INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
Zero Carbon Roadshow
The Zero Carbon Roadshow is one of the outreach activities of the INTERFACER project: In order to build a digital infrastructure for Fab Cities, an initial network of social relationships based on trust and personal contacts is needed. On the other hand, it aims to create a strong narrative to communicate the underlying values of the Fab City and INTERFACER’s core product, the Fab City Operating System (OS), to a broad public. Cycling is nowadays a strong synonym for sustainable lifestyle, new forms of consumption and travel, environmental awareness, work life balance…) with a strong media resonance on the bike tour specific social media channels. Follow the trip on Instagram @fabcityhh and #zercarbonroadshow
The 0 CO₂ Roadshow started in Hamburg the 06.07.22 with 4 major stops, here the tour in data
| Leg | Date | Distance | Climbing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam | 07. - 16.7.22 | 500 km | 732 m |
| Paris | 17. - 29.7.22 | 610 km. | 1791 m |
| Rhône Alpes Region | 30. - 08.8.22 | 582 km. | 2551 m |
| Barcelona | 09. - 24.8.22 | 956 km | 5551 m |
| TOTAL | 49 days | 2648 km | 10652m |
Also: 12 hubs and labs have been documented, 8 videos produced, 137 hours in total of bike riding with a comsumption of 75470kj/person, the average speed was 19km/h the highest 66km/h… probably driving downhill. If you love data, here all details
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Leg 1: Trip resume Hamburg > Amsterdam
The kick-off for our roadshow, a bike-trip of about 50 days and roughly 2800km, started with a last strong coffee in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel. With a longer stop in Oldenburg, we reach the dutch border mainly within permanent rain and lots of dykes and sheep. After a week of biking, we reach Amsterdam and start our series of “Walk-through” with the oldest Fab Lab in Europe, the Waag Society, followed by probably the biggest one, the Fiction factory and its spin-off, the factory of the Wikkelhouse, a fully modular sustainable tiny house.
Venue Walkthrough 1 - Amsterdam: De Waag
Venue Walkthrough 2 - Amsterdam: Fiction Factory
The kick-off for our roadshow, a trip over 50 days and roughly 2800km to bike, started with a last strong coffee in Eimsbüttel and the freshly collected tour shirts. For the first few days, we had a special guest with us - Simon Meyer, who runs an open source desalination project, collaborating between Hamburg and Athens. You can find the recording of our interview with him and about his exciting project above.
That night we wild camped in the woods - whilst it was raining until the next morning. It certainly was a peculiar experience. The following night was certainly a lot better, as we were couchsurfing, we had a dry roof over our heads. We stayed with David in Oldenburg, who works on renewable energies, and then visited the Core, a co-working space with a restaurant and gallery, which formally was an abandoned warehouse and still sports the charming industrial look with its big windows and spacious rooms, as well as the RessourcenZentrum, which combines a repair shop and co-working space. It’s a meet-up point for local initiatives with repair services tailored to specific product categories and was an interesting inspiration for the after-sale cycle of Fab City OS. You could summarise our northern experience with lots of dykes, sheep and rain. We already learned a lot - how to put on sunscreen for example or have online meetings without even leaving the saddle! Soon after, we crossed the border to the Netherlands and met our dear colleague Pieter Hiyma from Amsterdam, with whom we shared our first bike breakdown, a couple of beers and our arrival in the city. Amsterdam is home to the very first independent Fablab in Europe, the The Waag Society. It opened in 2007 and is not only a place for hackers and nerds who want to play with machines but a place in which a new vision of design and production technology has drastically changed the role of the consumer. Watch our walk-through video to meet its actors and spaces! On their recommendation, we also visited the Fiction Factory and the Wikkelhouse. The Fiction Factory was founded in 1989- as a theatre scenery company! Starting with one cordless drill and a jigsaw, the lab became a highly professional and well-equipped construction studio in the last few years - probably the biggest FabLab in Europe. They make exhibitions, shop interiors, offices and restaurants (but also complicated one-off productions and stands).
You’ll find more pictures and other details on this komoot collection.
Leg 2: Trip resume Amsterdam > Paris
The way from Amsterdam to Paris takes us to the modern and stylish city of Rotterdam, through the artificial landscapes of the dutch Zealand region, we then cross Belgium to visit the Wapi Fablab, followed by the rural creative and productive Hub Hermitage in the north of France. In Paris we have documented our stay at Villette Makerz and the brand new Fab City Hub.
