FAB23 participants gathering outdoors beside a cardboard Whale in the mountains of Thimphu, Bhutan

Fab Conference · Thimphu, Bhutan · 2023

FAB23 Bhutan:
Designing Resilience Futures

Five days of international collaboration, cardboard construction, machine learning, and the particular joy of building ambitious things with people you have only just met.

01 · Arrival

A global maker community meets in the Himalayas.

FAB23 ran from 24 to 28 July 2023 at the Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck Super Fablab inside Thimphu TechPark.

The conference brought makers, educators, and innovators together around one question: how can local fabrication help communities design more resilient futures?

Singapore Polytechnic arrived with a family of cardboard projects and workshops. The large Whale became both a travelling object and a shared landmark—assembled, discussed, and photographed against an extraordinary mountain landscape.

WHEN24–28 July 2023

WHEREThimphu TechPark

THEMEDesigning Resilience Futures

FAB23 schedule · JNW Super Fablab

Daybreak over the conference setting in Thimphu.

Day 0: assembling and positioning the cardboard Whale before the conference opened.

Neil Gershenfeld and a collaborator assembling a cardboard Whale panel at the Super Fablab — Neil Gershenfeld joins the hands-on assembly of the cardboard Whale.

The international workshop team standing behind the completed cardboard Whale inside the Super Fablab — The Whale and its makers inside the Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck Super Fablab.

Completed cardboard Whale displayed outdoors against the mountains and landmarks of Thimphu — The completed Whale set against Thimphu’s mountain landscape.

A participant seated with the large cardboard Whale and several small bear stools — The large Whale accompanied by small cardboard bear stools. Photo: Ted Hung.

Large cardboard Whale displayed beneath the yellow-and-white conference tent — The Whale installed inside the main conference tent.

A second cardboard Whale marked Mexico inside the FAB23 conference tent — A Mexico-marked Whale shows how the shared design travelled across teams.

Fab Academy 2023 graduates celebrating together with their certificates in Bhutan — Fab Academy 2023 graduates celebrate together on graduation night. Photo: Fab Foundation.

Looking ahead from FAB23 Bhutan to the next global gathering in Mexico.

02 · Big dome

Thirty people. One cardboard dome. Two and a half hours.

Bhutan’s Biggest Cardboard Bonanza Ball—BBBB—turned a large geometric build into a fast-moving lesson in coordination and collective making.

The full BBBB workshop, led by Steven Chew and Bartholomew Ting with support from Jan Dvoracek.

25 JULY · 3:00–5:30 PM

Assembly became the curriculum.

More than thirty participants joined the build. Each person handled only part of the geometry, so progress depended on communicating clearly, reading the structure together, and trusting that repeated small actions would converge into a stable whole.

More than thirty FAB23 participants gathered around the cardboard dome during assembly — The BBBB workshop group viewed from above. Photo: Fab Foundation.

Completed faceted cardboard dome displayed inside the FAB23 venue in Bhutan — The completed dome demonstrated how repeated panels create a strong inhabitable shell.

Close view through the doorway of the completed faceted cardboard dome — The entrance reveals the dome’s layered polygonal construction.

Close-up time-lapse of the dome’s panels becoming a complete structure.

03 · Small scale

Whales, bears, rabbits—and a tree for remembering.

Smaller cardboard activities gave participants a more personal entry point: objects that could be assembled, adapted, scanned, carried, and shared.

A collection of cardboard chairs, stools, and small animal forms arranged inside the Bhutan venue — A small-scale cardboard environment combined seating, animals, and modular forms.

A child using a phone beside a miniature cardboard bear displayed on a wooden plinth — A young participant scans and explores a miniature cardboard bear.

Families and participants building miniature cardboard animals together in Bhutan — The mini-animal workshop invited visitors to sit down and make together.

Participants folding and joining laser-cut pieces for miniature cardboard animals — Laser-cut pieces became individual whales, bears, and rabbits through hand assembly.

Bartholomew Ting presenting a freestanding cardboard memory tree to Bhutan tourism staff — A cardboard memory tree created for Bhutan’s Department of Tourism.

04 · Machines

Learning by making the machine—and what it makes.

Two parallel threads connected digital fabrication to physical outcomes: a cardboard Takin made while learning the Zünd cutter, and a low-cost single-axis machine assembled during the conference.

22 JULY · TAKIN

A national animal becomes a machine lesson.

Before the conference, the team learned the Zünd cutting workflow by engineering a cardboard Takin, Bhutan’s national animal. The sculpture made calibration, cutting, folding, and assembly part of one visible result.

Time-lapse of the cardboard Takin moving from cut pieces to completed sculpture.

Neil Gershenfeld speaking with participants beside fabrication equipment in the Super Fablab — Neil Gershenfeld with participants and fabrication equipment at the Super Fablab.

Neil Gershenfeld standing on a small wheeled cardboard Takin prototype — Neil Gershenfeld tests the playful wheeled Takin prototype. Photo: Main Ng.

The Takin project team posing outdoors with the completed cardboard animal in Bhutan — The project team with the completed cardboard Takin against the Bhutan landscape.

Makers joining cardboard panels around the body of the Takin sculpture — Joining the cut cardboard panels around the Takin’s body.

A maker preparing Takin components beside a red laser-cutting machine — Preparing the Takin’s parts through digital cutting.

26 JULY · SINGLE AXIS

A low-cost machine continued working after the conference.

Quentin, Henk, and Jean Michel led the workshop. Three weeks after returning from Bhutan, the machine operated successfully from a laptop through one USB-C connection, a powered hub, and browser-based JavaScript.

Participants gathered around a table assembling a low-cost single-axis machine — Participants collaborate during the low-cost single-axis machine workshop.

Singapore team members holding their completed low-cost single-axis machine — The Singapore team with its completed single-axis machine.

Building and testing the single-axis machine in Bhutan.

The same machine operating successfully three weeks later in Singapore.

05 · Finale

Small domes, shared Blokies, and one last view of Bhutan.

The final days returned to collaborative construction—first through individual mini domes, then with modular Blokies assembled into furniture and a shared storytelling structure.