The Distributed Design Platform acts as an exchange and networking hub for the European maker and design movement.

Through carefully curated annual activities, our goal is to support emerging talents, facilitate the acquisition of new skills, foster networking and promotion opportunities, and contribute to the development of a thriving and resilient creative ecosystem.

What is Distributed Design?

Our values

  • Open

    Open refers to the mentality and approach of designers to share and make their design processes transparent, replicable, and accessible, from hardware and software to implementation and usability.

  • Collaborative

    Collaborative means enabling citizens to become active participants in the design process through meaningful and participatory co-design approaches.

  • Regenerative

    Regenerative making and design principles aspire to renew and restore the systems that we are part of, rather than just replacing or devaluing them.

  • Ecosystemic

    Ecosystemic means acknowledging the complexity of interactions between cultural, natural, and social aspects and designing to improve the health of social and environmental systems.

Impact

Our achievements over the past three years would not have been possible without the dedication of our 20 members and our vibrant network of Creative Talents. Their work demonstrates an unshakeable commitment to design rooted in environmental and social principles. Practices regularly go beyond sustainability to regeneration: our community asks not only how can we sustain, but how can our design practices give back and nurture cultural, social, and environmental well-being.

Find out more

Advisory board

The Advisory Board provides experience and knowledge to the development of the Platform. It meets two times a year with the members of the project, and where possible they also participate in other events organised by the Platform.

  • Indy Johar

    Mission Steward

    Dark Matter Labs

  • Primavera De Filippi

    Researcher at CNRS and Berkman-Klein Center

  • Daniel Charny

    Founder & Director at Forth

  • Kate Armstrong

    Executive Director Interspecies Internet

  • Nadya Peek

    Director Machine Agency

Distributed design in numbers

Check our impact

Creative Talents

+690

Our achievements over the past years would not have been possible without the dedication of our 20 members and our vibrant network of Creative Talents. Their work demonstrates an unshakeable commitment to design rooted in environmental and social principles. Practices regularly go beyond sustainability to regeneration: our community asks not only how can we sustain, but how can our design practices give back and nurture cultural, social, and environmental well-being.

Core Members

22

Our Platform has seen exciting growth since our start.  Since 2022, our membership has steadily increased: the Distributed Design Platform is now made up of 22 members including 6 community hubs. These hubs act as regional centers, fostering connections and knowledge exchange among members with diverse backgrounds and expertise. This geographically distributed network allows for more inclusive participation and ensures that the Platform serves the needs of a wider community.

Global Community

+5900

The Distributed Design Platform acts as an exchange and networking hub for the emerging field of distributed design. The initiative aims at developingand promoting the connection between designers, makers and emerging digital and local markets.

Cross-channel reach

+300k

The DDP website is our primary outreach tool, attracting over 14,000 annual visitors and accounting for 80% of our online engagement and making it our most effective platform. Social media platforms, particularly Instagram (13% of our online outreach), complement this reach.

Who is involved?

The Distributed Design Platform is driven by a unique and highly experienced consortium of 22 members from 15 countries, forming a collaborative ecosystem of forward-thinkers across Europe and beyond. The project is coordinated by Fab Lab Barcelona and supported in the scientific and technical coordination by IAAC.

Albert Vila
Website
Alberte Bojesen
Website
Anna Cain
Website
Anna Fedele
Website
Annah-Ololade Sangosanya
Website
Anthuanet Falcon
Website
Ars Longa
Website

Ars Longa (FR) is a structure of production, diffusion, mediation of experimental’s forms at crossroads of Art, Research and Society, both in public and private spaces. It favours innovative approaches and focuses on the educational or civic appropriation of projects. City is our playground. We explore and study the movements that make and transform the metabolism of the city. Regulators, operators or citizens, we accompany with them experiments that allow us to think by doing. To manufacture in town, to manufacture the city.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

Ars Longa offers a support programme for young emerging designers by providing (1) access to our workshop, (2) an ecosystem of makers / workshops and (3) professionals in several areas of the transition economy.

Working closely with the renowned Parisian design and craft school BOULLE and the MORNING OS incubator, where the workshop is located, we are offering designers a three-stage process: an open call with 4 selection criteria:  Creativity, Heritage, Inclusion,  Wise Techno. The programme also aims to internationalise creative talent by encouraging international applications.

Exhibitions will be held at Morning OS or as part of collaborative projects.

Barbara Rakovská
Website
Carolina Espinoza
Website
CCAM
Website
Center Rog
Website

Center Rog is a creative hub where you can create anything you can think of, either by yourself or with the help of our skilled mentors. Discover nine production labs, where both traditional hand tools and the latest technologies are at your disposal. Visit Rog’s labs and Rog’s marketplace, take a look at our project studios and join our workshops.

Craftbot
Website
Danish Design Center
Website

Danish Design Center (DDC) (DK), as Denmark’s national design center, it is DDC’s mission to promote the use of design in business and industry, to help professionalise the design industry and to document, promote and brand Danish design in Denmark and abroad. In other words, the DDC aims to ensure the best possible meeting between the supply and demand sides in the design field. The DDC’s key approach in this encounter is systematic experimentation with design-based value creation in companies.

Danish Design Center
Website

As Denmark’s national design centre, it is the DDC’s mission to promote the use of design in business and industry, to help professionalise the design industry and to document, promote and brand Danish design in Denmark and abroad. In other words, the DDC aims to ensure the best possible meeting between the supply and demand sides in the design field. The DDC’s key approach in this encounter is systematic experimentation with design-based value creation in companies.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut sed nisi sit amet dolor consequat sagittis eu quis erat. Sed vitae tincidunt ipsum. Sed et feugiat lacus, nec facilisis erat. Maecenas eu tempor mauris. Nunc sodales gravida massa, ac rutrum enim suscipit quis. Nunc tempus elementum sem sed venenatis. Quisque sodales, lorem sed lobortis mattis, erat erat bibendum eros, in sollicitudin risus magna vel eros. Quisque mattis mauris leo. Nunc consequat enim quis eros egestas, ut cursus turpis convallis. Maecenas ullamcorper in eros vel pulvinar. Nulla id urna sem. Etiam quis bibendum metus.

Dhrishya Ramadass
Website
Espacio Open
Website

Espacio Open (ES), a private non profit cultural association,  is a creative and social projects accelerator based in Bilbao. Its objectives are to influence the local social and economic scene in the city by boosting emerging cultural trends through the design and implementation of innovation-based projects, mixing art, design, technology and social issues, with both local and global perspective. The organisation manages 1.000 square meters of installations and 15 workers. The project moved in 2011 to the Bilbao Old Cookie Factory, in the Zorrozaurre island. As a Fab Lab/ Makerspace, Espacio Open organizes the  Maker Faire Bilbao since 2013, one of Europe’s oldest maker movement gatherings,  launches annual calls for artistic residencies and is a partner in several European projects linked to urban innovation, among other activities.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

Through Fab Lab Bilbao, Espacio Open offers a work space and professional support for the development of creative projects, through annual calls for artistic residencies. In addition, Espacio Open annually organizes the creative technologies festival Maker Faire Bilbao including professional workshops focused on creative talents. These activities are aimed at supporting professionals from different disciplines so that they can introduce open technologies into their creative processes and show their projects to broader audiences.

Fab City Foundation
Website

The Fab City Foundation champions the Fab City Global Initiative through pioneering projects in social innovation, urban research, and educational programs. Our Foundation fosters a network of forward-thinking cities, organizes the annual Fab City Summit with local partners, and leads strategic research on transformative urban models such as the Fab City Full Stack and the PITO to DIDO transition. The Master in Design for Distributed Innovation (MDDI) is a distributed learning program focused on the intersection of design, technology, ecosystems, and communities to improve interspecies wellbeing. It connects a global community of changemakers with local innovators to address complex challenges. The Fab City Challenges are a unique collaboration format that brings together regional and international innovation communities to propose meaningful outcomes that respond to urgent areas of intervention in cities and regions as drivers of change. The Full Stack Bootcamp is a comprehensive learning experience designed to empower Fab City participants with a deep understanding of the seven layers of the Fab City Full Stack (infrastructure, learning, innovation, communities, territories, bioregions, and planet). The annual Fab City Awards celebrate the world’s most innovative urban and rural solutions. In addition, Fab City Foundation participates in EU-funded projects and intergovernmental and other public/privately funded projects for research, technological implementation, community engagement, and methodological innovation. For participating in any of these initiatives, or for partnerships and collaborations, please reach out to [email protected].

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

As a founding member of the Distributed Design Platform, Fab City Foundation is dedicated to promoting Distributed Design practices through events, activities, and outreach across the Fab City Global Community. We facilitate enriching collaborations, engage various stakeholders, and spark inspiration through events, meetups, and projects. Our blog posts showcase the impact of our activities and we share high-quality resources to open-source knowledge gained from our initiatives. We continually foster global collaboration and knowledge exchange to support inclusivity, diversity, and sustainability, aiming to strengthen the field of Distributed Design and foster innovation through our Global Network.

