SPQwoRk: visiting a “talents container” in Rome
Makery is taking you to SPQwoRk, a fablab and co-working space from the Tirburtina district in Rome. On the facade, a “factory” logo in the Atelier Populaire manner toys with the official emblem acronym of the city of Rome.
Rome, special envoy
Incubator, hothouse, hub of activity, fablab, we all know. “Talents container”… mà que? In order to reach the SPQwoRk fablab, you first need to go through a door where 20 or so nameplates of companies in communication, video, web, design, etc. indicate you have here a hub of the Roman digital economy.
On the staircase leading to the reception desk, lettering reads “Talents Container”; at the reception desk, a poster promotes the application of augmented reality developed within these walls, another one indicates the place is referenced by the 3D Hubs directory with geolocation, and the biggest one entitled “Coworking” is a typography of the map of an underground, the map of the area and SPQwoRk activities worldwide. The typology is: « Coworking, Concreteness, Community, Collaboration, Cooperation, Connection, Collective, Cothinking, Cool. »
Tommaso Spagnoli, 32, is the founder of SPQwoRk, the brand that is also the name of the place, consisting of a co-working space and a fablab. The man accompanies us to explore the dozen or so workshops, offices and studios of this impressive 1,200 square meter place.
In the building dedicated to co-working, 65 professionals, including TGX, Tommaso’s consulting and communication company, rent a private office, a simple desk or a meeting room. A film studio is to be found on the ground floor.
In order to find the fablab, you need to cross the courtyard. It is in the process of moving from its old premises located several streets away to this new place, much bigger and more inviting. This geographical proximity with the co-working space will allow the protagonists to increase the sharing and exchange of services amongst these two entities and will leave more place to sewing, embroidering and weaving craft workshops that remain in the old premises.
Networking with European and Israeli labs
SPQwoRk is networked with the fablabs of Nice, Tel-Aviv, Zurich and with Digiscope in Paris, fablab of the Paris-Sud University. Neighbourly relations also exist with the Roma Makers fablab. Some makers are in fact members of both structures. SPQwoRk is supported by the Make In Italy FabFoundation, which allows it to set up this year the FabAcademy. The famous modules that make up the tutorial How to make (almost) Anything of Neil Gershenfeld from MIT will be broadcast as of next week, once a week for 6 months.
As for the economic model, Tommaso opted two years ago for a total reinvestment strategy over 3 years. No one is salaried yet. The fablab, founded in a bottom-up logic, has to finance itself. Its accounts would be balanced today. Revenues from the sale of prototyping, cutting services etc., a €20 membership per person per annum, and a work contribution from each maker according to their respective skills. The fablab today has 30 maker members.
A CNC MechMate
The fablab is composed of a 400m2 central workshop on the ground floor, three workshops and the office on the first floor. Below, next to two laser cutting machines, one of which is dedicated to the fablab and the other for rent, a large CNC MechMate built by Sergio Subrizi who brought it to the fablab three weeks ago takes centre stage. Having been operational for 4 years, the CNC, partly robotized with Arduino, allows you to work on 170x260x20cm surfaces. Sergio Subrizi says: “I saw for the first time a large Hutter CNC. The project came from a South-African engineer in mechanics who was building a garbage collection truck; The open source project was an improved shopbot. I started studying it through the MechMate forum. Six months later, I began. A year and a half later, I was the first in Italy to have built one.”
“When I built the machine, says Sergio, there were still no fablabs in Rome. I met the people who then set up Roma Makers in the Garbatella district, including Stefano Varano, co-founder and fabmanager. He was the first maker I met and he invited me to a demonstration event with 3D printers. The people who were organising the first Maker Faire were there and they asked if I would bring my MechMate. I discovered there the world of makers, and I met Tommaso who saw my machine and asked me for information on how to build it. Here at SPQwoRk, I made my first speech on my building experience. After the Maker Faire, I didn’t want it to stay in the garage anymore. Tommaso then said to me “Come here, we will make the fablab larger, we would so much like to have you here.” And this is how I arrived. We are going to carry out teaching sessions and continue to work with the machine. In Italy we say “quio fasa se fasa tre”, do it yourself to make sure it’s properly done.”
One side of the CNC workshop is marked out by a long corridor, semi-open onto the outside, covered by arbours, that Tommaso wants to equip ASAP with barbecues, fridges and sofas to make it into a “grill area”. On the first floor a wood workshop equipped with a laser cutting machine and a jointer, a silkscreen workshop and a third 140 m2 room dedicated to the biolab that should move in within the next few weeks.
The historical premises of the fablab are only a few streets away, in a more modest building where the five 3D printers still remain. We admire the high-tech design of the near silent Delta Wasp and how it operates. Delta Wasp is an Italian printer, the inventors of which are presently adapting one of their other machines to print clay and produce construction elements for African housing. Luigi, the maker who keeps an eye on them whilst listening to the radio, is replacing a spool of filament in the Kentstrapper.
At the back of the workshop, a young man is weaving wool on a small loom. Up a few steps, and here we are in the sewing and embroidery workshop. Brigitte Krauer is tailoring costumes for her performances. She is one of the craftspersons who will need to become autonomous to remain in the premises.
Tommaso Spagnoli returns to the organisation of the public workshop for the week-end to come. Self-made man (he did not benefit from bank loans or public funding), fabmanager, social entrepreneur, director of a communication company and in charge of a co-working space… He heads a “Talents container” that could well become, if not “the biggest in Europe” as he wishes, at least one of the more dynamic.