A fab lab is a portmanteau of the English terms "fabrication" and "laboratory", meaning a fabrication laboratory in French. Fab labs constitute an international network of digital fabrication and manual creation locations.
They support and train people who visit these spaces in the use of machines and software to create objects or carry out projects. Members also have access to electronic equipment, as well as many equipment and tools, such as printers.
A fab lab is a public collaborative space open to all, whether individuals or companies. It is based on learning and sharing knowledge and skills, in the form of workshops and training courses. Creation and modelling are examples of themes to be found in these fab labs.
These places allow cities to:
The founding principles of a fab lab were drawn up by a professor at MIT in Boston in the 1990s. MIT provided a framework for these practices, which helped to make the concept more widely known. There is an official fab lab charter, created by the Fab Foundation. This charter allows a structure that wishes to become a fab lab to call itself that.
Four criteria must be met to become a fab lab:
France is the second country with the most fab labs in the world, with just over 400 structures in 2020. A project to create 300 new spaces in three years has also been decided.
However, the French network of fab labs still needs to be structured so that it can develop in the best possible conditions. A solid economic model must then be found, as a majority of these structures depend on subsidies or donations.
Several avenues of reflection are being studied to create this economic model:
A fab lab, or fabrication laboratory in English, is a public space that provides numerous tools and machines for creating physical or virtual objects. One of the particularities of these places is that they are open to everyone, regardless of their level of education.
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