We are a research and education centre rethinking the way we live, work and play around the world. Founded in 2007!

Fab Lab Barcelona was the first Fab Lab funded in the European Union in 2007 and is a benchmark in the powerful network of over 1800 Fab Labs in over 100 countries. We produce world-leading research and innovation based around the digital fabrication laboratory which is located at our heart.

We are situated inside the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) in the 22@ District, Poblenou, Barcelona. The building, which was a former ceramics factory, is a laboratory for ideas. We use our digital fabrication facilities to prototype, fabricate and test these ideas in the real world as research, education and innovation. Including 18 European Research projects since 2014.

We are a world leader of programs for the future of education. Fab Lab Barcelona was one of the first locations of the global distributed education program, Fab Academy. The global program of 65 locations is now coordinated from Fab Lab Barcelona. In 2018, The Master of Design for Emergent Futures was launched by IAAC and ELISAVA, co-directed and curated by Fab Lab Barcelona.

As part of the transition into Industry 4.0 and leading the Fab City initiative, Fab Lab Barcelona focuses on the human-scale and the everyday experience; identifying opportunities in rising trends across seven strategic areas of expertise.

Our Areas of Expertise

Civic Ecology

Bringing ecological systems and biodiversity closer to citizens through open food, energy and biology explorations.

Distributed Design

A new approach to design which utilises global connectivity to move data, instead of products.

Emergent Futures

Exploring emergent contexts, disrupting habits and identifying opportunities in current and future socio-political situations.

Future Learning

Innovative educational models and hands-on opportunities to understand emergent technologies, business models and fabrication.

Materials and Textiles

Creating materials and textiles of resilience, exploring new methodologies of production and distribution.

Productive Cities

Building and planning for multispecies diversity within food, energy and materials to generate urban self-sufficiency.

Sense Making

Developing tools and technologies which translate urban environments into tangible data.

Facts about Fab Lab Barcelona

FabCity_byStephanoBorghi — Leader of the Fab City Global Initiative with 33 other cities.

+€8 million in European Projects in Research and Innovation.

World leader in educational programmes in design and technology.

Part of the Fab Lab network: 1800 labs in +100 countries.

2200 m2 of space for research, production and dissemination.

Collaborated with +32 companies and brands.

FabAcademy_FabLabBarcelona — Global coordination of Fab Academy.

Access to a self-sufficient research centre with 140 HA of forest.

Meet the Lab

Give ordinary people the right tools, and they will design and build the most extraordinary things. Neil Gershenfeld

Fab Lab Barcelona is part of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. The institution supports contemporary educational and research programs related to the multiple scales of the human habitat. Fab Lab Barcelona is also the headquarters of the global coordination of the Fab Academy program in collaboration with the Fab Foundation and the MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms.

Fab Lab Barcelona has historically produced outstanding projects such as Hyper habitat IAAC (official selection for the Venice Biennale XXI) or the Fab Lab House (Audience Award in the first Solar Decathlon Europe in Madrid).

Fab Lab Barcelona is currently developing multiscalar projects – from smart devices for individual data collection (Smart Citizen innovative project award in the Smart City Expo and World Congress in Barcelona), to a new generation of Green Fab Labs and new city models through the Barcelona Fab City project.

Our mission at Fab Lab Barcelona is to provide access to the tools, knowledge and means to educate, innovate and invent using technology and digital fabrication to allow anyone to make (almost) anything. We create the opportunity for communities and citizens to improve global and local lives and livelihoods. Our primary beneficiaries are community organisations, educational institutions and non-profits.

Find a Fab Lab near you: www.fablabs.io