MakerBay in South China Morning Post cover
Image by cesarharada.com
Credits Christine Yeh
www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/1901185/hong-kongs-makerba…
Cesar Harada , founder of MakerBay, with "Protei", a revolutionary shape-shifting sailing robot utilised to explore and shield the ocean with Open Source Technologies.
It took inventors Cesar Harada and Shawn Frayne just a couple of days to generate their latest solution – an low-cost children’s creating toy consisting of colourful plastic rods with magnetised ends.
Each men’s core expertise lies elsewhere: Harada designs flexible robotic boats that can be employed on environmental missions Frayne launched a micro-wind device company and went on to run Looking Glass, a start-up making 3D displays.
Their collaboration came about due to the fact each are element of MakerBay, the shared production space Harada set up a tiny a lot more than a year ago in Yau Tong, where hobbyists and inventors alike can gather to tinker, build, invent – and discover from every other.
Cesar Harada, founder of MakerBay in Yau Tong. Photo: David Wong
Cesar Harada, founder of MakerBay in Yau Tong. Photo: David Wong
“The concept is a space like this exactly where collaboration happens organically and we can invent one thing rapidly. [Creating one thing] does not have to be a very lengthy journey. If you are in the correct place, with the appropriate individuals and a lot of tools, and you construct a network that supports these men and women, then the journey can be a lot more quickly,” Harada says.
Getting a maker adjustments the perception of the world. You don’t feel limited. You really feel that the planet can be changedCESAR HARADA
“We wanted to make a toy for youngsters with no cash, with out space, and a single that we can make really quickly. And so we made a drawing, found some straws in the kitchen and some magnets in the office and we place them together. We ordered more components from Taobao next day and in 48 hours we had the prototype.”
The maker movement, which former Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson described as “the internet generation generating physical things rather than just pixels on screens”, is a nascent a single in Hong Kong.
Dim Sum Labs in Sheung Wan, the 1st hacker space in the city, has been joined only by MakerHive, a tiny co-working space in Kennedy Town, and Harada’s MakerBay, which occupies a 6,500 sq ft space in an industrial constructing and gives tools from screwdrivers and soldering irons to laser cutters and 3D printers.
Tools at MakerBay positioned in an industrial building in Yau Tong. Photo: David Wong
Tools at MakerBay positioned in an industrial creating in Yau Tong. Photo: David Wong
But they bring with each other diverse talents. MakerBay has attracted hobbyists such as Andrew Pearce, a frequent traveller employing his remain in Hong Kong to generate his dream surfboard, as nicely as companies such as Frayne’s Looking Glass.
British ecologist and MakerBay member Andrew Pearce in the MakerBay workshop. Photo: David Wong
British ecologist and MakerBay member Andrew Pearce in the MakerBay workshop. Photo: David Wong
Originally based in Kwun Tong, the organization moved to MakerBay shortly right after it opened.
Alvin Lee Shiu-pong, an engineer at Seeking Glass, says he and his colleagues discover the co-functioning platform a great spot for building new products.
“We can meet a lot of like-minded folks and share our suggestions. The workshop is genuinely handy. Possessing our own tool lab would call for a big investment it’s significantly less costly if we can share the tools.”
Lee says the “volumetric” displays they specialise in would be beneficial for the medical world and beyond.
“Instead of dissecting bodies or hunting at 2D pictures from books, students can use a volumetric display to find out about human bodies,” he says, gesturing towards a transparent brick inked with a detailed 3D display of the structures inside a skull.
“All we want is to method the 3D info we’ve obtained [to kind the display] and assign colours according to the distinct densities identified – a greater density would indicate bone and decrease ones can be blood, flesh or tendon,” he explains.
The exact same method could be applied to find out about the structures of insects or even micro-organisms, adds Lee, whose team is refining the next big issue from Searching Glass – a cube which can display LED sequences based on code that a user has written.
British ecologistPearce shares his enthusiasm for the hacker space. Tired of paying hefty airline charges to ship his surfboards and of acquiring boards that do not meet his preferences, he decided to make his own. He has been producing very good use of the tools at MakerBay and selecting up skills at its workshops to experiment with various supplies and approaches of generating surfboards.
“It’s just a good way of studying things,” says Pearce. “It’s the first time I tried to make one thing. Right here, I’ve figured out how to make designs in 3D and make them with the laser cutter. I’ve done an induction workshop on woodworking, also. And if I managed somehow to get this new approach of creating down then I guess it can be a saleable concept.
“I do have a mini Simmons [surfboard] but I can not take it with me because of all the charges for the airline. You’ve got this limit on the MTR as effectively, which is even smaller – you can’t even take something as higher as your self. That’s why I have to design and style something that slots collectively, which is tough.”
L3D Cube.
