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Migratory Movements of Homo Faber: Mapping Fab Labs in Latin America

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Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures. The Next City - New Technologies and the Future of the Built Environment (CAAD Futures 2015)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 527))

Abstract

The present paper is a mapping study of digital fabrication laboratories in Latin America. It presents and discusses results from a survey with 31 universities’ fab labs, studios and independent initiatives in Latin America. The objective of this study is fourfold: firstly, to draw the cultural, social and economic context of implementation of digital fabrication laboratories in the region; secondly, to synthesize relevant data from correlations between organizational structures, facilities and technologies, activities, types of prototypes, uses and areas of application; thirdly, to draw a network of people and institutions, recovering connections and the genealogy of these fab labs; and fourthly, to present some fab labs that are intertwined with local questions. The results obtained indicate a complex “homo faber” network of initiatives that embraces academic investigations, architectural developments, industry applications, artistic propositions and actions in social processes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For the sake of this paper, Latin America is been represented by countries of the fab labs that answered the survey presented here, with emphasis in South America.

  2. 2.

    In this paper we use “fab labs” without capitals to differentiate independent laboratories from the Fab Lab network of MIT.

  3. 3.

    Prefeitura de SP anuncia 12 Fab Labs em São Paulo [SP City Hall announces 12 Fab Labs in Sao Paulo], Estado de Sao Paulo, February 03, 2015, URL: http://blogs.estadao.com.br/link/prefeitura-de-sp-anuncia-12-fab-labs-em-sao-paulo/.

  4. 4.

    Exhibitions: New Territories: Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America, MAD Museum, New York, November 4, 2014 to April 5, 2015, URL: http://madmuseum.org/exhibition/new-territories; Homo Faber. Digital Fabrication in Latin America, Vila Penteado, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Sao Paulo, upcoming next July as part of CAAD Futures 2015, URL: http://caadfutures2015.fec.unicamp.br/index.php/exhibition1/.

  5. 5.

    Round table “New Mediums: Digital Fabrication in Latin America”, MAD Museum, December 11, 2014, with the designers Guto Requena (Brazil) and Sebastian Errazuriz (Chile), URL: http://www.madmuseum.org/events/new-mediums-digital-fabrication-latin-america.

  6. 6.

    Thematic Symposium: “Laboratórios de produção digital em arquitetura – experimentações em ensino, pesquisa e extensão no Brasil” [Digital Production Labs in Architecture – teaching, research and extension experiments], coordinated by prof. David M. Sperling (USP, Brazil), in the  III Encontro da Associação Nacional de Pesquisa em Arquitetura e Urbanismo [III Encounter of the National Association of Research in Architecture and Urbanism], Sao Paulo, October 20–24, 2014. URL: http://www.anparq.org.br/dvd-enanparq-3/htm/XFramesSumarioST.htm.

  7. 7.

    Herrera, P.: Towards an Identity: Digital Fabrication in Latin America. Lecture at Symposium AA Visiting School: Politics of Fabrication Laboratory, Valparaíso, Chile, May, 13th (2011). Available at URL: http://issuu.com/pabloherrera/docs/towards_an_identity_digital_fabrication_in_latin_a/1.

  8. 8.

    URL: https://www.fablabs.io/map (March 26, 2015).

  9. 9.

