Interview with the manager of RogLab about the buzz around machines, empty spaces, and printing guns. •
Just as an umbrella can be a balloon, a bicycle can easily be a time machine. Hint: on Saturday at 10 a.m., join a group that will pedal from Congress Square through traces of once-bustling industrial stories.
Shall we first ride backward in time on a bicycle? Where would you start telling the story of the city’s promising industrial development?
I would start with Rog factory, because I was assembling bicycles there during my internship during high school. When you get to know it up close, all the stereotypical ideas disappear. The work was hard and tough. On the other hand, the factory was an exceptional social space. The female workers at the assembly line exchanged recipes, advice, and shared stories about their weekends… Such liveliness positively influenced the work process and contributed to the culture of the space.
What happens when a factory in the city suddenly closes down, leaving a void? Does this affect the residents as well?
Fashion designer Sanja Grcić, who gave a lecture at RogLab last winter, came to an interesting conclusion in her doctoral thesis: in the UK, designers’ innovation gradually declined when they were cut from the industrial ecosystem in the factory, confining them to the four walls of an office. Contact with materials, production processes, and knowledge exchange in a shared working environment are evidently important factors for the development of successful products.
Did you notice this after the collapse of Slovenian factories Rog, the Tobacco Factory, Avtomontaža…?
Not exactly during the collapse, as the factories were not part of my daily life. But later, when my colleagues and I started working on the concept of the future Rog Center. The starting point we received was that Rog should become a design center supporting industrial production with its services. However, by then, most of the factories had already collapsed. Through collaboration with one of the few still functioning or smaller production companies it became especially clear how difficult it is to maintain or create a production environment and culture, and how quickly it can all be destroyed.
But what remains empty seems to call for revival.
There is still a shortage of suitable workspaces in Ljubljana for creatives, NGOs, or small businesses. The temporary users in Rog, as well as people in other similar spaces in Slovenia, work in poor conditions. That’s why I believe it’s important for the future Rog Center to have shared production spaces available to the widest possible public.
In the meantime, there’s a period to get through until the new space is ready. What will happen in the interim?
With future programs in mind, we designed the pilot project RogLab two years ago. Before you renovate the walls, it’s good to test the content. Based on the experiences we’ve gained through the pilot project, the municipality has already adjusted the renovation plans to today’s needs of creators and to the current economic situation. Instead of numerous individual studios planned at the begining, the plans now include more support programs and shared production spaces, from digital fabrication labs to more traditional woodworking workshops.
So, the crisis has also brought to light the fact that we really miss community?
The collapse of factories and the loss of the social context they helped create are also felt in Ljubljana. We are seeking community and collaboration. More and more initiatives for shared work and social spaces are emerging and are being implemented. In order to successfully exchange experiences, build together, and create smart solutions for today’s societal challenges, we need not only spaces but also appropriate programs and financial incentives to encourage collaboration between various fields.
Meanwhile, at RogLab, you’re thinking about the future and recognizing the 3D printer as a symbol of a new era.
With a 3D printer, you can even print a house. But you can’t revive a factory by assembling bicycles like we used to.We have to move with the times, using new knowledge and technology. With the future in mind, we also designed RogLab. We live in a very interesting era, where production, business, and organizational models are changing rapidly with the advancement of digital manufacturing technologies. These technologies are becoming cheaper and more accessible. Proponents of the third industrial revolution are excited and believe that factories, as we’ve known them, will soon cease to exist, and production will be networked, allowing us to make products at home.
Will it no longer be necessary to build huge halls to start production?
It depends on what you want to make. There is a lively maker movement worldwide, where people make all sorts of things at home using digital production technologies—from a new part for a broken kitchen appliance to a gun. You can get plans for these things for free on the internet. However, professional equipment is still expensive and complex to use. For Center Rog, we envisioned advanced machines being shared and available to as many people as possible. This also reintroduces the lost element of socializing.
Is it the beginning of a new era of union trips and parties?
In the past, workers used to tend their gardens after work. Today, this trend is returning with many other initiatives encouraging the shared use of public spaces. Also, socializing builds political awareness. When you condemn individuals to precarious work, you also isolate them politically.
But it seems we’re still caught in the familiar urban paradox: spaces are emptying, yet the lines of those who would like to fill them in some way are growing longer.
It’s true that many spaces are vacant, but not all of them are owned by the City of Ljubljana; many of them are private or state property. It would make sense for owners to offer empty spaces to those who need them on a nonprofit or free basis, as temporary use only adds value to the space. One reason why temporary use is rarely practiced is the lack of appropriate mechanisms, which leads owners to see no benefit and prefer to keep the property empty.
When a space waits and remains vacant, it collapses in on itself, benefiting neither the owner nor the tenant in the end.
Last year, during the Cycling Festival, we toured the city’s construction pits. Developers had huge appetites, but fortunately, the crisis tempered them. It gave us time to think about what we really want in the city.
But time for reflection is probably not unlimited.
No, if you let a building decay for too long, it takes more money to restore it, or a time comes when there’s no turning back. Ljubljana knows quite a few such stories.
The original was published in Delo Daily on 19 May 2014 by Maja Čakarić (This is an abbreviated version.)