A Celebration of Shared Production
This event marks the launch of ENSEMBLE, a network that brings together more than twenty-five productive and collaborative spaces across the Barcelona metropolitan area.
On Thursday 16 October 2025, we will host Making (in) Commons and the official launch of the ENSEMBLE Network as part of the PENCE project. Taking place at the IAAC Main Hall, the gathering brings together local and international voices reimagining how we design, make, and produce — in Barcelona and beyond. This is not a conventional conference, but a shared space for dialogue and reflection: a moment to connect practices, articulate new forms of collective production, and consider how distributed and regenerative approaches might shape the future of design.
Nearly fifteen years have passed since the concept of Fab City was first presented at the FAB7 conference in Lima in 2011. Since then, Barcelona has seen the development of a diverse and interconnected productive ecosystem — Fab Labs, Ateneus de Fabricació, makerspaces, craft centres, cooperatives, and industrial coworkings — that continues to blur the lines between production, learning, and civic participation. Making (in) Commons reflects on this evolution while highlighting the networks that are shaping emerging models of urban production.
The event also marks the launch of ENSEMBLE, a network that brings together more than twenty-five productive and collaborative spaces across the Barcelona metropolitan area. Conceived as a platform for strengthening local production, fostering knowledge exchange, and promoting citizen-led innovation, ENSEMBLE seeks to connect traditional craft and manufacturing practices with the opportunities of digital fabrication. It positions these diverse initiatives not as isolated nodes, but as interconnected actors within a shared urban ecosystem of making.
The afternoon will unfold in two parts. The first celebrates nearly a decade of Fab Lab Barcelona’s involvement in international networks of makers and creative practitioners — part of a broader effort with the Fab Foundation and the global Fab Lab Network to explore alternatives to industrial production. These initiatives continue to champion learning through making, STEAM education, and the civic dimensions of fabrication as means to engage with environmental, technological, and social challenges. This strand of the programme includes project presentations, roundtable discussions, and the launch of the Driving Design Trilogy — the Distributed Design publication co-authored, designed, and produced in Europe. Following its release through the book distributor Antenne Books in the UK and Finestres in Barcelona, the trilogy will be officially introduced at the event, with both physical and open-access digital editions available.
Aligned with these international collaborations, the launch of ENSEMBLE signals an important evolution within Barcelona’s local ecosystem. It represents years of dialogue, cooperation, and mutual learning among diverse actors — from community workshops and creative hubs to cultural associations and production centres — all working to reimagine how a city might produce in common. To celebrate this milestone, a prototype exhibition will showcase eleven selected projects from ENSMEBLE members, accompanied by a presentation and two roundtables featuring voices from public administration, makers, designers, and artistic directors exploring how collaboration can drive change, foster experimentation, and prototype diverse urban futures.
The programme across 16–17 October has been carefully curated to move from global perspectives to local realities: from international projects and emerging practices across Europe to those communities here in Barcelona that are already embodying these transitions. It offers a space to encounter different scales of practice and to understand how distributed design might take root within specific cultural, social, and material contexts.
Making (in) Commons is therefore less a celebration of achievement than an invitation to collective reflection. It asks what it means to design and produce together — not as an abstract ideal, but as a situated and ongoing practice grounded in place, community, and shared responsibility.
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Making (in) Commons – Beyond Europe (EN)
A gathering of the Distributed Design Platform members, bringing together over 20 European spaces that support emerging talents exploring alternatives to mass production.
16:00 – 16:15
- Welcome
16:15 – 16:45 | Distributed Design in the Making
- Make–a–thek — Agnese Gualandi, OpenDot Foundation, Milan
- PENCE — Vincent Guimas, ARS Longa, Paris
- LAUDS Factories — Michel Langhammer, Institute for Production, Hamburg
16:45 – 17:30 | Commons of Practice – Connecting Communities through Materials and Space
- Agnese Gualandi & Andrea Ascani (OpenDot Foundation, Milan)
- Laura Miguel Bauman (European Craft Alliance, Brussels)
- Anja Zorko (Center for Creativity, Slovenia)
17:30 – 18:00 | Driving Design Trilogy Book Launch
Presentation of Volumes I–III of the Driving Design Trilogy*
Produint (en) Comú – Barcelona Metropolitana (CA / ES)
Official launch of the Ensemble Network, bringing together over 25 productive and collaborative spaces in the Barcelona metropolitan area (Fab Labs, Ateneus, makerspaces, industrial coworkings, craft centres…).
18:30 – 19:00
- Welcome and official launch of the network
19:00 – 20:00 | The Right to Manufacture: City, Heritage and New Productive Commons
- Michael Donaldson (BIT Habitat)
- Jordi Carmona Maura (TMDC)
- Carmen Tanaka (Akasha Hub)
- Oriol Estela Barnet (PEMB)
20:00 – 21:00 | Spaces of Experimentation: Culture, Creativity and Opportunities in the Productive City
- Sergi Botella (Fundación AAVC Hangar)
- Anam Stubbington (Makers Zone BCN)
- Ricard Gómez (Fab Casa del Mig)
- Ana Vivero (Tornem les Esquelles)
21:00 – 21:30
Project exhibition and social drinks
- Punt i a Part – Maker Convent
- Connexions plàstiques de Plastic Lab – Ateneu de Fabricació La Fàbrica del Sol
- LAB CSU – Laboratorio Ciudadano de Salud Urbana – Lichen Innovación Social
- Concurs amb Residus Marins – Plàstic Precios Barcelona
- Hortduino – Fab Casa del Mig
- Coopelia Espai creatiu
- Terretori Besòs – La Clandestina Poblenou
- Make Works – Fab Lab Barcelona
- Bagaceira – Recerca i Disseny de Materials
- Herramientas low-tech nómadas – Slow Lab / Herramientas low-tech nómadas
- Bioma Permacultura Urbana
It’s going to be a packed and inspiring afternoon, putting us at the centre of the conversation on local production, innovation, and the commons.