Core77
- Topics
- Features
- Awards
- Jobs
-
Firms
- Firms
- Search Firms;
- Firm Projects
- Forums
-
More...
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Advertise
- About
- Terms of Use
Why are Makerspaces Dying? Can Designers Bring them Back to Life?
I thought about TechShop many times. Financially, it would have made sense, but in practice it was just too frustrating. It require constant planning on when things would be available, a difficult environment for iterative runs/manufacturing, and people with not enough respect for machines that weren't their own. The lathe/mill were always left untrammed, chips were left out, BYO tooling, dull chisels, the list goes on. Pretty much only maintenance free stuff like the lasers were usable on showing up, everything else needed some prep work that ate into your working time. If there was a community way to manage individuals actually taking care of community assets it might work better. But, I also get that its hard to manage/insure a bunch of equipment in case people make genuine mistakes.
The Maker Movement hasn't ended, it's just begun. My guesses are that:
This article seems so short-sighted and altruistic. It didn't even answer the question in the title, why are makerspaces dying?
What about this business side? Cost of tools, rent, utilities, maintenance, employees, expendables? How can a makerspace even exist? With such a high start up cost and low returns, they really don't make any sense.
I discovered Industrial Design through Techshop, a makerspace here in the states. Through networking, I was able to land my first two jobs related to design and making. Not to mention freelance work I took on along the way.
I think reinvigoration will come from an audience that is more permanent! The drop off in spaces today is partially from the markets stabilizing and so less start ups are getting into hardware, and also the number of people who jumped on the craze losing interest. Filling these spaces with professionals would be a logical step in my opinion to giving these spaces more permanence, online communities are great, but nothing beats being in the trenches with your colleagues in a physical space!
A big part of the problem could be that makerspace operators are just bad at running a business. This was true in spades for TechShop, they were really good at hype but really crappy at mundane operations. Dreamers need to team up with accountants and bureaucrats to achieve success ;-)
I shared space with Paul in the early days at Makerversity. We're still members, but have moved out to our own factory unit for most of our work (both design and production).
There clearly is an element of hype in maker spaces, 3d printing, crowd funding etc. but there definitely is an intrinsic demand and it is surely growing. So closure of maker spaces could only be a correction in the supply.
It probably depends on the reach of the spaces and their ability to find people that understand the value of the workspace or their ability to convey the value of that workspace and the value of networking through that workspace. I personally just work from home myself and the spaces you describe sound like my college days where we had a studio space a large architectural desk with a locker and locking drawers next to a bunch of other desks we shared a room with other students. And there were quite a few similar rooms throughout the building so that every student had a personal workspace they could call their own. We also shared the computer labs and the wood and metal fabrication shop as well. Ah, the good old days. LOL - www.ExtremeFlyerDesigns.com
Hi Paul,
Eric Joseph van Holm