Fab Lab Berlin

Berlin open digital fabrication studio

Prenzlauer Allee 242, 10405 Berlin, Germany

Fab Lab Coworking space Design & Innovation center

Space size 650 m²

Opened in July 2013

Structure type Part of Makea Industries GmbH

Explored in March 2016


Due to infrastructure delays, the reopening of the Fab Lab Berlin will unfortunately be postponed indefinitely. The team is working hard to find a solution and look forward to welcoming you back soon.

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Fab Lab Berlin is a space for innovation, education and community. It is a digital fabrication studio, hackerspace, learning center and also a coworking space. We provide access to equipment, technology, as well as skilled assistance for your projects!

Social networks

Main interests

Fashion & textile Technology - machines & tools Community Entrepreneurship Robotics Industry & innovation Energy & environment Electronics Design

This workshop is great for:

Every single person & organisation!

The closest workshops nearby are:

  • Betahaus
  • Science center spectrum
  • Vinn:lab
  • Machbar potsdam
  • Fablab cottbus

Interview & guided tour

Meet someone from the team & discover the space by yourself!

Our workshop

Learn more about our space, members, machines & services!

Fab Lab Berlin’s story started with a tour. Wolf had a frustration about universities institutional labs, not being able to experience industrial design freely and try (almost) anything! After exploring digital fabrication in the USA, he came back home and couldn’t find any Fab Lab. He wrote on his university network about it, and that’s when Murat and Nicolaï appeared. All 3 decided to start a Fab Lab as a private company called Makea Industries, to put the concept in an economical context.

Created in July 2013, Fab Lab Berlin started in a 20m2 space. They started with small demands, focused on what they could do best to finance everything, and got prototyping demands and bigger projects. It moved on until the CTO from Ottobock heard of them and the Fab Lab concept.

It remembered him of their first days, decades ago, and how they use to prototype prostetics and orthesis. It got him interested in bringing these process back in the company. Thanks to the long-term partnership with Ottobock, Fab Lab Berlin moved to a 640m2, shared with the group.

The project aimed to give people access to the tools, from engineers, to designers and technical profils. Their will was to always work in-between design and production, to allow people to build quick and easy prototypes, and use the Fab Lab without any stress.

Today, Fab Lab Berlin’s 700 current users are quite evenly distributed between designers, engineers and artists, with startups, freelancers and diverses groups of people. The main age range is between 18 and 36 years old. But in both team and community, it’s mostly men. “It’s a barrier for women, ideas and projects tend to be more men-oriented.” All discovered the Fab Lab through word-of-mouth and Google.

Some come back quite often. They like the space and atmosphere, they work here everyday, they make business through the lab. In the R&D room, people show up to cowork everyday while in the main room, people come on a quite regular basis, with 30 faces everyday.

Professional people coming for efficiency come for the space and ready-to-use machines. The absolute beginners are interested in workshops, want to talk and meet people. While people with their own projects tend to stay for a long time.

And they do a super wide range of things, from art installations to furnitures, textiles and e-textiles, their own products. Companies even started there.

“Community engagement only happens if you look for nice people, supporting each other. It’s such a nice place to come and work everyday, we create the atmosphere, drinks and talks.”

Fab Lab Berlin started in July 2013 in Wolf’s office (20m2) with a laser cutter and a 3D printer. The three partners (Wolf, Murat and Nicolaï) invested a total of 25.000 euros to buy the machines and start Makea Industries’ company.

In less than 3 years, the company and the Fab Lab evolved a lot. They’re 4 partners now, 24 people on the team, and 700 members as we write. With a yearly income of 800.000 euros for the company and 350.000 euros coming from Fab Lab Berlin activities. The income sources are services like product development, industrial design, consulting, engineering or R&D, coupled with minute-based usage, workshops, events and coworking. Ottobock’s partnership also plays a great role in the business model!

The thought evolutions are moving to a bigger space, 10.000m2 by 2018/2019 with 3.000 for the Fab Lab. And also get cheaper, reducing the cost for minute-based usage.

The team indicators of Fab Lab Berlin’s success are the people’s smiles, the little happy conversations, the superpositive feedbacks, seeing people coming everyday to build stuffs, and coming back because they like the space, community and atmosphere!

As we said, Fab Lab Berlin is a private company, still a bold choice. But another surprise is that they’re 24 people in the team, split in several departments : business dvt - events, tours and consulting (animation) - strategy and HR - finances and controlling - demand creation - lab management - design and robotic - software development - lab space - workshops (education).

