days in the Machines Room in London, with the first day featuring wide range of speakers from established makerspaces, from educational and research institutes and community-building initiatives presenting different experiences of making and sustainable developments; and the second day being an invite-only workshop.
Speakers on the first day included:
Makerspaces: Diana Wildschut and Harmen Zijp from FabLab Amersfoort, Richard Clifford from MAKLab,
Educational and research institutions: Susana Nascimento from the European Commission Joint Research Centre, Cindy Kohtala from Aalto University in Finland
Community-building initiatives: Trystan Lea from Open Energy Monitor, Didac Ferrer from Tarpuna Co-operative and Janet Gunter from the Restart Project.
The second day focused on the following three questions:
- How to sustain and expand commitment to sustainable developments in makerspaces?
- Should sustainability initiatives scale-up or circulate more widely, and if so, how to retain core aims when moving beyond prototyping?
- How can makerspaces work with others to generate conditions for sustainable developments in the wider world?
Participants from both days were encouraged to tweet using the hashtag #sustmake. To catch up on the event read the Storify.
