fab lab working at iaac
IAAC Barcelona

Fab Lab Barcelona

A think and make laboratory enabling communities globally to harness design and technology for collective transformation.

Established in 2007, Fab Lab Barcelona (FLB) is the first of it’s kind in the European Union, positioning itself as a leader within a global network of over 1,800 Fab Labs across more than 100 countries. As an integral player in shaping the future, FLB advances digital fabrication’s role in solving the industry’s most pressing challenges through innovation.

At the intersection of technology and design, Fab Lab Barcelona is an innovation hub driving education and research in digital fabrication. It serves as the global headquarters for the Fab Academy, in collaboration with MIT’s, Centre for Bits and Atoms, and plays a central role in coordinating the global Fab Lab network. FLB operates at the human scale, focusing on everyday experiences to shape solutions for the future, while anticipating emerging trends in seven strategic areas of expertise.

Fab Lab Barcelona’s portfolio extends across diverse sectors, providing consultancy services to companies seeking advanced technological solutions, developing new educational models, and advising governments on creating cities of tomorrow. Its mission: to empower industries, citizens, and policymakers to prototype the future.

Areas of Expertise

Civic Ecology

Empowering citizens to engage with ecological systems and biodiversity through open food, energy, and biological explorations.

students attending a class at fab lab barcelona
Areas of Expertise

Distributed Design

Revolutionising design by leveraging global connectivity to move data rather than products, fostering a more adaptive and sustainable production landscape.

IAAC Barcelona
Areas of Expertise

Emergent Futures

Challenging the status quo by identifying emerging socio-political contexts and offering disruptive strategies to shape tomorrow’s society.

IAAC Barcelona
Areas of Expertise

Future Learning

Delivering radical educational experiences that immerse students in emergent technologies, business models, and digital fabrication.

IAAC Barcelona
Areas of Expertise

Materials and Textiles

Pioneering resilient materials and textiles while reimagining production and distribution methodologies for the next era of urban life.

IAAC Barcelona
Areas of Expertise

Productive Cities

Designing urban spaces for multi species diversity by integrating food, energy, and materials to build self-sufficient ecosystems.

IAAC Barcelona
Areas of Expertise

Sense Making

Developing cutting-edge tools and technologies to transform urban data into actionable insights, shaping responsive and adaptive cityscapes.

IAAC Barcelona

Team

Faculty Name Position
Luciana Asinari FLB Educational Programs Lead (she/her)

Luciana Asinari is the Educational Programs Lead at Fab Lab Barcelona, where she oversees the formal educational offerings, including the Master in Design for Emergent Futures, the Fab Academy, the Textile Tech Incubator, and Fabricademy. Since 2014, she has also coordinated the global Fab Academy Diploma.

Luciana’s primary interest lies in the impact of digital fabrication tools on education and the implementation of distributed educational models within the Fab Lab Network. This model connects students, mentors, and faculty globally for content sharing while allowing local prototyping to impact their immediate communities.
Luciana holds degrees in Social Sciences and Fine Arts.

Santiago Fuentemilla FLB Future Learning Lead (he/him)

Santiago Fuentemilla holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from the University of La Salle (Universitat Ramon Llull) and graduated from the Fab Academy at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms in 2012. He is currently pursuing a PhD in digital manufacturing at UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya).

With over 10 years of experience in international architectural projects, Santiago joined Fab Lab Barcelona in 2013, where he leads the Future Learning research area, focusing on innovative educational models to tackle future challenges. He directs the global Fab Academy and Fabricademy programs at the Barcelona node and has been a professor of the Master in Design for Emergent Futures (MDEF) since 2017.

Santiago also contributes to various EU-funded research projects, including TEC-LA (STEAM education), DO IT (entrepreneurship and social innovation for youth), PHALABS 4.0 (photonics research), POP-MACHINA (maker movement and circular economy), and SHEMAKES (empowering sustainable fashion innovators).

Alessandra Schmidt FLB Action Research Lead (she/her)

Alessandra Schmidt is an administrator and researcher with a critical approach to social development and management sciences. She holds a degree in Business Administration from the Federal University of Parana State and specialized in Social Entrepreneurship at INSEAD (France). Alessandra completed her first Master’s in Social Development Practice (MSc) at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London (UK), and her second Master’s in Management Sciences (MRes) from ESADE, where she is currently pursuing a PhD.

Before moving to the UK/EU, Alessandra co-founded We.Flow, a social enterprise focused on consulting and training for social impact, where she continues to serve on the Advisory Board. We.Flow is based in Brazil, her home country.

At Fab Lab Barcelona, Alessandra is a researcher involved in several EU-funded projects, including Distributed Design Platform, Make Works, Pop-Machina, Reflow, FoodSHIFT, and FOSTER.

Noel Criado FLB Strategic Partnerships Lead (he/him)

Noel Criado is an economist and consultant specialising in business development and strategic relations. He studied at the University of Barcelona (Spain) and the University of Maastricht (The Netherlands). Since 2005, he has helped educational institutions develop strategic partnerships and monetize knowledge through applied innovation processes.

Previously, Noel served as Head of Marketing and Communication, and Head of Corporate and Institutional Relations at Elisava. He also held roles in multinational companies, including Product Manager at Esselte and Market Research Analyst at Naturgy Energy Group.

