FAB LAB CANADA

The driving vision behind digital fabrication, like 3D printing, is a global socio-economic transformation that make possibilities such as:

  • empowering individuals AND collectivities ;
  • decreasing our waste and impact on the environment ;
  • accessing active learning approaches ;
  • producing what we consume at a local level ;
  • bringing out the creative, economic, entrepreneurial and social potential of Fab Labs ;
  • creating a state of mind of open and collective innovation.

For 8 years now, the three of us are working to:

  1. INCREASE ACCESS to digital fabrication tools to open opportunities from coast to coast to coast. Doing so by building Fab Lab and MakerSpaces and by advocating for a national policy.
    via a network of laboratories (Fab Labs) and Maker Spaces.
  2. INCREASE ACCESS TO ACTIVE EDUCATION: to provide alternative, active-engagement, learning opportunities.
  3. PROMOTE the « Fab City » program that is bringing a host of global city governments into a shared commitment to produce 80% of what they consume by 2054.
  4. INCREASE RESEARCH so that digital fabrication’s impact on economic, social, environmental, and legal realities be evaluated; in a context that will only expand.

 The First Fab Labs opened in Boston in 2003. Today, there are 1600 Fab Labs around the world and the first one to open in Canada was in Montreal, under the leadership of Monique Chartrand.

  • 2011: échoFab Montreal, the First FabLab to open in Canada 2011: Creation of FabLab Québec
  • 2013: First canadian delegation to attend the annual FabLab International Conference 2015: Marguerite-Bourgeoy’s , the first School Board (Commission scolaire), deciding to integrate FabLabs all over its schools.
  • 2017: Creation of a canadian lab’s interstructure through a three months tour of Canada strengthening the access and facilitate resources sharing. (FabLabs Nation)
  • 2017: Quebec Government creates a program to finance the implementation of labs within the province’s cultural spaces.
  • 2020: For the first time in Canada, hosting the annual FabLab International Conference + the FabCity Summit