Does the Fab Lab trend attract you as much as it confuses you ? Or - if you’re already a maker - are you having trouble to explain your friends and relatives what your job consists in and how you belong to a movement which endeavours to change society? Here at Usbek & Rica, we’re convinced that the Maker Movement holds the promise of a better future.

That is why we designed the MakerBox, a gift pack that’ll allow everyone to step into a fabrication workshop. With MakerBox, you’ll finally be given the opportunity to enter a fablab and learn how to easily make your own chair, beer, drone, guitar… while getting to understand the great challenges of « personal fabrication ».

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CC-BY-SA // P2P Food Lab

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With the financial crisis, the collapse in purchasing power and the environmental scandals, our economic, social and cultural development model seems to have reached its limits. As the result of more than two centuries of counter-culture, the Maker movement offers a credible alternative to our crumbling consumer society. Because it combines autonomy with responsibility, learning and proximity, personal fabrication is getting quite popular. This elaborate version of the DIY movement is now defined by its dedicated places (fablabs, makerspaces), tools (3D printers, Arduino) and practices (open design).

It is high time we could all join the Maker movement ! Even though it’s benefited from great media coverage, it now has to become a concrete utopia that’s accessible to all. In order for society to take up those new challenges, the inner circle of initiates must expand.

The existing initiatives are unfortunately too scattered and unclear to have much of a powerful impact. In order to fill this gap and include people in the debates of tomorrow, Usbek & Rica is launching the MakerBox. Why so ? To give everyone the chance to meet up with the Maker community and be part of a movement that will definitely shape the future.

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CC-BY-SA // P2P Food Lab

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The Maker movement is like teenage sex : everybody talks about it but no one’s actually really doing it. The MakerBox project is for those of us who can’t wait to open the door of a fablab, use a 3D printer and finally understand what is screen printing or learn how to brew one’s own beer. This project is also for those who find it hard to help their friends and relatives take an interest in a movement whose buzzwords like open source hardware, Arduino or CNC are difficult to relate to. MakerBox is therefore made for those who think the Maker movement deserves to be more than a niche for technophiles/hackers.

As we wanted to simplify access to personal fabrication, the MakerBox appeared as the obvious solution for you only need to order it, look up the catalogue listing all the workshops offered in collaboration with our network, pick one and get your « maker » on ! It will be that easy because we thought of everything ahead of time. We teamed up with designers and signed partnerships with workshops. We selected the right objects for you to create, the necessary quantity of raw material and the adequate learning method in order to deliver the best possible experience.

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After having finished your training and built your own personalized, useful object, you’ll be able to take it back home. In addition to the material reward, the experience itself will turn out to be a great opportunity to learn about the fabrication process and new, virtuous business models. You’ll get your hands dirty, along with the fablab members, to reconnect with the world.

What could be more exciting than finding yourself (again) in the position of the trainee, the curious learner ? What could be more thrilling than reconnecting with your inner child and discovering the worlds of carpentry, coding or screen printing…?

In short, MakerBox is about learning a technique, building an nice object and finding out about a fascinating movement that might make a positive difference in society. So if you buy into our concept here, then why don’t you come and step into the workshop ?

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CC-BY-SA // P2P Food Lab

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Since its beginning, the Makerbox project has been developed in the best conditions to make it thrive, that is to say, with the fablabs and the workshops. So, let’s give you some pieces of information about our first partners !

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Jérôme Ruskin

Jérôme is the founder of Usbek & Rica, a magazine thanks to which he’s been exploring tomorrow’s challenges for 6 years. Among other things, he’s behind «The Trial(s) of the Future », an event dedicated to the issues the next generations will face ; and « Futur ! », a daily curation app focusing on the world to come.

Matthieu Vergote

Foresight and innovation specialist Matthieu Vergote wrote a thesis at Ensci – les ateliers about the modern DIY practices. As a future enthousiast, Matthieu loves detecting the micro-trends that will shape tomorrow’s landscape.

Christopher Santerre

Chistopher is a multitasking designer who just graduated from Ensci – les ateliers. He’s been interested in alternative production methods for years. Because he thinks the best way to predict the future is to invent it, he designs artefacts which help us reappropriate our everyday life

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"What IS a box anyway ?" A box consists in a catalogue listing all the objects you’ll be able to build yourself. For each object, the box package includes the necessary raw material (wood, cloth…), access to adapted machines and tools (3D printers, CNC milling cutter, etc.) and the presence of qualified professionnal to monitor you.

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Our project selections offer a variety of price ranges :

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"So you’re asking me to spend money on a box without knowing its actual content, right ?" Yes you are :) And that’s precisely the purpose of our campaign. With your initial support, we’ll be able to dedicate the first semester of 2015 to working with our workshop-partners, defining the first 20 projects we’d like to develop for you. By then, to ease your curiosity, here are some examples of the objects we’d like to offer you in MakerBox :

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MakerBox

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