Chiara Dall’Olio Programs Coordinator (she/her)

Chiara Dall’Olio is an Italian designer based in Barcelona. Architect and urban planner by training, she is currently the academic coordinator of the Master in Design for Emergent Futures and part of the Fab Academy global coordination team at Fab Lab Barcelona. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Ferrara, Italy. Master in City and Technology degree for IaaC, Barcelona, and Master in Urban and Territorial Planning for UPM, Madrid. Chiara has professional experience as an urban planner on several scales, from regional planning to small urban interventions. She applies the culture of planning to different fields: design, education, and research.

Julia Leirado FLB Future Learning Expert (she/her)

Julia Leirado is an architect based in Barcelona with a focus on educational innovation and how new technologies and digital fabrication tools can enhance traditional curricula and improve the learning experience. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (ETSAB), a Master’s in Project Management from EAE, and a Fab Academy diploma in digital fabrication from the Fab Lab Network.

Óscar Gonzalez Sense Making Lead

Óscar González is an Industrial Engineer based in Barcelona with expertise in data analysis, testing and calibration through his experience in automotive and sensor development. Óscar is the Sense Making Lead at Fab Lab Barcelona team doing research and development within the Smart Citizen project and is an instructor at the Fabacademy programme.

Jessica Guy Distributed Design Expert (they/them)

Jessica Guy (They/ Them) is a designer and action researcher. Jessica’s work focuses on exploring participatory practices, community engagement and capacity-building activities in European research projects on a global and local scale. Jessica holds a Master degree in Design for Emergent Futures organised by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering, in collaboration with the Fab Lab Barcelona and Fab Academy. In the past, Jessica successfully graduated as an Industrial Designer (BA) at the Munich University for Applied Sciences and participated in the acceleration programme X-Futures by Fab Lab Barcelona. At Fab Lab Barcelona, Jessica is leading the global activities of the Creative Europe project Distributed Design Platform and co-leading the Erasmus+ Project Makeademy educational programme. Furthermore, they are the Make Works worldwide coordinator and lead of Make Works Catalonia. Jessica has contributed as a researcher to the European-funded projects Pop-Machina, CENTRINNO and REFLOW.

Olga Trevisan EU Creative Action Researcher (she/her)

Olga is a visual artist and a craft-maker working towards education and local community development. She is mostly interested in supporting the socially conscious initiatives between tradition and innovation.

Milena Calvo Juarez Communities Expert (she/her)

Milena Juarez is a Brazilian sanitary and environmental engineer with a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability and a specialisation in Urban and Industrial Ecology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. With extensive research experience, Milena has actively participated in several interdisciplinary projects in circular economy, resilient cities, co-creation and sustainable food. At Fab Lab Barcelona, she currently coordinates the local pilot of the CENTRINNO project. She has been involved as an action researcher in REFLOW, SISCODE, FoodShift, and European-funded projects. As a community engagement lead at Fab Lab Barcelona, Milena supports local activities at Fab City Hub Barcelona, a distributed hub, to co-design strategies for a more circular, productive and inclusive city model.

Adai Surinach Digital Fabrication Expert (he/him)

Adai graduated with a superior degree in engraving and stamping techniques at Llotja School of Art and Design in Barcelona. After graduation, he became interested in 3D printing, taking him to get involved in Fab Labs until becoming an intern at Fab Lab Barcelona. Shortly after, Adai undertook Fab Academy in 2022 and started working at the lab in different projects like Smartcitizen and as an instructor in academic programs.

Oscar Gonzalez Sense Making Lead (he/him)

Óscar González is an Industrial Engineer based in Barcelona with expertise in data analysis, testing and calibration through his experience in automotive and sensor development. Óscar is the Sense Making lead at Fab Lab Barcelona team doing research and development within the Smart Citizen project and is an instructor at the Fabacademy program.

Daniel Mateos Creative Prototyping Expert (he/him)

Daniel Mateos is a creative prototyping expert at Fab Lab Barcelona and he was born in Madrid, Spain.
Daniel started out as a Molecular Biologist. During his PhD he researched the Pbx-Hox transcription factor family, which is a set of genes that control the formation of the right parts in the right position in the embryo of vertebrates like mouse and humans. Surprisingly these genes also exist (and do the same thing!) in insects such as the fruit fly.
This interest in how form is encoded in the genetic sequence of animals led to an exploration of computers and computation, which led to the field of computational biology and morphogenesis, trying to decode the mathematics underneath shape and sequence. That in turn led to Data Science, the application of scientific principles to business.
Daniel then spent a few years as a Data Scientist doing things like analyzing patterns in airline tickets or gambling data, because it’s a much better life than scientific research.
In the background, he was independently learning about electronics, design, and personal fabrication for the fun of it. When a lull in work allowed him to move to Barcelona for Fab Academy, he took it. He has been at Fab Lab Barcelona ever since.

Julia Bertolaso Creative Action researcher (she/her)

Julia is a Design Researcher with a background in Interior Design and experience in Design Consultancy in the field of communication and education. Guided by a planet-centric approach, she builds systems, designs, and narratives that aim to foster resilience and connection across disciplines, species, and environments. Her interest lies in researching how technology and societal change shape these connections through futures thinking and knowledge transfer.

Rebecca Anne Peters Sense-Making Technician (she/her)

Rebecca Anne Peters is a researcher and artist currently working with the Sense Making team at Fab Lab Barcelona. In 2021 she received her doctorate in Humanities from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, writing about technology and the role it plays within collective cultural narratives. She completed an MA in Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London as well as an MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. With a background spanning cultural studies, psychology, art, and technology, her interdisciplinary vantage point gives her a unique perspective on open source ideologies and competing models, as well as their impact on technology and society.

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