Neglected treasure…

Unfortunately, after 8 years of trying – not only as the FabLab Hrvatska association but also on behalf of the University of Zagreb | Faculty of Architecture, as a respectable stakeholder – the City of Zagreb, owner of the entire factory, does not allow even temporary use for short-term activities.

Official requests have been piling up since 2021, but we are persistent.

We wanted to hold Maker Faire Zagreb there together with the city; unfortunately we did not succeed, but we did get the support of most of the visitors, who were from Sesvete, and of the Sesvete City District Council.

In previous years we held several activities in Sesvete, but not in the space of the former factory.

The common denominator of all of them is precisely the future space of the Fab City Hub as a future community centre and driver of change – not only of the urban transformation of the former Sljeme factory site, but of Sesvete and beyond, and an inspiration for brownfield work in the city and in other cities across Croatia and the region.

We also pursued this idea of a Hub in Sesvete through some EU projects, FabLabNet and Centrinno EU Project, through which over 3 years we prepared a programme, content and a plan of action that we did not manage to test in situ.

We are glad to see that other cities recognise these and similar efforts: this is how probably the largest centre of creativity and innovation in Europe came about – Center Rog, in the former factory of the same name, which over some 9,000 m² brings together all the experience and current knowledge of applying new technologies in do-it-yourself culture, through art, crafts, entrepreneurship and research.

Another example is the city of Dubrovnik, which bought the former Carbon and Graphite Products Factory that everyone calls TUP, and is creating a community centre there, housing the Dubrovnik Technical Culture Association, various associations, a library and small production units arising from similar thinking – becoming an example of good practice for the New European Bauhaus: beautiful, sustainable, together.

After 8 years of effort, seeing everything others manage to do, and thinking of everyone from 7 to 77 who could have had access to interesting things to do – how can one not agree with the headline “Neglected treasure”.