THE RACE TO ZERO

Goods. Gear. Gadgets is a community owned/operated FAB Lab/ Makers Hub located in the heart of South Seattle's industrial district. It will be surrounded by a not-yet-developed neighborhood of mixed-use commercial/residential living spaces, combining artist lofts with micro-housing in a urban-village setting. 

The signage is simple "Goods. Gear. Gadgets." in green neon, the design of its facade and the flow of its interior is very utilitarian. This is the HUB for anyone who doesn’t necessarily want to "own" things, but wants access to things when needed. Think REI meets Sears meets Amazon for the sharing/circular economy. 

And most importantly, imagine a KIOSK equipped with immersive AR/VR where when you will step inside your body is scanned to size while you interact with a design board displaying an extensive database uploaded from fashion designers from all over the world. When you find the outfit of your choosing, it can be Made on Demand (on-site) same day, AND not only that, you will now have the ability to design an outfit for yourself, in a real-time, blended-reality setting. Within this KIOSK it is a meet-your-maker experience where we as creative consumers have a more personal relationship with the means of production. Taking this one step further, we will now be able to enter our designs into this database, into a Closet Share Program, and/or consign them in the physical space of this Makers-Hub. 

In another KIOSK, we now have the ability to 3D print parts to fix just about anything that is broken, and/or make the prototype for just about anything imaginable, and at the end of every “things” life all parts can be recycled and its fiber re-purposed into new feed-stock to begin this process all over again. In this Makers-Space all waste becomes resource. In this Makers-Hub all items can be shared, consigned, and/or re-purposed.

Now, let's let our minds wander a bit further and imagine the  benefits to our built environment as we begin to localize the means of  production at the point of consumption through Make on Demand, we will now be able to address the  other real challenges confronting our cities today, namely climate  change and resulting sea-level-rise. We will become less dependent on our ports for our necessities which will allow us to invest in the  natural infrastructure needed to restore our ports, regenerate  estuaries, build seawalls and canals (if and where they are needed), and in the  end Make on Demand could become our first line of defense against the  environmental extremes projected in the not-so-distant future.

It’s something to think about...

I first visited Goods. Gear. Gadgets. in a dream. Now I'm asking you to help bring it to life.