Blog - Fab City Montréal

Unrolled doughnuts for local action

By Patrick Tanguay|2022-08-22T11:07:56-04:0026 May 2022|Economy|

In the field of pastry, there are different flavours of doughnuts, in the field of economics, it seems there are various sizes of doughnuts. The original idea was for planetary and country-sized circles, “the goal of the Doughnut is to meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet, but what does this mean for the neighbourhoods, cities, districts or nations where we live?” Last year we looked at how Amsterdam is circling, how cities, in general, can do it, and at doughnut reading clubs.

A neighbourhood-centred design methodology

By Patrick Tanguay|2022-08-22T11:08:35-04:0024 May 2022|Design|

To change a city, one should first better understand it, right? That’s the premise for this post about a thesis project by D.J. Trischler, a master of design student at the University of Cincinnati. Graphic design and branding might not be the first things we might consider changing in a city, but Trischler’s idea for, and exploration of neighbourhood-centred design is a great short trip into one way of understanding a neighbourhood and its citizens. His process was quite thorough.

Citizens’ Assemblies

By Patrick Tanguay|2022-06-20T04:48:18-04:0019 May 2022|Innovation|

There are a lot of ways to transform cities, and people often focus on new technologies, changing streets, adding parks, building differently, and all of these can work. However, there’s a way that might sound simpler but can actually have a huge impact and change how all the other ones are implemented: governance. How are governments run, by whom and for whom? A growing number of cities and nations are hoping to repair dysfunctional democracies with citizens’ assemblies.

Futures of food

By Patrick Tanguay|2022-06-20T04:47:57-04:0017 May 2022|Videos|

Not quite about fabrication, not about cities, not quite about making, it’s also kind of all the above, mixed in with food. Food safety, food autonomy, new kinds of proteins, local agriculture, local food making and invention, the list of variations in which our lives and the lives of our cities intersects with food is, of course, quite extensive.

Domingo Club

By Patrick Tanguay|2022-06-20T04:47:03-04:0012 May 2022|Fabrication|

Hard to think of something more Fab City than this lovely project! The team behind Domingo Club wants to “promote plant proteins and create the tools for everyone to make them at home, for the benefit of our planet.” The project started with them winning a 2021 Distributed Design award for their open-source fermentation incubator. The prize money helped them to set up a mini fab lab (fabrication laboratory) and rent a studio, everything they make and sell is made in their fab lab. They open-source everything, the plans for the award-winning incubator, the software for the electronics to run it, and the 3D forms for their tempeh moulds, all available on their Github account.