L3D Cube.
Pearce might have picked up a handful of tips at the Maker Faire Hong Kong in November, when veteran model maker Chung King-yang showed a foldable canoe created from plastic foam and epoxy resin.
The two-day occasion, which drew entries from far more than 300 person makers and schools, was organised by Dr Choy Sze-tsan.
An assistant professor in the college of style at Polytechnic University, Choy previously sponsored a mini occasion run by the Hong Kong Makers’ Club. But following 3 years, he decided it was time to turn the faire into a larger event and involve more schools.
Harada presented his building toy at the event and the optimistic feedback has encouraged him to place it on the market place soon. As may well be anticipated, Dim Sum Labs was also present and ran soldering workshops.
Hong Kong traditionally is far more service- and finance-oriented. Men and women here are much less about creating items. They’re much more about transactionsJASON HSU
Visitors got the opportunity to test-drive underwater robots produced by German Swiss International School, get their hands on diverse maker products and, a lot more importantly, be inspired.
Although traditional fairs tend to be places to sell factors, Maker Faires are all about nurturing creativity and sharing of understanding, Choy says.
At its heart, design covers the broader intention to recognize issues and come up with solutions to improve our globe, which has a lot to do with the maker culture, he adds it’s not basically about enhancing aesthetics.
So even though some men and women may consider products featured at the show to be useless stuff, the tips could be the genesis of some thing far larger.
“A effective invention comes not overnight, but after tonnes of experimentations. At the Maker Faire, people can see so many various possibilities of solving problems creatively, it’s impossible for them not to get inspired,” Choy says.
“The maker culture is a excellent catalyst for folks to reconnect back to our physical world and discover by way of failures and trial and error. By way of producing and the uncertainties that arise from the method, we venture into the unknown. And if there’re glitches, it is OK since they keep us trying even harder.”
Harada agrees: “Everyone in their heart has the wish to do anything fascinating with their life and if you only perform on a laptop, there’re some limitations. But once you start off to make anything, you can create an object or adjust the environment.
“Being a maker alterations the perception of the planet. You don’t feel restricted. You feel that the globe can be changed and that’s true for almost everything from objects to buildings to politics.”
Some enthusiasts view the maker movement as holding the seeds to a third industrial revolution. Jason Hsu Yu-jen, founder of Taiwan’s MakerBar, goes so far as to say that our future may lie in the maker culture.Navigating a power drill kart produced by Wheel Thing Makers.
Navigating a power drill kart produced by Wheel Thing Makers.
“MakerBar is more than just a co-functioning space. It has evolved to become a international platform,” says Hsu, who was in Hong Kong last month to speak at a symposium organised by the Hong Kong Federation of Design Associations.
“Most people believe about makers as a company model. That’s incorrect. The maker culture is not just about [utilizing] 3D printing or laser cutters. [Being a] maker is a mindset. It’s a way to resolve problems creatively.
“What you see as the maker movement nowadays is what web or application was back in the early ’80s when Steve Jobs very first launched the Macintosh individual computers. In the future, simply because of de-monetisation and democratisation of technologies, the price for technology would be almost free of charge and you need to have to use your service to make income, not with the machine.
“The maker culture is important for its social engineering effect. It could be a new tool to adjust society, particularly in the establishing planet. In the countryside or farm communities in remote China, makers could be used as a hub to modify villagers’ life. It will alter villagers’ life the way e-commerce will modify China. That is my vision.”
Jason Hsu, of MakerBar Taipei. Photo: Jonathan Wong
Jason Hsu, of MakerBar Taipei. Photo: Jonathan Wong
Nevertheless, compared to the mushrooming maker spaces in Taiwan and Shenzhen, the movement in Hong Kong clearly has a lengthy way to go.
This lag is due to the fact “Hong Kong traditionally is a lot more service- and finance-oriented. Individuals here are significantly less about producing issues. They’re far more about transactions,” Hsu says.
The perception of creating as a non-profit activity is certainly a element in Hongkongers’ lack of involvement, Choy concedes. “But in reality, besides cultural and intellectual elements, there can be economic value,” he says. “Take Japan’s Maywa Denki, for instance. Their quirky musical inventions which they execute well-known shows with are their supply of revenue.”
MakerBay’s Harada says an additional explanation why the maker culture has been so slow to develop in the city is due to the fact “the mentality of Hong Kong has been educated too significantly towards competitors and not towards collaboration”.
“They have been trying more to take advantage of every other rather of helping every single other. This has to alter,” he says.
“In Silicon Valley this culture of maker space, sharing and superb innovation has been around for 15 years and this is why Silicon Valley is Silicon Valley. Folks young and old have to open their minds, be prepared to experiment and share the sources alternatively of maintaining issues to themselves.”