As Murat told us, the n°1 rule here is to be nice, to be open and to show solidarity!

Newbies tend to come over to check out the place. “You can then book a workshop and get your Easylab card! If you already have a project, you’ll find a designer or someone of the team will find one for you to talk about the project, see your files, and guide you.” If anybody wants to learn more, they offer meet-up sessions about different topics every Friday during the Open Lab sessions, with specialised mentors hosting the meetups.

Many classes, hackathons/jams and workshops are organised to stimulate the community life and DIY spirit. Some are planned in advance, but some are on-the-go. If you come here one day, you’ll find for instance OpenLab sessions, meetups, spring short classes, junior labs among many other events!

Fab Lab Berlin used to have a blog to document, but it got hacked… “It was not very community-driven, but it featured the Fab Lab and community projects, along with the lab’s life.” They had to shut it down and start all over again. Since then, they’ve been using mostly Facebook, Instagram and other social networks.

“We haven’t done an amazing job with documentation. We started Maker of the Week (one member project is highlighted every week on the social networks), taking more photos, use the new blog as a space to document seriously projects, to see who did what. Right now, we document for the users, but we need to encourage people to do it. We’re looking for the good format and tools!”

Fab Lab Berlin also has a wiki which has a specific use. It is mostly made to document how the lab runs, the machines, materials, technologies, workshops, manuals, and several everyday details. Go check by yourself!

Fab Lab Berlin’s story started with a tour. Wolf had a frustration about universities institutional labs, not being able to experience industrial design freely and try (almost) anything! After exploring digital fabrication in the USA, he came back home and couldn’t find any Fab Lab. He wrote on his university network about it, and that’s when Murat and Nicolaï appeared. All 3 decided to start a Fab Lab as a private company called Makea Industries, to put the concept in an economical context.

Created in July 2013, Fab Lab Berlin started in a 20m2 space. They started with small demands, focused on what they could do best to finance everything, and got prototyping demands and bigger projects. It moved on until the CTO from Ottobock heard of them and the Fab Lab concept.

It remembered him of their first days, decades ago, and how they use to prototype prostetics and orthesis. It got him interested in bringing these process back in the company. Thanks to the long-term partnership with Ottobock, Fab Lab Berlin moved to a 640m2, shared with the group.

The project aimed to give people access to the tools, from engineers, to designers and technical profils. Their will was to always work in-between design and production, to allow people to build quick and easy prototypes, and use the Fab Lab without any stress.

Today, Fab Lab Berlin’s 700 current users are quite evenly distributed between designers, engineers and artists, with startups, freelancers and diverses groups of people. The main age range is between 18 and 36 years old. But in both team and community, it’s mostly men. “It’s a barrier for women, ideas and projects tend to be more men-oriented.” All discovered the Fab Lab through word-of-mouth and Google.

Some come back quite often. They like the space and atmosphere, they work here everyday, they make business through the lab. In the R&D room, people show up to cowork everyday while in the main room, people come on a quite regular basis, with 30 faces everyday.

Professional people coming for efficiency come for the space and ready-to-use machines. The absolute beginners are interested in workshops, want to talk and meet people. While people with their own projects tend to stay for a long time.

And they do a super wide range of things, from art installations to furnitures, textiles and e-textiles, their own products. Companies even started there.

“Community engagement only happens if you look for nice people, supporting each other. It’s such a nice place to come and work everyday, we create the atmosphere, drinks and talks.”

Fab Lab Berlin started in July 2013 in Wolf’s office (20m2) with a laser cutter and a 3D printer. The three partners (Wolf, Murat and Nicolaï) invested a total of 25.000 euros to buy the machines and start Makea Industries’ company.

In less than 3 years, the company and the Fab Lab evolved a lot. They’re 4 partners now, 24 people on the team, and 700 members as we write. With a yearly income of 800.000 euros for the company and 350.000 euros coming from Fab Lab Berlin activities. The income sources are services like product development, industrial design, consulting, engineering or R&D, coupled with minute-based usage, workshops, events and coworking. Ottobock’s partnership also plays a great role in the business model!

The thought evolutions are moving to a bigger space, 10.000m2 by 2018/2019 with 3.000 for the Fab Lab. And also get cheaper, reducing the cost for minute-based usage.

The team indicators of Fab Lab Berlin’s success are the people’s smiles, the little happy conversations, the superpositive feedbacks, seeing people coming everyday to build stuffs, and coming back because they like the space, community and atmosphere!

