In many cities, from post-industrial neighborhoods to urban peripheries, they are flourishing community use workshops and digital fabrication laboratories These environments open doors to creativity and collaboration. They provide access to machines, materials, and knowledge for people with diverse backgrounds, enabling them to prototype, repair, design, and learn without needing space or tools at home.
It's not just about tinkering with a 3D printer or a drill; the key is that these places They build community and promote shared learning. and they fuel collaborative projects with social impact. This intersection of affordable technology and communal living encompasses experiences ranging from... fab labs in Bilbao or Madrid, to community-based processes in Mexico City where art and design are used as tools to activate social fabric.
From fab labs to makerspaces: opening technology to everyone
The spaces maker and digital fabrication labs They were born from a very simple intuition: to democratize access to equipment and technical support so that both creative individuals (artists, designers, craftspeople, educators) and curious people without technological training can bring their ideas to life. In these rooms, laser cutters, 3D printers, miter saws, and electronics workbenches coexist with mentoring and mutual support programs.
Those who coordinate them insist that technology is the excuse, because the underlying mission is generate collective knowledge and blend disciplinesThis approach is realized through workshops, artist residencies, collaborations with local stakeholders, and a steady stream of projects that intersect education, entrepreneurship, and the circular economy. You don't need to be an engineer to participate: there's room for those who come to learn from scratch and for technical professionals who want to share their expertise.
A revealing case is that of Fab Lab Bilbao and its project Wall of Memorywhere local residents are scanned and transformed into ceramic busts for a public exhibition. In addition to bringing the workshop to the streets of Zorrotzaurre, this intervention preserves collective identity in a territory undergoing a profound transformation along the Nervión estuary, showing how digital fabrication can also be anchored to the memory of the neighborhood.
To sustain their activities, Fab Lab Bilbao and the cultural space it belongs to, Espacio Open, diversify their income with Public programs, European projects and direct lines such as courses and workshopsIn addition, there are everyday economic formulas, such as the returns from a bar and a shop linked to the circular economy and sustainable fashion, which reduces their dependence on a single financing channel.
Madrid: when public services are lacking, the community organizes itself.
For years, Medialab Prado was Madrid's leading center for citizen innovation and digital fabrication from the public sector. closure by municipal decision It left a significant gap that universities, self-managed social centers and associations like Makespace Madrid have been filling as best they could.
At Makespace Madrid, an association of about forty people, the mantra is clear: “We come here to do what we can’t do at home”The premises—a former motorcycle garage and machine shop—operates without public funding, which grants independence but also requires balancing the books. The biggest expense is the rent, which they all share; in return, the space is theirs, and after a couple of months of involvement, The keys are passed on to those who participate so they can enter at any time. The community is already on its third premises, after having to leave the previous one due to a sudden rent increase.
Anyone who looks over at the central table will see open laptops, hushed conversations, and tinkering in the electronics bench Alongside the 3D printers. Among those sharing screwdrivers are engineers and computer scientists, yes, but also people from the social sciences who have gradually become hooked, demonstrating that there is room for anyone who wants to learn.
Makespace Madrid is within the international network of fab labsA map abundant in places like Belgium and the Netherlands, and with dozens of pins throughout Spain. From Bilbao, they emphasize the growing interest in these environments, with a particularly strong response from the educational community, the start-ups and people concerned about the circular economy. Despite the difficulties, the maker ecosystem is growing and diversifying, allowing more people to repair, create, and get involved in projects with transformative potential.
Beyond Machines: Art, Community, and Methodology
Looking at these spaces solely through their tool collection falls short. From contemporary art comes the notion of “social sculpture”Popularized by Joseph Beuys, this approach expands the scope of art to include cultural production and its impact on political relationships between people. Understood in this way, artistic practice is not limited to objects: it shapes social processes and environments, incorporating values, information, and learning as its working material.
To explore that idea in practice, the participant observation It is crucial to investigate from within, living alongside the community for extended periods, to understand its rhythms, needs, and codes. This approach encompasses experiences such as community workshops, collective architecture, and urban tactics that blur the lines between art and design, and that integrate participation as the driving force of the project.
“Do it yourself” in community: making toys, creating bonds
In 2014, the initiative was launched in the south of Mexico City “Do It Yourself Toy Factory (DHT)”The objective was simple yet powerful: through a toy-making workshop with solid waste (cardboard, plastics, cans) and household recycling, broaden the environmental awareness of girls and boys, and at the same time foster creative and social environments that contribute to the reconstruction of the social fabric in San Andrés Totoltepec, San Pedro Mártir and the Turtle Park (Fuentes de Tepepan).
The sessions, held between September and December of that year, were intense. Unlike previous projects with strong institutional support, this time the main support came from the community itself, which required more management, more teaching, and more adaptabilityThe program received support from the community culture area of the Tlalpan Delegation, through a call aimed at strengthening identity, belonging and local cultural processes.
One of the most rewarding lessons was seeing how the “HTM” methodology generated transformation and creative emancipation both in the facilitator and those who attended. The story of Adrián stands out, an eight-year-old boy who, after several sessions asking "what are we doing today?", one day showed up with a bread package and a clear plan to build a spaceshipNot only did she do it, she shared the procedure with the group, inspired others, and her instructions traveled to new community spaces, demonstrating that the best guide is the one that a community adopts and replicates.
There was also evidence that is sometimes overlooked: family as a learning structureIn each session (between 10 and 30 people), it was common to see children alongside their mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and uncles, working side by side. This intergenerational dimension not only enriched the dynamics but also repositioned cultural production as a situated practice that inevitably involves those around us.
In response to demand from adults interested in decoration and furniture, in 2015 the project expanded to “HTM Culture Factory” (Toys + Models + Furniture + Decoration). A DIF (National System for Integral Family Development) branch (Center 19 Juan A. Mateos, in La Joya, Tlalpan) was added, expanding the program to communities in different neighborhoods. There, a lamp-making workshop using recycled materials was supported by... local recycling campaigns Each session brought together about ten women aged 30 to 50 who, through collaborative work, developed autonomy and community to the point of continuing without external support: they asserted their right to culture, maintained their own processes (weaving, crafts, knowledge sharing), and declined to resume the HTM program at that time. That “no” was, in reality, confirmation of their success: the group no longer needed crutches.
Collective architectures: designing on a human scale
The collective architectures They question production linked to the construction industry and propose people-centered, human-scale design processes based on participatory action research. Instead of large-scale plans, they prioritize mobility, contextual immersion, and fine-tuning to actual uses.
An inspiring milestone was PolyminoPoliminó, a modular collective architecture project that emerged in 2013 from the collaboration between the Postgraduate Program in Arts and Design at UNAM (FAD Xochimilco) and the town of Santiago Tepalcatlalpan. During a week of activities, Poliminó served as a base for forums, workshops, screenings and meetings, articulating the First meeting of art-design and social processes financed by PAPIIT (IG400813) under the responsibility of Professor José Daniel Manzano Aguilia.
The design —inspired by the pentomino— was conceived in open source and under copyleft (design authorship shared by Yuri Aguilar), with simple manufacturing and public documentation to ensure no one is excluded from the process. This approach aligns with the movement maker and the open philosophy, close to experiences like Open Source Ecology, which propose ecosystems of fundamental tools in open as a horizon of self-sufficiency.
At a technical and usability level, the project showed how the practical knowledge This is also legitimate knowledge: for example, adapting stools—from agricultural crates to taller beverage crates—improved ergonomics with a simple and replicable adjustment. These kinds of solutions, often underestimated in academic settings, demonstrate that design intelligence also lies in the details and in collaborative iteration.
Polimino's deployment was a choral effortA neighbor (Professor Mayo) donated a raw piece of art to set up the workshop; UNAM contributed wood; a production line was organized with fretwork, sanding, drilling, and assembly; members of GIAE_, the Rhinoceros Image Workshop, neighbors, and family members participated. This network of hands and decisions yielded another lesson: “habitat” is not only a house or a plaza, but a set of spatial configurations that They make sense through the activities and the relationships they host.
To understand this, it's helpful to think about the concept of device (Agamben): a heterogeneous network of discourses, institutions, objects, norms, and practices. The Poliminó, then, operated as an interface of a broader cultural apparatus (management, academic and civic communities, dissemination, etc.), enabling disciplinary mixing and situated participation.
Co-creating with youth: marquees, facades and pulque
Under the umbrella of the “HTM Culture Factory”, a project was developed with the The Spoiled Mule Collective In the town of San Pedro Mártir (Mexico City), at their independent space “El Semillero.” There, a marquee was erected that, in addition to being physical, functioned as communication channel with the community, aligned with service-learning methodologies: learning by doing and giving back value to the environment.
