Fablab before its time

Exyzt’s vision was to develop fabrication methods that could be accessible to all. For Nicolas Henninger, president of the association, the underlying idea was fablabs using non-proprietary technologies: “The construction field is constantly being reframed by rules, by proprietary systems, by businesses that are certified to implement this or that technique. Of course, there are some fields where it’s important to employ specialists, but there are others where the users can do it themselves. This is what has always guided us.”




“What’s important is not so much the result as the way it was constructed, the way the project lives, the joy of building, transforming a space.”Exyzt

“Anybody can do it,” Nicolas adds. “We want to convey this idea through its performative aspect, the idea of making, of empowerment, to enable people to act upon their own living conditions.



The Exyzt “method” relies on balance: “Even if it’s temporary, we have to find the right balance, so that it’s not a waste of means. We owe a lot to Raf Salis, who brought back this DIY approach, this spirit of resilience. For marginalized young people, who live in neighborhoods without schools, this type of project allows them to learn how to organize themselves, to feel that they’re able to do so, to find motivation to work. This temporary action brings out the fun of building simple things. As with our water projects, you don’t have to build an olympic swimming pool. You can have different relationship with water, like Oasis in Vitrolles in 2013, where we reanimated a fountain, with games for children and mist sprayers, to create another, more playful relationship with the fountain. The project also had a role in public space, as it gave young people a job for three months.”
http://www.makery.info/en/2015/03/03/collectif-exyzt-douze-ans-de-machines-a-habiter/