FabLab Budapest
Website

FabLab Budapest (HU) is a ten years old open innovation centre, one of the first FabLab in Central-East Europe and until now the only member of the FabLab network in Hungary. We are located in the downtown of Budapest offering our services, access to our workshop, tools and knowledge for students, entrepreneurs and companies. We believe in bottom-up innovation and help others to create their first prototype. Our goal is the democratisation of digital manufacturing technologies to provide access to personal and collaborative invention and innovation using digital technologies. We have a strong cooperation with the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. In this cooperation we try to foster students of traditional craftsmanship to enter into the 21th Century with digital manufacturing technologies and start their own design brand. We provide a comprehensive education program on design thinking, digital manufacturing and DIY biology.

Fania Kolaiti
Website
Felipe Schmidt Fonseca
Website
Francesca Corona
Website
Georgina Norris
Website
Global Innovation Gathering (GIG)
Website

Global Innovation Gathering (DE) is a vibrant, diverse community of innovation hubs, makerspaces, hackerspaces and other grassroots innovation community spaces alongside individual innovators, makers, technologists and changemakers. GIG is pursuing a new vision for global cooperation based on equality, openness and sharing. We aim to enable more diversity in the production of technology and global innovation processes and support open and sustainable solutions developed by grassroots innovators.With solid roots in the global south, we share, collaborate and work together. GIG provides a platform for meaningful exchange by fostering knowledge exchange and collaboration between its members. GIG contributes to creating and using open, inclusive and sustainable technologies and meaningful connections between innovators, positively impacting the policies and frameworks for grassroots innovation. We support research in innovation and development, digital rights and technology ecosystem questions carried out by local experts and international teams.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

GIG works to connect innovators and makers from around the world. It aims to bring different design perspectives to the heart of Europe and facilitate real-time collaboration between global south and global north partners.

Our main activity is organizing the Global Innovation Gathering annual event in Berlin. Members of the network, as well as partners in Europe, are invited to attend,  meet and organize workshops together on topics of education, critical making and inclusivity.

Guoda Treciokaite
Website
Habibi.Works
Website

Habibi.Works is an intercultural makerspace and FabLab situated in Katsikas, northwest Greece, over the road from Katsikas “hospitality centre” – a camp built to accommodate over 1000 refugees and asylum-seekers during the long periods entailed in awaiting decisions on their asylum applications. Founded in 2016 in a context of increasing precarity for people on the move, Habibi.Works is designed as a platform for education, empowerment, and community.

Individuals of all backgrounds can make use of Habibi.Works’ 13 working areas, benefiting from free access to tools, machines and guidance from team members experienced in each area. These areas include: metal, wood and bicycle repair workshops; a plastic upcycling lab; a MediaLab fitted with a 3D printer, lasercutter and computer lab; a garden feeding a community kitchen (where community meals are prepared on a daily basis); a ‘storytellers lab’ (including a recording studio fitted into a geodesic dome); a sewing atelier and creative atelier; a language learning hub (housed in our multilingual lending library); and a community-led gym/sports programme.

How are they part of the ecosystem?

Habibi.Works embodies a collaborative spirit that prioritises open-source knowledge and transparency. Being part of the local networks from P2P Lab, they have contributed to Distributed Design Book and connected with various communities ¡such as the one to Precious Plastic.

Habibi.Works aims to engage with public discourse on, and raise awareness around, the topics of migration and asylum by highlighting the resourcefulness and abundant talent in the communities we work with. On the ground, their mission is to tackle social disparity by promoting agency, solidarity and self-determination, all with the aim of building a more equitable world.

Happylab Vienna
Website

Since 2010, Happylab is Austria’s first Fab Lab. Learning from each other is an important point in the Happylab community. In addition to the physical meeting place provided for joint working and tinkering, a web-based forum and a wiki page also offer the opportunity to exchange experiences. The Happylab is an interdisciplinary entry point for all who have creative and/or technological project ideas. It is embedded within a framework of universities, business incubators, specialised SMEs, industries to provide the lab users with services when their idea grows beyond the scope of the lab.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

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Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia
(IAAC)
Website

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) is a center for research, education, production and outreach, with the mission of envisioning the future habitat of our society and building it in the present. IAAC follows the digital revolution at all scales (from bits to geography, from micro-controllers to cities, from materials to the territory) to expand the boundaries of architecture and design and meet the challenges faced by humanity. IAAC hosts Fab Lab Barcelona, the first and most advanced digital production laboratory in EU.

How are they part of the ecosystem?

One of the four departments inside the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) is the Fab Lab Barcelona, coordinator of the Distributed Design Platform since 2017.  Fab Lab Barcelona is one of the leading laboratories of the worldwide network of Fab Labs, dedicated to research, education, production and outreach, with the mission to rethink the way we learn, work and play.

mad plastic manual shredder
mad plastic 4
Janine Leahy
Website
JetClay
Website

JetClay is an open source Platform that explores the world of 3d printing and ceramics, relating the digital and the analog, tradition and technology, makers and ceramists. They develop their own tools to make unique pieces of ceramics at the crossroads among industrial design, architecture, interior design and sculpture.

How are they part of the ecosystem?

JetClay is a training hub and strategic partner to the Distributed design Platform who has been working over the years together with the Fab Lab to develop open source tools for the community along with students of programmes in IaaC.

Jimena Salinas
Website
Jorge Muñoz Zanón
Website
Julia Steketee
Website
Julia Bertolaso
Website
Kamila Dzierzak
Website
Kickstarter
Website
Kniterate
Website
Knowledge Center of Vestmannaeyjar
Website

Knowledge Center of Vestmannaeyjar (IS) in Iceland fosters innovation and economic diversity by actively supporting entrepreneurs and businesses. It operates Fab Lab Vestmannaeyjar, a digital workshop open to various groups. As a founding partner of 14 other Fab Labs in Iceland, it offers guidance for establishing similar spaces and hosts workshops. Through programs, it aids innovation from conception to startup. Associated with projects like Distributed Design and the Vestmannaeyjar Coastal Community, it connects various sectors for ocean awareness and economic development. Additionally, it conducts educational programs for students and offers Fab Academy courses.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

In an endeavor led by the Knowledge Center Vestmannaeyjar Iceland, Fab Lab Vestmannaeyjar emerges as a pivotal hub for innovation and creativity. Presently, the program is actively providing personalized support to budding creatives & entrepreneurs, offering them year-long access to cutting-edge tools, knowledge, and expertise in digital fabrication and project strategy. A part of the initiative is an intensive maker-to-market bootcamp. This event is empowering participants with crucial skills in business development and project management, shaping their journey from creative ideation to market success. Through tailored guidance and in-kind support, the center is fostering community building, internationalization, and revenue diversification, propelling emerging talents towards entrepreneurial success.

Lucy Bowen
Website
Maker
Website

Maker is a collaborative workshop and knowledge center, dedicated to transforming how ideas take shape. Rooted in design-by-collaboration, we empower professionals to share knowledge, learn new skills, and bring their visions to life. By offering hands-on training with tools and machinery, promoting circular design solutions, nurturing strategic business development, and hosting public events that inspire and connect, we strive to make it more accessible for everyone to shape a better tomorrow.

 

Learn more about Maker here

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

Maker is working to foster and test the knowledge, technology, and practices of maker culture. It establishes partnerships and collaborates with peers in the maker community, and organizations from the industry, educational and civic society field on knowledge projects and activities that communicate, broaden and engage a broad target group of citizens in activities around technological trends and tendencies, and hands on making.

Martin Restrepo
Website
Maud Bausier
Website
Mekanika
Website
Metalab
Website

Metalab (UA) is a City development laboratory that supports a socially equal, spatially comfortable, culturally rich, environmentally responsible, economically balanced city (environment). Our vision is to establish a makerspace in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, serving as a platform that fosters innovation in humanitarian aid, med tech, climate change response and economic development. With a unique technical prototyping platform, we aim to provide a space that is inclusive and empowering, fostering learning, creativity, and entrepreneurship for all. By creating a center for peer learning and knowledge sharing, we aim to facilitate collaboration and cultivate a supportive community. A place where the value of science, technology, and design can be added to Ukrainian products. By nurturing innovations and inventions, we aspire to contribute to the growth and success of Ukrainians.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

At POLE we experiment with sustainable solutions that can be implemented in the reconstruction of Ukraine, but also that can answer today’s needs and distribute the results. METALAB established a sustainable materials laboratory with a sample library. We will continue the laboratory tests and research with recyclable construction materials that can fully or partially aid Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction. We are planning an event for the community to mark the opening of the new POLE space in mid-July this year. It will be a networking event with a public program for the network of our partners and the local community.

Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte
Website
MOME
Website
Museum of Architecture and Design
Website

Centre for Creativity, a business development platform for professionals working in the creative and cultural sectors, is run by the national Museum of Architecture and Design. We provide product and service development by promoting cooperation between creatives, enterprises, business sector and both the private and public sector as well as offering financial support, education for the development of entrepreneurial and specialised creative skills, the establishment of a partner network, sector integration, internationalisation and promotion of creative sector’s visibility abroad. The Centre is also a national contact point for The New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative and an EIT Culture & Creativity partner for the development of innovative projects in the CCS.

MAO is also the organiser of the oldest Biennial of Design (BIO), the oldest European design biennial, as well as the founder and coordinating entity of Future Architecture Platform.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

As part of the Distributed Design Platform, MAO and Center for Creativity develop projects that take shape at the intersection of different creative disciplines, art, experimentation, entrepreneurship, and business, and have not yet received a system-wide public funding. They promote interdisciplinary co-operation and the development of projects that are commercially viable, increase added value and contribute to social progress and welfare.

Our past and future activities in the DDP scheme focus on facilitating opportunities that deal with questions of locality, community and heritage on the one hand, as well as disseminating these ideas in an international context on the other.

Naina Kaul
Website
Oliver Lloyd
Website
Opendot
Website

Opendot (IT) OpenDot is a research and open innovation hub, a space dedicated to rapid prototyping and digital manufacturing, open and accessible to all. OpenDot, founded in Milan in 2014 by the design studio Dotdotdot, OpenDot generates changes that find in open source and technological know-how opportunities for growth in educational, design and production level.

OpenDot develops projects and research paths, training programmes and co-design processes involving all the stakeholders to create innovative solutions aimed at generating a positive social impact for people and the planet.

Opendot collaborates with Politecnico of Milan, DOMUS Academy, NABA (New Academy for Fine Arts) among other Universities. For 7 years it has been organizing the 6-months-lasting training Fab Academy, devoted to digital Fabrication and coordinated by MIT Media Lab.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

Residency program within the Distributed Design Platform project for designers, artists, creatives, makers and engineers (why not) from diverse backgrounds.

Three theme challenges (to choose along the three options):

  • Repurposing and upcycling: from Fashion to … and vice versa
  • Transformational design for adaptive fashion.
  • Dress the change: fashion as a means for climate activism.

We will offer access to the full facility, mentorship and training.

P2P Lab
Website

P2P Lab (EL) works for the development and maintenance of a global knowledge commons, encompassing a global community of researchers, makers, artists, designers and others, that advocates and monitors models of peer production, peer governance and peer property in every field of human activity. Its wider network includes institutions and organisations from academia and civil society, active grassroots social movements and institutions working for the transition to a P2P-driven, commons future.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

Our core activities involve organising events on sociopolitical issues from a commons perspective, providing a platform for creative talents to showcase projects and exchange ideas. To ensure diversity and inclusivity in our activities, we issue an Open Call, through which we select participants for our local activities, typically held in the summer/autumn, contingent upon the availability of participants. Emphasising documentation, we share insights and promote projects through channels like the DD website, the DD book, and the mobility scheme. We ultimately aim to build a global network of makerspaces, exchanging best practices to address global climate change challenges autonomously.

Pakhuis de Zwijger
Website

Pakhuis de Zwijger (NL) is a platform for urban development and the creative industry, located in a redeveloped warehouse in the city centre of Amsterdam. What started out as a ‘clubhouse for creatives’ seventeen years ago has now grown into a platform that organises cross-disciplinary discussions, workshops, festivals and more on a daily basis. Urging temporary urban issues with relevant stakeholders. Pakhuis de Zwijger informs, inspires, connects people, effectuates, monitors and reflects.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

Pakhuis de Zwijger is a public meeting space and a center for dialogue. Our main activities include organising programmes and public events about urgent and complex social issues. Based on that, Pakhuis de Zwijger provides a stage for Distributed Design talents and creatives to showcase their work in the format of a public event. To select the designers, we post an Open Call in early September each year and do the interviews with talents during October. We record and livestream our events to make them (inter)nationally accessible. Additionally, their projects are digitally showcased on Pakhuis de Zwijger’s website. Finally, strong networking opportunities are provided to creative talents through the events.

