Monday, April 29, 2013

Techshop is coolest hardware place in San Francisco. reminds me of Fablab



I find the tight editing on this piece by Bloomberg TV to be rather annoying - no chance for anyone to breathe. But what they are doing is way cool. Realise I have been past this place several times, though never ventured inside. Reminds me of Fablabs which are still going strong in Europe...


TechShop San Francisco is located at 926 Howard Street, just one block from the Moscone Center, three blocks from the Powell Street BART station and six blocks from Union Square. The 17,000-square-foot facility has a private parking lot. This community based workshop and prototyping studio is on a mission to democratize access to the tools of innovation, TechShop is packed with cutting-edge tools, equipment, and computers loaded with design software featuring the Autodesk Design Suite. Most importantly, TechShop offers space to make, and the support and camaraderie of a community of makers.


From this blog in 2010....

The rise of the global Fablab concept from Jonathan Marks on Vimeo.

Born in MIT and Northern Norway, the Fab Lab concept seems to be blossoming. I think it works because you can clearly make just about anything in a Fablab and what happens is relevant to local circumstances. At school one ofe the reasons for not liking Physics was that all the experiments had been worked out by others, and I couldn't see the practical application of what was being taught. These public access science labs work the other way round - you share an idea and they look to see what's possible. It is a great place to prototype. Check fablab.no/ and this list for one of the nearly 50 labs near you. Ton Zijlstra, also in this video, blogs in English about Fablabs at fablab.nl/.

No comments:

ShareThis