As we said, Fab Lab Berlin is a private company, still a bold choice. But another surprise is that they’re 24 people in the team, split in several departments : business dvt - events, tours and consulting (animation) - strategy and HR - finances and controlling - demand creation - lab management - design and robotic - software development - lab space - workshops (education).

As Murat told us, the n°1 rule here is to be nice, to be open and to show solidarity!

Newbies tend to come over to check out the place. “You can then book a workshop and get your Easylab card! If you already have a project, you’ll find a designer or someone of the team will find one for you to talk about the project, see your files, and guide you.” If anybody wants to learn more, they offer meet-up sessions about different topics every Friday during the Open Lab sessions, with specialised mentors hosting the meetups.

Many classes, hackathons/jams and workshops are organised to stimulate the community life and DIY spirit. Some are planned in advance, but some are on-the-go. If you come here one day, you’ll find for instance OpenLab sessions, meetups, spring short classes, junior labs among many other events!

Fab Lab Berlin used to have a blog to document, but it got hacked… “It was not very community-driven, but it featured the Fab Lab and community projects, along with the lab’s life.” They had to shut it down and start all over again. Since then, they’ve been using mostly Facebook, Instagram and other social networks.

“We haven’t done an amazing job with documentation. We started Maker of the Week (one member project is highlighted every week on the social networks), taking more photos, use the new blog as a space to document seriously projects, to see who did what. Right now, we document for the users, but we need to encourage people to do it. We’re looking for the good format and tools!”

Fab Lab Berlin also has a wiki which has a specific use. It is mostly made to document how the lab runs, the machines, materials, technologies, workshops, manuals, and several everyday details. Go check by yourself!

Technologies & processes available

CNC milling 3D printing Printing, drawing & painting Textile machines Electronics Laboratory, biology & chemistry Laser cutting Casting & moulding Robotics Wood working tools Metal working tools 3D scanning

Services offered

Workshop memberships Open moments Classes & workshops Coworking space Pay-as-you-go machines & tools access Space rental Prototyping Startups & projects hosting R&D missions Design missions Talks & conferences Coaching & project mentoring

Our best practices

The inspiring things we do here to run our collaborative space

Start a fablab as a private company

What is it?

“Usually people mostly build fablabs as non-profit organisation or within universities. But Fab Lab Berlin was created as private company called Makea Industries.

In concrete terms?

The three cofounders made that choice because they want to show that you can put a fablab into an economical context, to build a sustainable business model around it. And rather having people giving money because they want to than asking for donations or government money. The cofounders were industrial designers who started as freelancers with small demands, and focused on what they could do best to finance everything. They quickly got some prototyping demands and bigger projects.

Why it’s interesting?

Fab Lab Berlin is the “living proof” that you can both be a sustainable company and an open fablab accessible to everyone around. They’re super convinced about their “infrastructure model” where people can spend 2 euros or 1.000 euros, adapting to everyone.


Long-term partnership with Ottobock Group

What is it?

Makea Industries (the private company running Fab Lab Berlin) created a long-term partnership with Ottobock, a German group manufacturing prosthesis and orthesis.

In concrete terms?

Ottobock’s CTO heard of Fab Lab Berlin and the global fablab concept. It remembered him of how the company used to prototype prostetics and orthesis decades ago and got him interested in bringing these processes back in the company. After 2 years of conversations and deep-thoughts, Fab Lab Berlin moved into their new premises.

Why it’s interesting?

Both structures took time to build a very good relationship, based on symetrical benefits and a strict respect of not interfering in each other’s strategy. They both bring business, knowledge and projects to each other, and keep on cooperating every day!


EasyLab, a fablab management system

What is it?

EasyLab is a fablab management system homemade by Fab Lab Berlin to monitor the lab and enable people to access machines by themselves.

In concrete terms?

All labs share common issues: managing the tools, machine time, what happens when the machines break. The cofounders identified the specs needed and wanted to build a system to solve these issues. Chris came for a software development internship to develop EasyLab: a system made of wireless switches and web functionalities. It allows you to create user profiles, assign and book machines, activate them from user account, see each machine electric consumption, record time of use, etc.

Why it’s interesting?

Just like FabManager (open source fablab management platform) developed in Fablab La Casemate in Grenoble (France), EasyLab helps to monitor and automate many tasks. Making the fablab team and members lives easier! Tomorrow in your labs? Fab Lab Berlin is thinking about a freemium model, get in touch with them!


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