To access x.factory you will need to walk down a big and designed brand new complex, “Design Commune”, in the middle of the “Vanke cloud city”. This cluster, built by one of the biggest real estate company in China, is meant to host designers, artists, startups and makers, in order to build the city of the future.
Such a community needs a space, machines and help to build their new projects. Vanke went to see Chaihuo makerspace to join them. Created in 2011, the Chaihuo makerspace (the first in Shenzhen) is a subsidiary of Seeed Studio company, and has built a strong knowledge and reputation in the maker community. Their first location was initially focused on education. The partnership with Vanke helped them to open a new space dedicated to help maker pros. X.factory was born.
X.factory is made for pros. It helps makers, designers or artists to build their project using the facilities, but also to find the right partners in Shenzhen to go from prototype to the market. They also build connections between the “classic industry” and makers helping companies to benefit from the maker spirit to innovate.
Walking through the 1000 square meters of the space we met a team of artists and designers working on a specific interactive ornementation for a commercial center. Another was working on a driverless farm tractor.
The purpose of x.factory is to bring innovation from the makers to concrete applications on the market. They also want to help makers to make a living from their passion, by bringing them to industries which could benefit from their innovative spirit. The model is expanding, as an opening in Chengdu (Sichuan province) is already planned.