Discussion about Atelier fablab of Beijng

When an engineer and two artists decide to change the world. Sébastien Thomas (Areva engineer), Marianne Daquet (founder and director of Atelier Art School) and Adeline Parrot (director of studies and operations at Atelier Art School) decide to combine their knowhow to create the first FabLab in Beijing in order to create a hub of education and technological experimentation unique in China.

Atelier FabLab has 3 missions for different types of public:
Educational
Public: Children, teenagers, students and adults
Offer: Workshops • Holiday camps • Regular courses
Objectives: Become familiar and learn how to master the tools for technological innovation.

Professional
Public: Entrepreneurs, engineers, designers, architects, artists
Offer: Renting of the machines and the working space • Training on the machines • Expertise and service to support creators
Objectives: Allow people working on a project to have tools, machines and space

Experimental
Public: non professionals, handymen, keen do-it-yourselfer, makers*
Offer: Workshops and courses, • Projects follow-up • Time slots of «open Fab»
Objective: For the makers who need a space and tools which match their creative ambitions

Team
Sébastien Thomas - First journey in Asia in 1999, Sebastien comes to Wuhan where he discovers China. Since then, he has been living in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing where he was absorbed by both his fascination for China and his passion for new inventions. A great enthusiast of new technology, Sebastien decides to settle down again in Beijing with his wife and two children in 2015. For ten years, he has been working within a big international Engineering company (Areva), from numerical simulation to engineering team leader. He is the co-founder of Atelier + FabLab in Beijing in 2016.

Marianne Daquet Directrice et founder of ATELIER ART SCHOOL
After graduating from two French Fine Art Schools, Marianne, became a promising artist and began to teach art in different schools located in disadvantaged neighborhoods to kids from primary to high school. After meeting a French man who had already been in Beijing for several years, she joined him in 2006 and developed a small art school in the hutong. After the birth of her two daughters, she began to experience this strong feeling that she would stay in Beijing for a while. The project that she matured for years was ready to get launched: she opened Atelier Art School in September 2012. Since then Atelier has grown in a comprehensive art educational project that she leads this with passion, a curious and open mind and creativity. Passing on her passion for Art studies has become her life’s purpose.

Adeline Parrot Directrice of the studies and operations at atelier art school
Adeline graduated from one of the most famous French Fine Art School : La villa Arson in Nice. During her studies she experimented painting and sculpture and passed her exam highly commended. She came in China for the first time in 2011 and stayed in Beijing for a year, her artwork enriched himself with all the materials and objects she used to glean in the various and colourful markets of the city. She taught several workshops at Atelier this year and opened the way to an ambitious view of Art Education. She went back in Paris for an artist residency, participated in several exhibitions but her curiosity for China pushed her to come back to Beijing in 2014. She began to teach full time art classes at Atelier, since then, Adeline became Atelier’s most famous teacher, she quickly brung her own touch to Atelier’s course content and is now and director of the studies and operations.

The Space
Atelier Fablab has a space of 100m2 located in Beijing Chaoyang district. The setting up is divided in two separate rooms: A big principal room of around 50m2 dedicated to the workshops and courses. A second room with producing machine tools, computers and common work space.
This collaborative space is designed to facilitate exchanges and make possible the creation of projects or meetings. The space is friendly, open, bright. The Ecological footprint is reduced to a minimum in accordance with environmental responsibility which is one the core value of Atelier FabLab. The design of the Fablab will be in continuity with the learning spaces created by Atelier Art School.

This is the general thread for discussing the lab; the thread is also visible on its page at https://www.fablabs.io/labs/atelierfablabofbeijng