Theย Open Worldย series of articles documents Liam Grace-Floodโs year ofย traveling all over the world exploring maker culture and spaces.
Machines Roomโs goal is to support innovative people and organizations that want to make things with positive social or economic impact โ whether that’sย mycellium materials research, plastic recycling, or decentralized knitting machines. Nearly everyone they support is educating or making with social or environmental purposes in mind. Theyโre part of a โtech-for-goodโ initiative within Maker Mileย in Hackney (East London). That places them right next door to Open Desk, and a quick walk from London Hackspace.
They were originally part of a British Council network of Maker Libraries. That network has since disbanded, but many of the core ideas remain at Machines Room. Immediately upon entering the space, you see their library and exhibition space. Theyโve all kinds of books, many of which come from thisย reading list (which I think is pretty good). Alongside the books are all manner of projects, from recycled CNC scrap objects to Disrupt Disabilityโs 3D printed wheelchair bits, to PlySetโs recycled 3D printer filament lamp shades.
Because theyโre so close to Open Desk in mission and geography, they end up fabricating a lot of their furniture and prototypes. The whole space is full of Open Deskโs and Enzo Mariโs furniture, and the Strategic Director, Nat Hunter, is part of a related research project at the Royal College of Art. Theyโre all super into helping envision the future of design and distributed manufacturing.
One other cool thing they do is residencies. They have paid membership and residency programs, but they also support a smaller number of makers for month-long funded residencies to work on particular projects. Itโs great that even a small space like Machines Room makes a deliberate effort to ensure access to people whose projects could benefit from it. This August, I was in residence at Machines Room researching the future of open design and fabrication โ ideas that were partly inspired by what Machines Room does. You can read about that project on their blog.
Theyโre not perfect, of course. Their space is pretty small, and, like many makerspaces and fab labs, their emphasis is much more on digital fabrication than traditional craft. So while they have CNC mills, laser cutters, and 3D printers, their woodshop isnโt the best, and they donโt have much in the way of metalworking. That leads to the occasional backwards workflow, like having to use their shopbot to rip a sheet of plywood. Theyโre pretty new, so they keep changing how they do things as they figure it out. Experimentation is great, but it can also be an impediment. Things were often delayed because the staff was trying to revise their protocols or rework a system.
That said, even if Machines Room doesnโt have the exact tools you need for a project, or a system doesnโt work quite right, theyโre always thinking critically about how to improve their space. As the maker movement matures, and people come to appreciate the value of making in itself, we need more critical conversation about the other issues surrounding that trend. Conversations like commercialization and entrepreneurial drift, inclusivity and diversity, and what’s worth making vs. whatโs wasteful.
Machines Room is at the forefront of many of those conversations, and is networked with other organizations that are also doing good work in this field. If you want to just make something, there are probably better places to go. However, if you want to make something with purpose, and to think critically about why and for whom youโre making, thatโs what Machines Room is all about.
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