New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Initiative category

Identify the award category for which this initiative is being submitted
Prioritising the places and people that need it the most

Email user
mail@theconstitute.org

Basic information
Initiative title
Fabmobil

Full initiative Title
Fabmobil - a rolling digital education lab for rural and decentralized areas in East Germany

Please provide a short, catchy description of your initiative to be used in communication towards the public.
The Fabmobil is a double-decker bus that has been converted into an art and digital workshop and is travelling across the rural countryside to bring digital education and the therefore necessary technologies to the people who need them. The workshop bus is in use for a variety of events and workshops, courses and target groups in the field of emancipatory and self-effective media education. Usually the bus travells the region and stops for 1-5 days to host the workshops.

What was the geographical scope of your intiative?
Regional

Where was your intiative implemented?
Member State(s) and Western Balkans
Germany

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Saxony and Lusatia. Mainly rural areas and decentralized regions effected by the transformation process started by stopping coal mining.

Does your initiative address mainly urban or rural issues?
Mainly rural

Does your initiative refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)

Has your initiative benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your initiative won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Does your initiative has a minimum level of maturity? The minimum level of maturity is exemplified by stakeholder/ initiative promoter commitment to implement the initiative in practice and a clear methodology /approach.
Yes

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As a representative of an organisation
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project)
- Name of the organisation(s): Fabmobil e.V.
  Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation
  First name of representative: Christian
  Last name of representative: Zöllner
  Gender: Male
  Nationality: Germany
  Function: member of the management board
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Jordanstraße 16
  Town: Dresden
  Postal code: 01099
  Country: Germany
  Direct Tel: +4915775730869
  E-mail: mail@fabmobil.org
  Website: http://www.fabmobil.org
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
- URL: http://instagram.com/fabmobil
  Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #fabmobil
In case my initiative is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my initiative in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
Social Media

Description of the initiative
Please provide a summary of your initiative
The Fabmobil is a traveling art, culture and future lab for Saxony. It is a double-decker bus equipped with digital technology and machine tools and offers workshops and courses - for kids, young people and beyond. The goal of the Fabmobil is to bring creative technologies such as 3D printing, virtual reality, robotics and programming to rural areas. To vitalize and activate existing offerings and to build new, digital and contemporary cultural and experiential formats. By this activity we provide equal chances of individual development in town and country. Beyond these impacts in the field of technologigal sovereignty we focus throughout our workshops on broader social issues such as climate justice and sustainability
The Fabmobil is regularly on the road in Saxony and beyond, visiting schools, youth centers and meeting places.

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with 5 key words.
equal chances of individual development in town and country

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
mediation of digital knowledge in decentralized and rural areas

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
design and art as facilitators of change.

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
going where the problem is

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
joy is key

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of sustainability and how these have been/will be met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
With the Fabmobil we focus topics of sustainability and climate justice as one of many overall themes. In the workshops we have the aim to enable kids and young adults to use digital tools in a confident and responsible manner. But technology can´t be a single solution. It needs social framing. Therefore we link tools with topics. Participants for example build and code there own wheather detection station to monitor their environment. Another example is the analysis of electronic products and the necessary elements to build them. This reflective process is important. To be exemplary with that, we published all workshop concepts as manuals on our website. Everybody can follow, copy or improve our ideas.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
The Fabmobil is design and manufactured just for one purpose: to enable learning in a mobile and reflective environment. The whole bus and its concept is based on user research and the needs of the young people. By this its a counterpart to the regular school. The Fabmobil is open, with multile different locations to sit, learn, work, experiment and chat. Digital technology is not centralized in one corner, but in every spot. As materials we used as much wood as possible to create a warm athmosphere. The Kids are free to move in the two storeys of the bus, so they can balance the sitting in front of a laptop with motoric output. Every workshop ends with a clear result, that they can take home. This can be a slf designed 3d print, a software code, a robot or tricky laser cut construction. This gains self esteem and they feel taken serious. 80% percent of the workshop hosts are designers and they take care of sensual rich and respectful athmospheres