The work was done hand in hand with young people —María, Joyce, Viridiana, Pedro and his band— combining message design and the fabrication and installation of the structure, a task that required coordination due to its size and weight. After that initial undertaking, they broadened their ambition: to tackle the full facade With a gate that doubled as a pulque dispenser on weekends (part of their cultural and economic project), they enabled the entrance and added living walls. The result reinforced the sense of belonging and the usefulness of collective architecture in transforming everyday spaces through culture and youth.
Urban tactics: occupying interstices to find each other
Another consequence of these practices is the urban tacticsLight and temporary interventions that reactivate underutilized spaces. “La Okuplaza” UNAM-Santiago, launched in collaboration with the Chilean collective Ciudad Emergente in 2014, occupied an urban interstice to transform it for a time into square and public space at the service of the people, within the framework of the First Autumn School on Tactical Urbanism organized with the GIAE_.
The device integrated collectives and knowledge: for example, Urban Island It brought rainwater harvesting technologies to the community, and representatives from Santiago Tepalcatlalpan shared their work in conserving the natural and rural area. Following Bourriaud, the intervention operated as social interstice: a spatiotemporal parenthesis where other rhythms and relationships can be rehearsed that escape the logic of profit and allow for a richer human exchange.
The case of the video workshop with young skaters, facilitated by Ivonne Nava, is telling. In the morning they built a simple mobile phone stand; at midday It was recorded while skating And in the afternoon, the videos were projected in the same space. Three moments that, linked together, show how an urban tactic opens up a field for learning, doing, and celebrating together, with no more infrastructure than the willingness to participate and a little ingenuity.
When art becomes useful: practicing the future
In the contemporary debate, the artist Tania Bruguera proposes the “useful art”Practices that, originating from art, offer clearly beneficial results for people. It's not about labeling everything, but about understanding art as a place to rehearse the future, behaving “as if” the desired conditions existed and thus bringing them closer.
In light of the previous cases, this idea fits like a glove. In a fab-lab Whether from Bilbao, a self-managed makerspace in Madrid, or a kiosk in Tlalpan, the thing is that relationships intertwineKnowledge is exchanged and technologies are enabled in a situated way so that very different people can do things together. It is a “trans” practice: it is not just a message or just an object, it is the bridge that unites communities and that also links us to the non-human (materials, environment, water), entangling everything in a constellation of implications.
Tools, knowledge and everyday economy
These spaces function with a combination of accessible machines and shared knowledgebut also with very down-to-earth economic structures. In the case of Espacio Open and Fab Lab Bilbao, public support, competitive projects, and paid activities (courses and workshops) coexist with daily income from bar and shop linked to circular economy and sustainable fashionIn Madrid, Makespace's independence involves assuming rentals and equipment purchases among the community, with full co-responsibility.
In practical terms, the most common tools include laser cutters, 3D printers, miter saws, drills and electronics banks. But what is crucial is how knowledge is transmitted and preserved: open sessions, residencies, collaborations with schools, links with start-ups and circular economy projects, and international networks that facilitate replicating and adapting processes in different contexts.
This network structure becomes visible in the global map of fab labsIt's very dense in regions like Belgium and the Netherlands and growing throughout Spain and Latin America. Beyond the pins, the important thing is that those points add up. trust and capabilities at the local level, multiplying technological autonomy and collective imagination.
Ultimately, from "do it yourself" to "let's do it together," the common thread is... social appropriation of technology in a community-based approach: repairing what is broken, trying new things, transmitting what has been learned, and activating meeting places that accommodate the diversity of talents and needs that exist in each neighborhood.
Taken together, the examples of Bilbao, Madrid, and Mexico City show a constellation of practices that feed back into each other: laboratories that preserve neighborhood memoryAssociations that run a workshop from scratch and collectives that reshape the space with awnings, living facades, and temporary plazas. In all cases, the same promise emerges: with shared tools, open methodologies, and a willingness to collaborate, it's possible to create accessible civic infrastructures that foster learning, entrepreneurship, and community. And, although sometimes they have to contend with high rents or shifting institutional decisions, the community—once it finds its rhythm—knows how to persevere.