Venue Walkthrough 3: Fab Lab “Wapi” in Tournai / Belgium
Venue Walkthrough 4: L’Hermitage France
We leave Amsterdam with many impressions and inspiring meetings behind us, which we share at our first Fab Friday online event, a Zero Carbon Roadshow special for our Hamburg community.
After a refreshing jump into the sea close to The Hague the next day, we split up. Whilst Wolf is directly facing Paris, Henry extends his stay in Amsterdam. Without his navigator and co-pilot from now on, Wolf decides to continue his way staying close to the sea. Big error - after only a few miles the sand became loose and the wheels sunk in. He ends up pushing his packed, heavy bike through the sand and over the dunes under the hot midday sun.
After driving through the modern and stylish city of Rotterdam with its iconic buildings from Rem Koolhas, the tour continued by crossing the Zeeland region, three headlands unified through huge dykes and dams forming an astonishing artificial ecosystem with wild plants and animals.
We are crossing our second border to the Flemish or dutch speaking part of Belgium. The only indication that we changed the country is the quality of the bike trails. It’s over the large and well-maintained dutch roads! In the ancient mining region of Wallonie, a visit of the Fablab Wapi was filmed, underlying the importance of local economic development and collaborative prototyping spaces within open source engagement. At the rural creative and productive Hub Hermitage in northern France, we visited and interviewed several actors from this huge place: a 30h area with ⅔ of forest, several labs, project incubation, spaces for seminars and conferences, a micro-farm and several other incredible engaging projects. See below the testimony of the walk-through. A bit before Paris, the first 1000km are behind us! Once we arrived, we visited several places and actors from the vibrant Fab City Grand Paris community. We installed our Parisian headquarter at the amazing Villette Makers Fab Lab, where we produced another walk-through and a Fab Friday together with Samuel Remy, its creative director. We also fabricated our roadshow flag and visited the brand new Fab City Hub Grand Paris, where we spoke to Adrien Malguy, communication manager of the local Fab City. Finally, we had a look at its Food Lab and its little sister, the creative hub Volumes, explained to us by Clement Norman.
More picture and infos on this komoot collection.
Leg 3: Trip resume Paris > Rhône Alpes Region
We leave Paris and ride along the river Seine southwards, followed by the smooth curves of la Loire. We climb our first mountain in the Bourgogne region and reach the wine valley of the Saône and Rhône. A few days break allows us to visit the Textile Lab in Lyon and the ‘adaptocratic’ space la Myne…
Venue Walkthrough 5 - Fab City Grand Paris: Villette Makerz & Volumes & Fab City Hub & Foodlab
Venue Walkthrough 6 - Rhone Alpe Region: Textil Lab Lyon & La Myne
We leave Paris along the Seine, heading south and change later to the Loire, probably the most beautiful river in France with its natural riversides and smooth sandbanks, and a rich variety of birds. Here we start with our zero carbon air condition methods: Just jump into the river and continue the tour wet - cooling is finally nothing more than water evaporation.
Along the riverside, a 300 m high hill is not only promising a beautiful view over the landscape but also a good way to practise the locally produced and locally consumed credo of Fab Cities. The name of the hill is Sancerre, a famous french white wine. Our route was planned to continue through the Massive Central to meet people from the Fab Region of Rhone Alpes. But if you want to meet French people in August, it’s better to make proof of serendipity than planning in advance. Well, we abandoned going to Clermont-Ferrand (and avoiding 3000m of mountain climbing ) and decided to pass the Beaujolais region with only 800 m of climbing, another beautiful wine region with vineyards, castles and small villages typical of Lyon. We met Pauline there by chance, from the Textile Lab Lyon who invited us to have a look at her beautiful lab and showed us around the neighbourhood’s cooperating partners. Adrien from Paris recommended visiting La Myne, another space in Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon. A really astonishing space where we learned more about adaptocratcy and the idea of a place as a topic for open source innovation in the academic field. The visit ended up with a nice lunch in the garden with other people from the community. Lots of pictures and other details about the trip can be found on this komoot collection.
Leg 4: Trip resume Rhône Alpes Region > Barcelona
From Lyon, we now head to the southern part of Europe with its typical summer temperatures. Before we reach the mediterranean sea, we stop at the LabSud in Montpellier. On the way to Spain, we have to cross the Pyrenees through an incredible forest of cork trees. In Barcelona, we visited the Ciutat Meridiana Fab Lab, the Valldaura Labs and finally the Fablab Barcelona, the birthplace of the Fab City network and the end of our incredible journey.
