The Fab City Campus event will take place in Montreal on August 13 and 14 in the District Central. Arts, technologies and sustainable urban planning will come together to recreate the prototype of a Fab City, a resilient and self-sufficient city.

Free and open to the public, the Fab City Campus, which emerged from the Fab City Summit, is a Communautique initiative. This social economy enterprise democratizes access to information and communication technologies through training in the digital sector and open and sustainable innovation. It is in this spirit that it participates in the Fab City Summit, an international meeting of members and actors who adhere to the Fab Cities movement. “These are cities, regions, and countries that are committed to becoming self-sufficient in what they produce and consume, to work towards self-sufficiency of cities in everything they can make for itself, be it energy mobility, the manufacturing of good, materials, etc.,” explains Monique Chartrand, Executive Director of Communautique. Favouring local manufacturing, making files travel rather than resources, moving to a circular economy are all ways to respond to global warming in a natural way, to preserve biodiversity and even to regenerate it.

On August 13 and 14, the Montreal community will be able to discover this movement and even get hands-on with it at the Fab City Campus. Also available online, this event will be held at Esplanade Louvain, at the corner of the two streets of the same name, in the District Central. Taking the form off a temporary installation in the heart of the city, Fab City Campus aims to illustrate the future of resilient cities. Montrealers can expect workshops on biomimicry, seed bomb making and even small boats, as well as artistic initiatives and demonstrations of rapid prototyping equipment such as 3D printing.

Is Montreal one of the Fab Cities? At Communautique, we would like to know but will only find out at the opening of the Summit on August 13! “Our organization came to the District Central with the idea of working on developing the Fab City prototype,” says Monique Chartrand. “The campus is an opportunity to meet with local stakeholders and to form collaborations in this area.” And, the organization can count on the SDC District Central as a leading partner in this common goal. “Hosting the Fab City Campus on the territory is in line with the SDC’s DNA and its three business pillars, namely design, urban manufacturing and technology,” says Hélène Veilleux, Executive Director of the SDC District Central.  “It came naturally for us to associate ourselves with this initiative that promotes both the mobilization and inclusion of business, participatory urbanism and urban planning.”

The SDC will therefore be present on August 13 and 14. At its booth, it will discuss, among other things, building the city of the future, along with several other projects concerning the future of the vacant lot where the campus itself is located. “This giant vacant lot has peaked the interest of business and the entire community, who dream of seeing the arrival of a promising project with quality development that would bring together business life and social life,” explains Hélène Veilleux. The SDC has also joined the call for street murals, one of the artistic activities of the Fab City Campus, which demonstrates the growing interest of artists in the District Central.

Campus organizers intend to make this event one not to be missed this August in Montreal. “The buzz and momentum surrounding this event is real and are conducive to the profound transformation of our economy and our society. The ingredients have come together and the will is there,” notes Monique Chartrand, who hopes that the city will join the movement. We look forward to seeing you in mid-August in the District Central! To learn more about all the Fab City Campus activities, click here!