Fab City Global Initiative

Locally productive
Globally connected
cities

What is a FAB City?

A FAB City is a new urban model for locally productive and globally connected self sufficient cities.

In a Fab City, citizens are empowered to be the masters of their own destiny, their resilience is increased and a more ecological system is developed because movement of materials and energy consumption is drastically reduced. The Fab City has been initiated by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, the MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms and the Fab Foundation; it operates within the Fab Lab network, using it as a global infrastructure and knowledge source for the radical transformation on how we work, live and play in cities.

Learn more

until we're globally connected
and locally self-sufficient.

Fab Labs registered on fablabs.io

The Fab City road map

A long term challenge based in short term actions

2011

Fab7 International Conference
- The Fab City project is launched by the Institut d’Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya, the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, the Fab Foundation and the Barcelona City Council.
2014

FAB10 International Fab Lab Conference
"From Fab Labs to Fab Cities"
- Barcelona launches officially the FAB City project
- Mayor Trias commit to the 40 year challenge
- The first public network of Fab Labs in a city is launched
2015

FAB11 International Fab Lab Conference
- The Fab City becomes a global initiative
- The cities of Boston, Ekurhuleni, Cambridge, Shenzhen, Somerville join
- The state of Kerala (India) joins
- The country of Georgia joins
2016

Amsterdam
- Amsterdam and The Netherlands host the presidency of the European Union
- The first Fab City experts summit
- The City of Amsterdam will commit to the Fab City global initiative
- The Fab City global agenda will be shaped
2016

Barcelona
- Advanced Manufacturing for productive cities event
- Barcelona hosts the Fab City meeting with large industries on advanced manufacturing
2016

Shenzhen
- 12th International Fab Lab Conference
- More cities will join the Fab City global initiative
2054

Self-sufficient cities
- Cities produce at least 50% of what they consume
- A global repository of open source designs for city solutions
- Materials are source locally through recycling and digital materials