    Argentina: CID - Centro de Informática y Diseño - FADU/Universidad Nacional del Litoral; Instituto de la Espacialidad Humana - Laboratorio de Morfología – FADU/UBA; Brazil: Aleph Zero; CADEP - Centro Avançado de Desenvolvimento de Produtos – FAAC/UNESP; Centro de prototipagem experimental – FCT/UNESP; DT3D - Divisão de Tecnologias Tridimensionais Centro de Tecnologia da Informação Renato Archer; Estudio Guto Requena; Fab Lab Universidade de São Paulo – FAU/USP; Fab Social; Garagem Fab Lab; GEGRADI, Grupo de Estudos para o Ensino/aprendizagem de Gráfica Digital – FAU – UFPel; LAGEAR - Laboratório Gráfico para Experimentação Arquitetônica – FAU/UFMG; Lamo3D – Laboratório de modelos 3D e Fabricação Digital – FAU/UFRJ; LAPAC / Laboratório de Automação e Prototipagem para a Arquitetura e Construção – FEC/UNICAMP; Laboratório de Prototipagem Rápida Mackenzie – FAU/Mackenzie; LEAUD - Laboratório de Estudo das Linguagens e Expressões da Arquitetura, Urbanismo e Design – DAUR/UFJF;  LED | Laboratório de Experiência Digital – FAU/UFC; LM + P - Laboratório de Modelos e Prototipagem – DA-CT/UFPA; Nomads – IAU/USP; PRONTO 3D - Laboratório de Prototipagem e Novas Tecnologias Orientadas ao 3D – Design/UFSC; Rede Brasileira de Fabricaçao Digital; SimmLab – Laboratório de Simulações e Modelamento em Arquitetura e Urbanismo – FAU/UFRGS; SUBdV Architecture; ViD_Virtual Design – Design/UFRGS; Chile: Area Computacional - Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria; gt2P - Great things to people; Lab CNC FAU/Uchile; Producción Digital UC / Fabhaus UC – PUC-Chile; Colômbia: Frontis3D R + D; Peru: Fab Lab Lima; Uruguay: LabFabMVD - FArq/Universidad de la República.

  10. 10.

    Into this axis, one institution is bond to MIT Fab Lab and is installed in an university (Fab Lab SP – Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Sao Paulo).

  11. 11.

    http://www.cti.gov.br/tecnologias-tridimensionais.

  12. 12.

    http://lapac.fec.unicamp.br/.

  13. 13.

    http://www.redepronto3d.com/.

  14. 14.

    Herrera and Juárez [8] reported to the Argentinian critic of architecture Marina Waisman (La Arquitectura Descentrada, Bogota, Editorial Escala, 1995) which deals with technological modernization processes in the region. The author argues that while for European and American technological modernization happened in response to the circumstances, in Latin America it appears as a symbol of progress and apparent modernity. This is associated to what Cox [16] says about the modernization process in the region carried out from outside and by regulatory pressure, i.e. disconnected from local realities.

  15. 15.

    We refer here to the concept of 'antropofagia' coined by Oswald de Andrade in the 1920 s, in the context of Brazilian modernist movement, according to which the creation of a genuine national culture would only be possible through the consummation and critical reworking of both culture national and foreign influences.

  16. 16.

    http://www.mom.arq.ufmg.br/lagear/.

  17. 17.

    http://fablabuni.edu.pe/.

  18. 18.

    http://www.gt2p.com/.

  19. 19.

    Maker Faire is one of the four brands promoted by Maker Media, a global platform born with the scope of leading the Maker movement. It focuses on do it yourself (DIY) and/or Do it with others (DIWO). According to Maker Media, “Maker Faire features innovation and experimentation across the spectrum of science, engineering, art, performance and craft.” The first Maker Faire took place in San Mateo, CA, in 2006. In 2012 and 2013, Santiago de Chile was the only Latin American proposal and became and important platform for showing the different Fab Labs generated during the last few years.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Gabi Celani (LAPAC-UNICAMP) for the suggestions and comments made during the development of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

    David M. Sperling & Rodrigo Scheeren

  2. Peruvian University of Applied Sciences, Lima, Peru

    Pablo C. Herrera

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  1. David M. Sperling
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  2. Pablo C. Herrera
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  3. Rodrigo Scheeren
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Correspondence to David M. Sperling .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

    Gabriela Celani

  2. University of São Paulo, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil

    David Moreno Sperling

  3. University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

    Juarez Moara Santos Franco

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Sperling, D.M., Herrera, P.C., Scheeren, R. (2015). Migratory Movements of Homo Faber: Mapping Fab Labs in Latin America. In: Celani, G., Sperling, D., Franco, J. (eds) Computer-Aided Architectural Design Futures. The Next City - New Technologies and the Future of the Built Environment. CAAD Futures 2015. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 527. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47386-3_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47386-3_22

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