Mountain Makers

14 rue des écoles, 63410, Manzat, France

Makerspace Coworking space Fab Lab Residency

Space size 300 m²

Opened in June 2020

Structure type Association (NGO)

Explored in February 2021


Mountain Makers is a rural makerspace including houses to host up to 6 international residents! We aim to renovate by ourselves barns and a garage on-site. Makers are there almost every day to work on the renovation but the makerspace is not officially open to the public yet. Feel free to contact and make a stop to meet the local makers community!

Main interests

Technology - machines & tools Community Residency Makers

This workshop is great for:

Non-profit organisations Seniors Craftsmen Hobbyist makers Adolescents between 12-18 Every single person & organisation! Farmers Makers residency

MAKER RESIDENCY 2024 with MOUNTAIN MAKERS

⬇️ YOUR 2024’s WORK’HOLIDAY ⬇️
Every summer and for a week, we invite between 20 international Makers to the village of Manzat and its surroundings to come and carry out activities related to the makerspace but also to discover our region.

Our programme is a mix between technical and theorical workshop, renovation of our makerspace and tourism.

👩🏻‍🔧 TYPE OF ACTIVITIES: P2P learning week around different workshops
⏳ PERIOD: 8 days
🗓️ DATES: 19 to 25 August
🚂 TRANSPORT: Not included
🏡 ACCOMMODATION: Included
🥗 FOOD: Included (3 meals/day) - donation welcomed
💰 EXTRA FINANCIAL SUPPORT: Not Included
👥 HOW MANY PLACES: 20
⏰ APPLICATION DEADLINES: 15th June 2024
📝 CRITERIA : Please propose a workshop or activity that you would share with our local community __

Start your Journey

(If the orange button doesn’t open well, please, just send us an email on residency@vulca.eu with:
- Object: MAKER RESIDENCY 2024 - MOUNTAIN MAKERS - OpenDoor
- Message : Short presentation of yourself + when you’re available for a video call)

Interview & guided tour

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

Our workshop

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

WE REPAIR project is co-funded by ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union for a minimum of 2 years. (September 2021 - September 2023)

It’s a collaboration between a consortium of 3 Fablabs and Makerspace from 3 different European countries.

  • Buinho from Messejana in Portugal (leader)
  • Fablab Cuenca in Cuenca from Spain
  • Mountain Makers from Manzat in France

These 3 partners help each other to share experience, good practice and reinforce networks within Europe.

The central point of such a collaboration revolves around their regular “Repair’café”  where people gather to work on repairing objects of everyday life such as electrical and mechanical devices, computers, bicycles, clothing, and other. Also, these 3 partners are based in remote areas, which means, with the support of the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union 12 mobility (4 each) will happen these 2 years to bring in these rural area support, skills and knowledge to support their local activities.

The project has started with the physical reconstruction of abandoned old farms and garages where they will gather together a local makers community.

They are creating a rural Makerspace that will be accesible every day, both to local members and international residents.

This will create an eclectic community of young volunteers, curious citizens, entrepreneurs, international artists or makers, where they can feel free to use the space and facilities as a part of the community.

This includes:

  • local homes to host international makers and workspaces
  • educational facilities to combine digital and analogue knowledge, processes and capabilities
  • pop-up workshops based on expertise of makers-in-residency

… all of them created to work in concert with local projects

The project aspires to highlight the power of the makers movement in the reinvention of and contribution to a sustainable future, created in ways that are replicable and open sourced.

About +20 active members come regularly to the makerspace and every week, we have new visits.

The Mountain makers’ community is very diverse. The youngest member is 15 years old and the oldest 83 years old.

To give you an overview, we can find several students involving in many different fields, also retired with a huge life experience, Engineer in Chemistry / Forge / Foundry / Dev’ and also more widely Carpenter, Plumber, Teacher, farmers, …

Since we live in a countryside, most of the members come from villages around but also from the large cities, such as Clermont-Ferrand (+30km).

The business model is a balance between membership, event and donations.