Venue Walkthrough 7 - Fab City Montpellier: LabSud
Venue Walkthrough 8 - Fab City Barcelona: Ateneus de fabricacio - Ciutat meridiana Fab Lab & Valldaura Labs & Fab Lab Barcelona
The route is going further south along the Rhône. To make biking more bearable with an average temperature of 35℃, we frequently use our zero-carbon air conditioning - a short bath in the nearby river. With the Alps on our left and the Massif Central on our right, riding through the Rhône valley with mostly tailwinds was really nice, not to mention the numerous prestigious vineyards all around! Just before completing the 2000 km journey, we made a short stop at Montpellier, where we visited the LabSud, recommended by Benjamin from La Myne. The LabSud is co-founder of the Fab City Montpellier and a very community-based Fab Lab with a strong focus on open-source innovation and education. We had a very inspirational walk-through by Mentzo and Sofiane. In Sète, we made a 2 day stop to finally jump in the Mediterranean sea in this incredibly beautiful landscape with its rose flamingos. We are following the cost for the next 200 kilometres before arriving in Perpignan, a French Catalan city with its typical colourful facades and narrow streets. Spain is calling, but before that, we have to climb the Pyrenees. We were mounting up on a nearly empty street through a forest of cork trees. Near to the top, we find one of the few houses which is a restaurant - totally empty, managed by a kind of wood sprite. But after a little small talk, he serves us a beer and even starts a conversation with us! On the way down, we take the off-road pass, testing the capability of our bikes. We had our first Spanish dinner in a village of 13 people in a kind of community house of the local farmers, built in 1871. We are the only guests, but Lola made a delicious meal full of traditional dishes just for us, including her famous cake. This was probably the most memorable meal we had during the trip.
2 days before arriving in Barcelona we randomly met Albert Ruzei,a passionate biker and couchsurfer. We literally met him at a supermarket near his house. He was kind enough to spontaneously invite us to stay with him. For the next day, he suggests a ride through the mountains with a beautiful view of the landscape from the top. The next morning he accompanied us to the first 300 m climb, a really fun ride with him! At 1000m we stopped in a mountain restaurant for lunch. Shortly after, it started to rain heavily, luckily we were already inside. Finally, we arrived after 5h biking with an average speed of 6km 🥵 to the 1300m top. Albert was right, the view was stunning ⛰! We then ride down the serpentines at 35km/h until it starts to rain again. No restaurant so far, just a horse stable. Henry got shocked by the static electricity from his totally wet clothes - our morale was close to zero. The day ended at 9 pm in a nearby hotel, a dry place without the risk of electrocution! What a day!
Before entering the final city, a visit to the Ateneus de fabricacio - Ciutat Meridiana Fab Lab with Kike. The Ateneus de Fabricació are several public spaces in Barcelona, that disseminate technologies and the science of digital manufacturing. It has places to learn, collaborate on different projects and form part of the city’s social development. Anyone can make use of their spaces, tools and public resources, and propose projects to improve their immediate surroundings. Kike explained in the walkthrough that the Ciutat Meridiana Fab Lab is based on the cornerstone of employability and works to empower and boost people’s digital skills, with an emphasis on young people, with the aim of helping them find a job.
Next stop at Valldaura Labs, an incredible place in the mountains, 20 minutes from downtown Barcelona. It is a research centre of the IAAC (Institute for Advanced Architecture Catalonia) for self-sufficient habitats, located on a historic 130-hectare farm. It promotes habitability on the basis of ecological principles, making full use of all available technologies and resources, focused on the idea of self-sufficiency. Valldaura Labs is a testing ground allowing us to learn directly from nature in order to apply this understanding to the regeneration of XXIst century cities. During our walk-through, Kya showed us how they transform locally the surrounding trees into contemporary sustainable tiny houses.
And finally, the Fab Lab Barcelona, the birthplace of the Fab City Network: During the walk-through of this incredible place by Guillem Camprodon and Pablo Muñoz, where highly innovative projects go hand in hand with the needs of local communities, like the smart citizen project, the fab lab house, the Romi Robotics for Microfarms to name just a few of them. They also designed an “open source” restaurant Leka, with open source furniture and recipes. We finished our tour together with the lovely summer team of the Fab Lab/City Barcelona!
An initiative of INTERFACER, funded by the European Union and with the support of the Fab City Foundation.