FabCity Hamburg

Fab City Hamburg is part of the global Fab City Initiative, which was launched in 2014 by Barcelona's mayor Xavier Trias. The main mission of Fab City Hamburg is to produce the entire demand for goods within the urban boundaries by itself within the next four decades. This goal is to be achieved through a combination of digital manufacturing, open workshops (Fab Labs), and a community-oriented peer-to-peer approach. The company's values are based on sustainability, local production, global networking, and the promotion of technological education and innovation[1][4][5].

Fab City Hamburg focuses on providing open and digital manufacturing machines in so-called Fab Labs or Open Labs. These workshops are equipped with modern manufacturing technologies such as 3D printers and CNC milling machines, enabling citizens, local businesses, and start-ups to produce or have produced almost any everyday product themselves. The digital infrastructure, particularly the Fab City Operating System (Fab City OS), allows for collaborative development and exchange of product designs on a global level, while production takes place locally[2][3][5].

A central goal of Fab City Hamburg is the reduction of CO2 emissions and the promotion of a sustainable circular economy. By locally producing goods, dependence on global supply chains is reduced, which ensures increased resilience, especially in times of crisis such as the Corona pandemic. The use of open-source hardware and the ability to modify and produce products at will promote innovation and independence. Additionally, the Appropriate Design approach and the self-replication of projects minimize costs and maximize scalability[1][3][5].

The Fab City Hamburg project is supported by various funding sources, including a 9 million Euro grant from the Center for Digitalization and Technology Research of the Bundeswehr (dtec.BW) and 5 million Euros from the REACT-EU project INTERFACER. This funding enables the development of the Open Lab Starter Kit and the Fab City OS. The network includes various organizations, start-ups, craft businesses, educational institutions, and sustainability projects, all working towards the vision of a future Fab City[2][3][4].

Fab City Hamburg offers extensive educational opportunities through the open Fab Labs and Open Labs, particularly in STEM subjects. Students, trainees, and pupils can realize application-oriented use cases and experience new technological developments here. This not only promotes technological education but also the recruitment and development of skilled workers for local businesses and universities[2][3].

Through these approaches and initiatives, Fab City Hamburg makes a significant contribution to sustainable and decentralized urban value creation and contributes to the vision of a self-sufficient and resilient city.

• 1 - https://www.momentum-kongress.org/system/files/congress_files/2022/jenneweinseidel---fab-city-hamburg.pdf
• 2 - https://hamburg-business.com/de/news/fabrik-der-zukunft-foerderung-fuer-fabcity-hamburg
• 3 - https://newproductioninstitute.de/fabcity
• 4 - https://www.fabcity.hamburg/en/
• 5 - https://www.fabcity.hamburg