Straw buildings are nothing new, but sometimes revisiting old solutions can provide useful options. In this article on building efficient walls with agricultural waste, ArchDaily gives us a nice overview of such a look back and shows how “straw buildings can be sustainable, comfortable, and, above all, solid and resistant.”

The “fab” in Fab City originally comes from “fabrication” and Fablabs. These labs, initially constructed around technology and tools of local fabrication, are also being applied to other fields with intriguing results. The Fabricademy, founded by Anastasia Pistofidou (who’s also co-founder of Fablab Textiles and research leader at IAAC, Fab Lab Barcelona) is a shining example of applying fabrication technologies alongside the principles and ideals of transparency, open-source access and sharing knowledge, and influencing older practices of craftsmanship.

Is it circular or “just” upcycling? Regardless, cool little project documented at Centrinno, where they focused on “the importance of creating synergies and relations with a network of micro and small organisations united by the will and interest in creating an urban and circular manufacturing.”

Here’s an excellent written version of a talk given by Adrian McEwen (in 2015), one of the co-founders of DoES Liverpool, which is “(sort of) a makerspace (and more) in Liverpool.” His talk, The Dark Matter of Makerspaces, covers quite a bit of ground and offers some great tips and insights, not only for people running makerspaces but any kind of community space, or even many community-focused organisations.

One way of dealing both with consumerism and tighter budgets is to have access to shared resources. In this interview with Gene Homicki, co-founder and CEO of myTurn, we can learn a bit more about how people are starting and running libraries of things.