DRS2012 Bangkok Proceedings Vol 4 - Design Research Society

1706 Conference Proceedings
Building Fabriken
Design for Socially Shaped Innovation
5. Fabriken, a socially shaped infrastructure for socially shaped
innovation?
Eight months after the opening, some considerations can be made about social shaping at
Fabriken.
Collaborative networks are emerging, involving not only Fabriken, but also the whole
premises. While people are sewing, soldering and laser-cutting in the basement, STPLN is
hosting events and managing a co-working facility at the ground level, using the same
collaborative, open and democratic approach that drives Fabriken. Users are moving from
one space to the other, developing alliances and taking advantage of all the possibilities.
One of these users is Carin, a former teacher, who contacted Fabriken to get support for
starting her project. Her idea is to create a space where children can develop their
creativity and environmental awareness by playing with cast-off materials from
manufacturing processes. Fabriken is supporting Carin’s project in different ways: On the
one side, it provides her access to a workshop where she can experiment with materials
and do activities with children. On the other side, it allows her, by being in the space, to
become part of Fabriken’s network and to get to know possible partners.
In terms of the broader innovation discourse, Fabriken also works as a space for
technological experimentations. Forskningavdelingen’s members have been involved in
the creation of several different prototypes of robots, software applications and hardware
boards; some of these experiments have been commercialized. A number of users use the
facilities as a support for their start-ups: Quinn has started a catering company using the
premises’ kitchen. Rebecka, a fashion designer, has also recently founded her own
company and is using Tantverket as her atelier.
Beside users coming to the space for setting up a small company or exploring the
possibilities of technologies and machines, there are also participants who have been
unemployed or on sick leave for a long time. In this sense, Fabriken counts in the social
innovation discourse, but in a way that we never expected.
From these outcomes, it seems that the Fabriken experience can bring a contribution to
the general discourse of collaborative, open and democratic innovation. In fact, the
phenomena appearing in the space seem to indicate that novelty emerging from social
shaping is manifold since it simultaneously involves diverse dimensions, from
technological to social ones, from economical to organizational ones.