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
Since the beginning od 2022 we have a new Fabmobil. It´s a convertible with an easy to open roof top and fold out ramp. With this new bus, we can guarantee better accessability for people in wheelchairs or other with other motoric disabilities. We have code of conduct, take part in further trainings of antidiscrimination and have a strict policy against racism, homophobia, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination. We have a 60/40 parity on male/ non-male coworkers and try to reach a 50/50 balance in the genders while the workshops. Therefore we are in tight communication with the sschools and partnes, so they are aware of that too.
We are not elite. We take care of reaching everybody and not only the schools with active teachers booking us. In our organisation, we have regular meetings and act transparent with finances. We have defined roles for everyone in the team and reflect them regularly together.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the initiative and civil society have been/will be involved in the initiative and what has been/will be the impact of this involvement on the initiative
Since the beginning od 2022 we have a new Fabmobil. It´s a convertible with an easy to open roof top and fold out ramp. With this new bus, we can guarantee better accessability for people in wheelchairs or other with other motoric disabilities. We have code of conduct, take part in further trainings of antidiscrimination and have a strict policy against racism, homophobia, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination. We have a 60/40 parity on male/ non-male coworkers and try to reach a 50/50 balance in the genders while the workshops. Therefore we are in tight communication with the sschools and partnes, so they are aware of that too.
We are not elite. We take care of reaching everybody and not only the schools with active teachers booking us. In our organisation, we have regular meetings and act transparent with finances. We have defined roles for everyone in the team and reflect them regularly together.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the initiative.
The start of the project was very user centered. To know what is necessary in the region, we talked to multiple acteurs in various levels. From teacher to ministry, from ngo to municipality, from elder to kid. Every scope on our project was welcomed. The design process of the bus, but also of the tour plan was and is open. We seek collaboration and see ourselves as enabling designers of a new mobile education system. Beside "being on the road" with the workshop bus, we give talks on our project, sit in zoom sessions to enable others to build their own Fabmobiles and act as role models.
Since 2020 we are funded by the Saxonian gouvernement. With this funding we play a massive role in reaching the digital education goals of the gouvernement. And the gourvnement learns a lot from our initiative.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your initiative. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was
We included people from different professions in the project. Core is the design discipline. Around that we arranged technological and paedagogical expertise. The field of community inclusion is central aswell. Here we held several meetings with all relevant actors in the rural area. Because, we didn`t wanted to be seen as intruders from the urban, though we originally come from the region. Politicians played a major role aswell.
The Fabmobil was then used as a mean of connection and a platform for exchange. Here people from different fields met on a common ground and exchanged ideas and perspectives on the region.

Please highlight the innovative character of the initiative, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the initiative
We are a role model. There is no other institution in Germany or Europe bringing digital knowledge in that manner to young people in non-urban areas. We are 200 days per year on the road and in touch with the peer groups. We use a doubledecker bus, perfectly designed and transformed to match the paedagocial needs of the workshop leaders and the children. The athmosphere is open, easy to access and charming – the total opposite to regulaar school. Youths feel appreciated.
We bring digital tools and topics to people who do not have access to it. Rural areas lack public transport and a crititcal mass of innovative people. With the Fabmobil we go to people who can´t come. This is not a new method, but never been seen in the field of digital-cultural education.
With the Lokallabore we foster our engagement in local sustainable structures. These little makerspaces do not need many people, but act responsible with the little but engaged peer group.

Please describe which elements of your initiative could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and contexts. This may involve, for example, aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings, etc.
As we post evey aspect of our work online at our website, we strongly encourage others to benefit from our work. With the workshops we enable others to become actors in the field of digital culture.
We do regular meetings in which we tell other initiatives in Germany and beyond how to set up, design and run a mobile fab lab. We also coach other groups in management and fund raising.
During the pandemic we produced a series of web tutorials and keep that process on. So peer groups can access fabmobil content, even when we are not at site

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your initiative.
Our approach is to go where nobody goes. We reach out to kids and youths in areas that see themselves as lost. We empower them to become actors of change. As methodology we use participatory means, we involve and react on their needs within the workshops.
It´s not complicated in the case of working with the peer groups. Its fairly simple: be there, be open, help and don´t judge. The mthodology comes more, when working with administrations and funding partners. We put design in center and this is something that needs time to unterstand on the administrative side. Because design sees the people. And design solves problems. Maybe in a sometimes unorthodox way, but its reactive and open. As design often comes up with a graspable result, we see this as a core method: we do something real and graspable. With the Fabmobil as a bus and in the workshops as results of a learning process

Please explain what kind of global challenges the initiative addresses by providing local solutions
Youths leave the rural areas towards the urban and metropolitan areas. This is a global phenomen. They do this because there is no perspective for them to grow in an interesting, challenging field such as digitality. We show them: there is a chance to be here and it´s possible to deal with interesting topics such as digitality and open minded people. We see ourselves as role models in a dried out region for young and open kids. The fabmobil doesn´t solve global problems. But it opens the view to the world.

Please detail the scope of progress in the implementation of the initiative. This can include already demonstrated results/outputs related to the chosen Prizes category, and the already achieved benefits from the initiative for direct and indirect beneficiaries. This can also include a development plan of the initiative, with a particular attention to the steps envisaged in the year following the application, and including envisaged results and benefits from the initiative
The project is stable. We started 2017 and are now working with multiple funding institutions. One of them is the education ministry of Saxony.
Our development plan is quite simple: we have a coach reflecting our progress and team. We work on a long term funding and will perspectively scale the project to more than one workshop bus. With the Lokallabore project, we foster our activities and guarantee a long term impact. There will be more Lokallabore coming in the next years.
We will focus on the region Saxony and enable initiatives in other regions to build their own busses and programs.

Please provide documents that demonstrate the maturity level of the initiative and commitment to implement the initiative in practice (e.g.: evaluation report, final or mid-term initiative report, certification, publications, building permit, grant agreement, letter of support, partnership agreement, etc.)
Both
PDF
- pdf-1-9455.pdf
Web link
- http://www.fabmobil.org
- http://www.lokallabore.de
If relevant, please describe how your initiative contributes to developing new competences, especially in the context of the European competence framework on sustainability.
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Please attach at least 6 high resolution images or visual representations of your initiative to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below.
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By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed initiative has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the initiative and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their initiatives, initiative, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted initiative, initiative is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes