RICERCA
Fablabaro, the Fab Lab of North Rome
The implementation of one of Europe's largest Fab Labs inside a middle school — a project that became the Italian benchmark for school-based Fab Labs.
Project summary
In 2016, as part of its programme to support outstanding schools in Rome, the Roma Makers APS signed an agreement with the Largo Castelseprio Comprehensive Institute, in Rome’s outer Labaro neighbourhood, to build and run a school-based Fab Lab compliant with the MIT Boston model. The aim was twofold: to provide the school with a Creative Workshop in line with the new National Digital School Plan issued by the Italian Ministry of Education, and to give the surrounding area of North Rome an active space serving the local community by spreading and developing maker culture on the ground.
Chirale provided financial backing and handled both the design and the build, laying out the spaces, sizing the machines and infrastructure, and defining the organisational structure and business model.
- Business-model analysis
- Process analysis
- Technical design
- Program & project management
Deliverables
The Fab Lab — christened Fablabaro after a student’s idea — was placed in a separate pavilion of the school building, connected to the main complex through a fire door that closes outside school hours. An independent entrance and a large external area give the public easy access during events and regular activities.
The lab is wired with 10 Gbit Ethernet LAN, with two Wi-Fi networks providing wireless connectivity. The space is multipurpose: it hosts lab activities, practical workshops and training courses.
- Electronics workbench with tools and soldering stations
- 4 cartesian 3D printers
- 2 Delta 3D printers
- Roland CNC printing/cutting plotter
- CNC cutting plotter
- 60 W CO2 laser cutter (60 × 70 cm)
- Heat press
- CNC milling machine
Results
At its opening, Fablabaro was the largest Fab Lab in Europe sited inside a middle school, and was fully integrated with the surrounding neighbourhood.
The lab, with machines and facilities suitable for production work as well as prototyping, quickly earned recognition from the Fab Foundation in Boston and is listed on the global fablabs.io map.
Outside school hours it runs training activities for young people and adults, hosts several local communities working on open-source projects, and has become a case study for the Italian Ministry of Education’s research body Indire, which has held it up as a national model for school-territory integration.