Barcelona França railway station used to be one of the mojar railway station in the city of Barcelona in Catalonia,Spain.But Estació de França is losing its status with the arrival of the AVE high-speed train in Barcelona Sants Station and the construction of the new railway station: Estació de la Sager, planning for completion in 2 years which will be the main concentration of most of the train. When the old logistics as train terminal no longer works as the width of rail could no longer be suitable for the high speed train, new possible programs are proposed to fit in the railway station such as:

[1] Research center for digital fabrication [2] 3D printer 1:1 Construction Site  [3] SolarFabDecathlon

However Estació de França is not alone with the abandoned status, many railway stations are abandoned with the development of new transportation and not suitable for fast-speed trains, and it’s possible in the future that train railway station are no longer needed any more.

With the special structure of the 29m high truss of the railway station, it’s suitable for huge fab lab equipments such as Robotic Arm Kuka, 3D printing counter crafter and etc. And the rail can actually be reused as the track for the large scale fab lab machine. The proposal FabFitFun combines the fab machine with a solar panel or a wind turbine as the energy source on top, and the adjustable platform at bottom.

 

 

 

The movable fab box contains the three element: energy source: vertical wind turbine, fab lab machine and the adjustable platform. With the special and unique location with rich solar radiation and the long railway stretched out around Barcelona zoo, it will be possible for the fab box to get the maximum energy while move for the most ideal location.

While not working in the station, the movable fab box will be out in the field for charging and while needed it will come into the station and start digital fabrication. And in the future, with the existing railway, the fab box can actually connected and travelling to each locations while needed. For example, if a fab lab making festival is happening in Huesca, but there’s not enough fab lab machine, then the fab box in Estació de França can travel and add to the collection.

And with the unique location next to the institute of Bonanova, there’s future possible collaboration with the institute( Digital Fabrication in Medical Field).

Smart City Infrastructure – Mobile fab lab station is a project of IaaC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed at Master in City and Technology in 2015 by:
Students: Chenghuai Zhou
Faculty: Willy Müller