Shaping the Future of FabLabs: ReeFab’s Journey in Bordeaux
ReeFab is a 3-year ERASMUS+ funded project focused on encouraging young people’s spirit of initiative, active citizenship and peer-to-peer collaboration through activities, projects, and workshops within the FabLabs, as a way to mitigate eco-anxiety and to cast new initiatives, opportunities and career guidance.
A year into the ReeFab project and for the second time, European partners met to discuss the status quo and next steps of the project. The Consortium Meeting was held in Bordeaux by the Fab Lab at Cap Sciences from the 11th until the 13th of March 2025. Members from across four different locations – Spain (IAAC Atelier / FabLab Barcelona), Luxembourg (ArtSquareLab), Italy (Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo) and France (Cap Sciences, lead partner) – came together to celebrate the first milestone the Atlas, while also ideating on future steps of the project together.
Day #1
On that first morning, we were warmly welcomed by Alexandre and Aymeric, who lead the Fab Lab in Cap Sciences to discover the permanent space that it offers in the city center, while they contribute to the realization of exhibitions, visits, and activities to visitors as a way to tackle challenges of making today’s complexities accessible to everyone, every age group from all backgrounds. The place initiates curiosity and critical thinking seeking to provide the tools for understanding and forming an informed opinion to engage in the world’s debate. Just like many FabLabs around the world, the FabLab gives its visitors access to a digital manufacturing workshop with the tools and materials to experiment, exchange, and meet, where you can manufacture, test, prototype, share your skills and learn.
Following this visit, just a few minutes away, we were introduced to La Cité Bleue, a project initiated in 2022 with a space of 55000 m2 aimed at fostering organisations and projects engaged towards ecological transition. Guided by Julien Goret, founder of Le Garage Moderne, a project located onsite, created for encounters and exchange to take place, while at the service of the habitants to develop civil actions and grow cultural and solidarity projects. Projects such as Ublik and workshops spaces emerged as a result of the strong community developed through the use of this common space and shared values.
We ended the visits by coming back to our desks, to look at the Atlas, a collective creation, produced as part of a European collaborative project, as a partial testimony to the reality of environmental issues. This document encapsulates a compilation of real-life observations, testimonials and collective questioning realised since the start of the project by FabLabs, makerspaces and creative agencies and by allies of this project (including TMDC in Barcelona, Ecofield in Bordeaux, and Facilitec in Luxembourg). A modest attempt to read the territories, to understand how European citizens are taking up the environmental challenge at their own level through our local partners.
The Atlas will be released soon as a way to share our reflections and invite collaborators in partnering for the next stages of the project, by exploring possible ways for FabLabs to adapt to challenges of climate change and transition towards ecological practices – becoming ReeFabs.
Day #2
The second day started off with sharing personal reflections on our fears, anxieties and concerns around the topics of climate change, youth, biodiversity, and skills looking at the future. A powerful exercise that helped to guide us through the full day of the Design Sprint. During that day, we gathered initial ideas with the intention to develop concepts for future workshops. Each partner started to iterate on a workshop, with the aim to test it in future months and develop it for other FabLabs to test.
As an initial concept, we explored a collaborative approach to identify the skills and passion of young adults while co-create possible future jobs together. The idea behind this concept is to use their imagination as a tool for creating their own desirable future and free themselves of eco-anxiety and pressure in fitting a specific label for their career. There is only one planet but many futures, and you have the opportunity to decide which future you want to create for your future self.
The day ended with an introduction from Alexia, to the KADEILOSCOPE, a powerful tool to reflect on Accessibility, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The exercises taken from the tool helped us situate where our initial concepts might position themselves in regards to the privilege wheel and its accessibility. Following shared reflections, we were able to reiterate and adjust our ideas to be more inclusive and accessible.
Day #3
The next day, we had the opportunity to present this concept to five young adults, aged 18 to 25, who are currently undergoing professional training. Accompanied by two social workers from EPIDE, we shared and tested these ideas with both the young adults and the social workers. Their invaluable feedback helped us uncover aspects we hadn’t initially considered, allowing us to refine and strengthen our approach.
Our three-day journey concluded with a debriefing session, where we reflected on both individual and collective insights gained throughout the Design Sprint. This exchange of ideas has set the stage for exciting next steps as we further develop these workshop concepts. Our goal is to make them accessible to all makerspaces interested in becoming a ReeFab hub, as well as to young adults seeking a career path that aligns with sustainability and ecology.
Also, stay tuned— ReeFab will be at Fab25 for a collaborative work session, where we would love to hear your thoughts! Lookout for coming updates on ReeFab website.