The Fab Foundation reports a recent act of violence at the Fab Lab 'La Casemate' in Grenoble, France. As an anti-technology protest, the lab was set on fire on the night of the 21st of November and everything within was destroyed. Thankfully no one was injured and the Casemate team is working to rebuild its facilities and finding ways to continue to serve its community.
The apparent motivation was a protest against technology but more importantly, it was a criminal act claimed anonymously online. We are all shocked and saddened by this, especially because, as members of the global Fab Lab network it is our mission to democratize access to the technology and tools of innovation, to be open and inclusive, and thereby uplift and improve lives and livelihoods across the world.
La Casemate has already setup a crowdfunding campaign to rebuild the fab lab, which can be found at:
https://www.kocoriko.fr/fr/projects/reconstruction-de-la-casemate
Many labs are already showing solidarity in different ways, by donating to the campaign or offering in-kind support to La Casemate and its activities. We do hope that others in the network will support La Casemate when, where and how you are able to help.
Fab Lab La Casemate is currently run by Jean-Michel Molenaar, who in the early days of Fablab Amsterdam in 2007 contributed as manager to the start of our fab lab.