Paola Zanchetta
Website
Paula Meier
Website
Paved with Gold
Website
Polifactory
Website

Polifactory (IT) is the makerspace-fablab of Politecnico di Milano, serving as a multidisciplinary research lab aimed at exploring the relationship between design and evolving models of production, distribution, and use within product-service systems, particularly in the context of digital transformation and the shift towards a circular economy. Polifactory conducts competitive research, consultancy, and public engagement initiatives in collaboration with companies and institutions involved in design-driven innovation, user-driven innovation, as well as open and circular innovation. Through its Talents in Residence program, Polifactory supports the pre-incubation of ideas developed by young talents from Politecnico di Milano.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

Polifactory offers a residency program on the themes of Distributed Design dedicated to young designers studying at the School of Design of the Polytechnic of Milan, one of the largest and most prestigious Design Schools in the world with over 4000 students attending. Every year Polifactory explores a project theme that represents an innovation challenge for Distributed Design. Through the launch of an Open Call, teams of young designers are selected to develop their projects within the Fab Lab, operating as Makers in Residence and having access to the makerspace and its equipment and counting on the collaboration with the laboratory staff who supports in the design and prototyping phases.

IPL - Polytechnic University of Lisbon / FABLAB BENFICA
Website

The Polytechnic University of Lisbon (IPL) is a public higher education institution in the metropolitan area of Lisbon composed of eight specialized schools covering Arts, Communication, Education, Engineering, Health Sciences, and Business. The 2019 Newsweek’s global list of maker schools includes IPL, the only Portuguese institution featured. This distinction highlights its role in educational innovation and crisis response through digital fabrication.

The Local IPL DDP activities are coordinated by Prof. André Rocha and his team at the Lisbon School of Education (ESElx). Since joining the Distributed Design Platform in 2018, the team has developed key initiatives, including three editions of Maker Faire Lisboa, participation in Make Something Week with Greenpeace and the Fab Foundation, an annual open call connecting emerging and established DDP creatives, and active engagement in global events such as the Creative Commons Global Summit.

Fablab Benfica, a digital fabrication laboratory at ESELx and the only Portuguese node in the Fab Academy network, supports these activities. The lab serves as a prototyping space and educational hub, supporting initiatives like fabschools.pt and the Postgraduate Course in Design of Interactive Products for Education, in which students learn to and develop interactive educational products ranging from digital applications to tangible objects.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

The combination of IPL’s institutional framework, the local DDP team’s initiatives, and Fablab Benfica’s technological support exemplifies how academic institutions can effectively implement distributed design practices while fostering collaboration within the European Union.

re:publica
Website

re:publica  is one of the largest and most exciting conferences centered on digital culture, which explores how technology impacts society, politics, and everyday life. Originating in 2007, it has grown into one of Europe’s largest events of its kind, attracting a diverse audience of activists, scientists, hackers, entrepreneurs, NGOs, journalists, social media and marketing experts, and many others.  The festival features a wide range of activities, including lectures, workshops, a pop-up makerspace and panel discussions that cover topics like internet policy, digital rights, and future technologies. Held annually in Berlin, re:publica fosters a collaborative environment that fosters innovation and  creates synergies between net politics, online marketing, network technology, digital society, and (pop) culture.

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

In cooperation with the Global Innovation Gathering (GIG), re:publica hosts a pop-up Makerspace during the festival over three days. Here, makers from around the world come together to meet, hold, and participate in making-related workshops and meet-ups, and connect with an audience new to the Maker movement. At the Makerspace, there are also various open-source hardware exhibitions and co-created art pieces displayed each year. Our creative talents contribute to the program by either holding a workshop or creating off-stage pieces to exhibit on-site.

SPLOT Institute
Website

SPLOT Institute (PL) inspires cross-disciplinary creative collaboration to address pressing social, environmental and economical challenges. We deliver schemes for young creators from diverse backgrounds using our own methodology, successfully applied in international projects such as SPLOT UA Residency (organized in collaboration with the US Department of State and the US Embassy Warsaw), Direction Earth/Space Creative Campus (for the European Space Agency) and ART+DESIGN+SCIENCE schemes (supported by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage).

What do they do in the Distributed Design context?

As part of the Distributed Design Platform, we have launched SPLOT Open – an initiative that focuses on building an inclusive, open and interdisciplinary community where we strive to democratize access to knowledge and creation. As part of the scheme, we facilitate a space for meetings, interactions and exchange of ideas that have openness in their DNA. To make sure that we are open indeed, we welcome a wide array of initiatives. Our definition of openness includes components ranging from open licensing, co-creation and circulation of knowledge sharing or open data to community governance, circularity and decentralized decision-making.

The Index Project
Website
Wikifactory
Website
World Crafts Council Europe
Website