The project is jointly-led by several local and national partners, in a list that keeps expanding. These include :

WE REPAIR project is co-funded by ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union for a minimum of 2 years. (September 2021 - September 2023)

It’s a collaboration between a consortium of 3 Fablabs and Makerspace from 3 different European countries.

  • Buinho from Messejana in Portugal (leader)
  • Fablab Cuenca in Cuenca from Spain
  • Mountain Makers from Manzat in France

These 3 partners help each other to share experience, good practice and reinforce networks within Europe.

The central point of such a collaboration revolves around their regular “Repair’café”  where people gather to work on repairing objects of everyday life such as electrical and mechanical devices, computers, bicycles, clothing, and other. Also, these 3 partners are based in remote areas, which means, with the support of the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union 12 mobility (4 each) will happen these 2 years to bring in these rural area support, skills and knowledge to support their local activities.

The project has started with the physical reconstruction of abandoned old farms and garages where they will gather together a local makers community.

They are creating a rural Makerspace that will be accesible every day, both to local members and international residents.

This will create an eclectic community of young volunteers, curious citizens, entrepreneurs, international artists or makers, where they can feel free to use the space and facilities as a part of the community.

This includes:

  • local homes to host international makers and workspaces
  • educational facilities to combine digital and analogue knowledge, processes and capabilities
  • pop-up workshops based on expertise of makers-in-residency

… all of them created to work in concert with local projects

The project aspires to highlight the power of the makers movement in the reinvention of and contribution to a sustainable future, created in ways that are replicable and open sourced.

About +20 active members come regularly to the makerspace and every week, we have new visits.

The Mountain makers’ community is very diverse. The youngest member is 15 years old and the oldest 83 years old.

To give you an overview, we can find several students involving in many different fields, also retired with a huge life experience, Engineer in Chemistry / Forge / Foundry / Dev’ and also more widely Carpenter, Plumber, Teacher, farmers, …

Since we live in a countryside, most of the members come from villages around but also from the large cities, such as Clermont-Ferrand (+30km).

The business model is a balance between membership, event and donations.

The project is jointly-led by several local and national partners, in a list that keeps expanding. These include :

Machines & tools available

Arduino Uno column drilling machine circular saw drill bench Mitter saw Band saw Power tools

Technologies & processes available

3D printing Wood working tools Metal working tools Traditional tools Welding

Services offered

Community center Residency programs Coworking space Exchange programs

Our best practices

The inspiring things we do here to run our collaborative space

Community-built Makerspace

categories
Community Documenting the workshop’s life Creating your workshop

A community in the heart of the project

Mountain Makers is a makerspace still under construction. We started having two old farms and a garage, and we want this space to grow in parallel with its community.

We are developing a sense of belonging of the local community by including the community from the very beginning in the renovation of the place. We build roofs together, pour concrete, dig the ground, anything and everything needed to build a space. And we learn a lot from each other! Everybody is an expert in something else.

But we also want to be internationally connected. This is why every year we organise a participative week where we invite 10-20 international makers to come, make and learn together.

We foster among our member’s exchanges, mutual aid, solidarity, the pooling of resources, sharing the good practices, knowledge, experiences, and trans-disciplinary and trans-generational know-how in order to facilitate the transition from idea to reality for the members of the association.


Our makers projects

Get inspired by the DIY projects of our team & members

Community-built Makerspace

Develop a feeling of belonging by building together our shared space

We believe that the renovation of a space will create a united community that will know how to use the makerspace as a whole and be resilient over time.


A long-term vision

It has the ultimate goal to launch and settle a makers community in middle France, to facilitate and provide an enabling environment for the current and next generation of makers.

  • EDUCATION and LONG LIFE LEARNING: To attract skills from diverse sectors that contribute to the empowerment both the youth and elders of local communities.
  • CULTURAL and SOCIAL INCLUSION: To attract international citizens to meet with local people, so they can inspire each other.
  • ENTREPRENEURSHIP and INNOVATION: To attract talents from all over the world to contribute to the development of the region.

Come and experience for yourself!


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