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Study visit in Barcelona

The first face-to-face meeting with European partners was held in Barcelona, 22-26 April 2024. The team turned out to be more international than expected, with the presence of members from different nationalities, which went beyond the participating countries. The teams represented Spain (IAAC Atelier / FabLab BNC), Luxembourg (Art Square Lab), Italy (Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo) and France (Cap Sciences, lead partner). 

After a brief session of individual presentations and a summary of the project, there was a presentation of the Poblenou district, the former industrial epicentre of Catalonia, now an area undergoing a major transformation and renowned for the presence of universities, museums and creative realities linked to art, design and architecture, innovative laboratories and startup incubators alongside new buildings housing high-tech realities. During the visit to the BNC FabLab, linked to the IAAC institute of architecture, one of the first and largest fablabs in Europe, we were impressed by the vastness of the spaces and the variety of equipment, as well as the lively atmosphere due to the presence of numerous ‘makers’ and visiting groups.
During the first day, the team also had the opportunity to visit the TransfoLab, a smaller but equally interesting lab located nearby the BNC FabLab. Here we were able to observe innovative projects, such as the breeding of flies to produce organic material and various woodworking initiatives, such as the processing of pressed chipboard, actively involving the local community, especially young persons.

On the second day, after a discussion on the previous day’s reflections, we studied various ongoing projects by our hosts in order to further stimulate our team regarding ReeFab. In particular, we delved into the Centrinno project, which involves over 20 partners from all over Europe and focuses on sharing best practices, while adapting to the specificities of each territory and available resources. Although this is not a model directly applicable to ReeFab, we gathered many useful insights for the development of our project, thanks to the diversity and wealth of experiences in the Centrinno project.
After lunch, the team visited another workshop, Simbiotica, focused on the production of biological materials, e.g. for clothing. We received a warm welcome from two enthusiastic experts who explained to us the many production opportunities and potential uses of these materials, which, although now mainly have a symbolic impact, underline the growing interest of our young targets in reducing their environmental impact.

The third day was dedicated to a visit to Valldaura Self Sufficient Labs, a campus and branch office of FabLab IAAC located on a hill outside the city.
The campus houses around twenty people in residence, in particular the students of the master’s programme in Advanced Ecological Buildings & Biocities. At Vallaura they design and prototype in a highly immersive environment, participating in the realisation of various ecological and social design projects. There is a strong focus on the circular economy; the wooden artefacts resulting from the Master’s projects, such as the solar house for hydroponic cultivation, are made from materials that are as local as possible. For example, students follow the wood process from the choice of fir trees to be felled to seasoning to processing using traditional techniques or numerically controlled machines. During the visit, we were presented with many projects. In particular, we were inspired by projects of distributed and sustainable cultivation and creative reuse of materials often considered waste.
Valldaura Self Sufficient Labs has spawned as spin-offs the zero-kilometre restaurants Green Leka, where we had lunch, and Leka, in the Poblenou district, both furnished with open source design by IAAC FabLab. After lunch we worked to prepare the next phase of the project, the exploration of possible territorial partners and stakeholders of the project actions.

Data ultima modifica: 4 February 2025
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