The Fab City Foundation stewards the Fab City Global Initiative and supports the growing network of cities, regions, and territories working toward locally productive, globally connected urban systems.

The Foundation emerged as the movement scaled from a bold idea into a global transition framework. After the Barcelona Pledge launched the initiative in 2014, the rapid expansion of the network required a dedicated structure to steward the vision, coordinate international collaboration, and develop the shared tools and strategies needed to implement Fab City around the world. 

To support this next phase, the Fab City Foundation was legally established in Estonia, a country recognized for its advanced digital governance systems. The choice reflected the initiative’s commitment to open, transparent, and digitally enabled forms of coordination across a distributed global network.

The Foundation builds on the collaboration of institutions that shaped the movement from its early days, including the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), the Fab Foundation, and the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT, together with cities, research organizations, and civic innovators across the world.

Over time, a diverse group of leaders helped shape the Foundation’s governance and direction. Early board members and contributors included figures such as Vicente Guallart, Julie Hjort, Liz Corbin, Oriol Soler, Alex Pazaitis and Francesco Cingolani, reflecting the initiative’s interdisciplinary roots across technology, policy, research, and civic innovation. 

Today, the Foundation acts as the institutional steward of the initiative. Through the strategic guidance of the Supervisory Board, it maintains the global network, develops frameworks such as the Fab City Full Stack, coordinates learning and collaboration across territories, and supports the implementation of locally productive systems that reconnect production with place.

Transparency and accountability are central to the way the Foundation operates. The organization maintains a public transparency contract that outlines its governance structure, operational principles, and commitments to open knowledge and responsible stewardship of the initiative.

Through this work, the Fab City Foundation helps ensure that the movement remains collaborative, globally connected, and grounded in its long-term mission: enabling cities and regions to transition from linear industrial systems toward regenerative, distributed, and locally productive economies.