20 persons. It all started with emails, shared among this small group of inhabitants, passionate about Science and Technology, to end up with a makerspace at the heart of Bariloche, financed by the city and opened for free to everyone.
After 5 months of digital exchange to share their ideas, questions and projects, this team of 20 enthusiasts started to meet once in a week in a city hall booked by a member who worked for the municipality. When this latter announced to them the plan of the city to use a new fund dedicated to Technology for a cyber café, they worked together on a proposal to transform this idea into a makerspace. Their relationship with the government, their experience in technology and their knowledge of these new models coming from the MIT convinced the municipality who opened, 6 months later, the first public space dedicated to digital fabrication.
Their mission is to democratize access to digital fabrication to solve local problems, based on the value of collaboration and equity. If the space was at first mainly focused on science and technology, it progressively evolved, with the new profiles of users, to include also art and creativity in its scope. The mix of these two worlds opened them a new field of possibilities to design innovative solutions, where art reaches people and creativity transforms constraints into opportunities.
Despite financial difficulties, the team is positive about the future, supported by a growing and strong community that highlights the impact of such space to promote collaboration work and access to technology for facing the actual local challenges. Thus, their plan for the next years is to pursue their work of democratization and to maintain the space with the same spirit.
