For three days, Fab Lab Barcelona at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) opens its doors to an exhibition and public programme exploring territories, their forms of production, their knowledge and their processes of transformation.
Territorios Productivos invites visitors to explore experiences that connect culture, local production, technology and art, placing learning, intergenerational exchange and collective making at the centre.
One year after Produint (en) Comú / Making (in) Commons Conference, the gathering that brought together makers, researchers, cultural practitioners and public officials at Fab Lab Barcelona to discuss distributed production, the commons and civic infrastructures, this new event continues and expands that conversation. The previous edition saw the public launch of ENSEMBLE, a network connecting more than thirty creative and productive spaces across the Barcelona metropolitan area to share resources, knowledge and capacity for action.
This time, the focus extends beyond the metropolitan scale towards a network of networks, distributed across diverse territories, practices and generations. Rather than extending a single Fab Lab or makerspace model, the aim is to connect very different infrastructures and ways of making so they can recognise one another, exchange knowledge and discover new opportunities for collaboration.
The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia will remain open throughout the three days (see opening hours), offering visitors the opportunity to discover processes, prototypes, materials, tools and experiences developed in different contexts. Rather than showcasing only final outcomes, the exhibition will provide a space to share learnings, circulate knowledge and experiment collectively.
Learning · Aprender
29 OCTOBER — TERRITORIOS PRODUCTIVOS
The first day will focus on Territorios Productivos, a project led by Fab Lab Barcelona with the support of the Spanish Ministry of Culture and developed across six autonomous communities in Spain: Catalonia, Galicia, Castile and León, Madrid, Valencia and Extremadura.
Through artistic residencies and research and creative processes, the project connects creatives, cultural spaces, communities and local stakeholders to explore new forms of cultural production rooted in local territories, highlighting local knowledge and intergenerational exchange.
The participating organisations include Back to Eco, Biblioteca Camp de l’Arpa, Solidança and ENSEMBLE in Catalonia; Makea Tu Vida and EPPPS in Valencia; Espacio Vilaseco, Os Casares, Buj Studio, Maker Faire Galicia and Recuncho Maker in Galicia; Madrid Rural Lab in Madrid; Smart Open Lab, Iron Skulls and Asociación Mudarte in Extremadura; and Fab Lab León in Castile and León.
The exhibition will bring together around 20 projects, showcasing processes, prototypes, objects, materials, tools and narratives that combine local knowledge, living heritage and contemporary technologies.
The programme will also feature talks, roundtables and conversations with artists, collaborators and local stakeholders, creating opportunities to share experiences and reflect on how new spaces for learning, knowledge transmission and cultural production can emerge.
Programme
16:00 | Exhibition opening and participant registration
17:30–18:00 | Welcome and introduction to Territorios Productivos by Milena Juarez and Guillem Camprodom
18:00–19:00 | Roundtable 1: Learning from the Territory: Memory, Knowledge and New Ways of Making
Speakers:
- Nuria Robles — Head of Fab Lab León
- Moisés Gordo — Director, Producer and Choreographer at Iron Skulls Co
- Esther San Vicente — Territorios Productivos resident, Comunidad de Madrid
- Alberto Flores — Co-Founder of Makea, Valencia
Moderator: Doris Boira — Communicator and Cultural Producer at La Fábric@, member of the ENSEMBLE network
19:00–19:30 | Video screening: MemorIA Trashumante, a multidisciplinary showcase resulting from the artistic residency in Extremadura
19:30–20:30 | Roundtable 2: Making Territory: Spaces, Communities and Production Networks
Speakers:
- Penny Papachristodoulou — Educator and Textile Designer at Back to Eco
- Antonio Gordillo — Director of Smart Open Lab, Cáceres
- David Fernández — Coordinator of the Madrid Rural Lab network
- Ce Quimera — Territorios Productivos resident, Catalonia
Moderator: Carmen Tanaka — Coordinator of Akasha Hub Barcelona and President of the ENSEMBLE network
20:30–21:00 | Social drinks
Exchanging · Intercambiar
30 OCTOBER — TERRITORIOS EN TRANSICIÓN
The second day will focus on ecological and territorial transition: how to bring knowledge, tools and skills beyond urban centres and connect with small cities, towns and rural territories.
Ensuring that territories are prepared for the ecological transition requires more than policies and infrastructure. It also means closing the skills gap by equipping people with practical, locally grounded knowledge to address the challenges already facing us.
16:00–17:30 | Calm Futures Workshop
ReeFab will present tools and methodologies to strengthen the capacity of young people and local stakeholders to transform creative spaces into community resource centres that respond to the challenges of the ecological transition.
ReeFab aims to turn digital fabrication spaces into resource centres that support and facilitate the ecological transition. During the exhibition, visitors will be able to explore and experiment with practical resources, discover new ways to amplify the impact of the ecological transition through makerspaces, and take part in Calm Futures — a speculative design exercise exploring how future professions and digital tools within a makerspace could help build a restorative and peaceful 2050.
Participation in Calm Futures requires advance registration via Eventbrite.
17:30–18:00 | Announcement of the make-a-thek tour launch
18:00–21:00 | Textilebar and Repair Station
Meanwhile, make-a-thek will share its experience of building modular, replicable makerspaces in public libraries — environments where knowledge remains genuinely community-based and accessible to everyone.
Through fabrication spaces focused on circularity, local production and textiles, the project translates shared knowledge into practical, tangible experiences, equipping people with hands-on skills to address the challenges of the green and digital transitions.
The event will also mark the official launch of the third and final leg of the make-a-thek bus tour — the third in a series of mobile workshops equipped with digital fabrication tools and technologies. The bus will travel through rural areas of France, Spain and Portugal, bringing innovative circular textile activities to communities that rarely have access to these kinds of resources.
Making · Hacer
31 OCTOBER — TERRITORIOS EN ACCIÓN
The final day will be dedicated to making.
Through workshops and hands-on activities, participants will be able to experiment with textiles, reclaimed materials, digital fabrication, repair and other forms of production. An invitation to learn by doing, share knowledge and explore new possibilities using the materials and resources available.
AN EXHIBITION THAT IS ALSO A SPACE TO CONNECT
Throughout the three days, the exhibition will serve as a shared space to discover processes, listen to stories, exchange knowledge and experiment with tools.
Learn. Exchange. Make.
Because territories are not only represented: they are also researched, connected, produced and transformed collectively.
Programme
10:00–11:30 | Weaving Warp and Weft — Territorios Productivos Workshop #1
11:30–13:00 | Making Esparto Grass Scourers — Territorios Productivos Workshop #2
11:00–13:00 | Workshop #3: Let’s Mend Together — Territorios Productivos
Open days: Territorios Productivos Exhibition at IAAC
- Thursday, 29 October · 16:00–21:00
- Friday, 30 October · 10:00–21:00
- Saturday, 31 October · 10:00–15:00