Although ‘FabCity’ or fablab are terms originating in the West, other cultures carry common elements of a vision for the resilient and sustainable development of territories. Indeed, quite a while before we could use a 3D printer at the neighborhood fablab.
Renewable gases will be essential by 2050 to support the independence of territories from external energy supplies. Agricultural biomethanization, which transforms manure and slurry to produce methane gas, is a fairly widespread process in the world, particularly in Europe and the United States. It avoids emissions into the atmosphere while recovering the energy produced by the decomposition of organic matter.
Since 2015 the Swedish municipality of Eskilstuna, one hour west from Stokholm, hosts ReTuna Återbruksgalleria, the first recycling shopping mall in the world. Everything sold in this 5,000 m² center is repaired, reused, recycled, upcycled, organic or produced sustainably.
Ethan Zuckerman’s written version of his talk* at PopTech 2022 on legacy cities is packed with insights and a number of places and projects you’ve probably never heard of. It’s at once not Fab City and very Fab City. The history and downfall of some of the cities he writes about might not look like the rest of our posts here, but the emergence and potential of how they reinvent themselves, the innovation and grass root DIY of barebones creation is very much at home here.
It’s a lot more common in recent years to hear how we need to reinvent the economy, change cities, rethink how we live within planetary boundaries. However, actual examples to follow seem to be very small-scale and dreams of change project large-scale visions. “Real life” examples beyond hobbies or purely volunteer models are a bit harder to find.
