Local & Global: How Fab Lab Armenia Contributes to Diverse, Interconnected Innovation Cultures

From Fab Lab Armenia, Dilijan to Fab Lab Armenia, Gyumri

In April 2025, something powerful will unfold in the historic city of Gyumri. Fab Lab Armenia — a pioneer of creative digital design and fabrication technologies with hands-on learning — will officially launch its second branch at the State Academy of Fine Arts, opening new doors for innovation, community development, and entrepreneurship in the Shirak region.

This is more than an opening ceremony. It’s a celebration of how far we’ve come — and a declaration of where we’re going next, aspiring and preparing for a Super Fab lab.

A Growing Network, Rooted in Community

Since launching in Dilijan, Fab Lab Armenia has become a thriving hub of curiosity, experimentation, and co-creation. With a focus on creativity, community, and continuous learning, the lab has empowered students, educators, artisans, and entrepreneurs to transform ideas into real-world projects. The lab’s commitment to hands-on, interdisciplinary learning has resonated deeply with participants from across Armenia and beyond.

And now, we’re proud to take that vision to Gyumri, thanks to the outstanding leadership of AGBU Katapult and with the support of the European Union, the Strategic Development Agency (SDA), and the Skill Development and Coaching of Fab Lab Armenia.

Upon the invitation of AGBU Katapult, for the past two years Fab Lab Armenia, Dilijan has been organizing a series of workshops to support the talent development in Digital Fabrication among the leading team of the State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia in Gyumri under the visionary leadership of Vahagn Ghukasyan. 

Florent Aziosmanoff, founder of Aziosmanoff Living Art Labs in France, has been running workshops in Living Art, Responsive environment design and the science of embedding intelligence in everyday objects.

Learning by Doing, together with experts from the Super Fab Lab Kerala, India

What makes a Fab Lab different isn’t just the machines — it’s the mindset. Every lab is built around the philosophy that anyone can learn how to design, make, and innovate, given access to tools, mentorship, and community.

To ensure that the Gyumri branch is not only a space augmented with technological equipment, but enriched with a powerful network, AGBU Katapult brought in two extraordinary instructors from Kerala, India — Yadu Sharon and Sibu Saman — from the world-renowned Super Fab Lab Kerala. They are here to install the Fab Lab equipped with manufactured machines that are a hybrid of commercially available machines and machines built in a Super Fab Lab. 

Yadu and Sibu are here to also teach, mentor, and co-create while assembling the lab and along with the Armenian teams of Gyumri and Dilijan —showcasing how labs should be built and installed: with people, not just for them.

When you use your Fab lab to build more and new machines, “You can’t leave it all to engineers,” says Yadu. “You need artists, designers, people who think about users. That last 20% of the work— the aesthetics, the usability — this is how you make the whole system work.”

Yadu and Sibu are also experienced instructors at Fab Academy, a global program developed with MIT that teaches learners how to “make almost anything.” Their work has helped grow Kerala’s Fab Lab ecosystem from a single lab in 2015 to a Super Fab Lab that today powers over 20 mini–Fab Labs, startup incubators, and “school tinkering labs” across the state.

Kerala as an Inspirational and Guiding Model: Armenia’s Vision for a National Innovation Network

Inspired by Kerala’s model, Fab Lab Armenia’s long-term vision has been to establish its own Super Fab Lab — a national-scale facility that can act as a training center and production hub for Armenia’s next-generation of skilled digital Fabrication experts.

A Super Fab Lab in Armenia would enable the strategic distribution of mini-Fab Labs across the country — in schools, community centers, and startup incubators. These labs wouldn’t just be delivery points for hardware. They would be living classrooms, places where students learn to use machines, design projects, and solve local problems while thinking within the network of Armenia’s labs as well as a larger world community. Thinking and co-creating globally while working and applying what they build to match local needs.

“We believe every young person in Armenia should have access to the tools and mindset to shape their own future,” says the Fab Lab Armenia team. A Super Fab Lab makes it possible to take that vision to scale — training professional machine operators, supporting local startups, and nurturing a new generation of creators and critical thinkers, very much inspired by the examples by some of the best Super Fab labs in the world such as Kerala, Amsterdam, Oulu and Barcelona.

Each mini-Fab Lab would be paired with localized curricula, training workshops, and community events — all designed to ensure knowledge transfer and sustainability that is sensitive to the local culture. In some cases, the team installs two machines in advance and then co-builds the third one with the local community. This approach builds confidence, ownership, and real skills building for all ages.

Fab Labs accessible for Everyone

Fab Lab Armenia’s mission is about empowerment — giving people access to the tools, ideas, and networks. People need to have agency and design the future they want to live in. By focusing on local talent, co-creation, and interdisciplinary collaboration, Fab Lab Armenia is building not just labs — but a movement and an attitude of “Can Do”. One that values inclusion, resilience, and radical imagination.

“At the heart of a Fab Lab is the belief that people can learn anything if given the space, the tools, and the freedom to try. That’s what we are here with you building and setting up for great things to come in Armenia.”
— Yadu Sharon

Join the Celebration — and the Movement

We invite you to be part of this journey:

• Contact the Fab Lab Armenia, Gyumri and visit any time after the opening of April 18, 2025, and witness first-hand what’s possible when creativity meets community.
• Follow Fab Lab Armenia’s story as we seamlessly work from a lab in Dilijan to Gyumri to a worldwide network of innovative people.
• Partner with us to bring Fab Labs to schools, centers, and regions that are ready to create the future.

Together, we’re not just building labs, we are building a culture of invention, connection, and hope — one machine, one student, one community at a time. 

Gratitude

Fab Lab Armenia, Education Foundation wishes to express gratitude to the many stakeholders that support us in shaping a world that we are building together. We wish to start with our sponsors, Central Bank of Armenia, Evoca Bank, Fab Lab Armenia Board Members, our partners, The Boston Fab Foundation, The MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia, the European Union, AGBU Katapult, The State Academy of Fine Arts Gyumri, Digital Gravity, Florent Aziosmanoff Living Labs, Brand Real LLC, the Central School of Dilijan and all Engineers, Artists, Artisans, Community Members who have taken part in the exploration and seeding of the Digital Fabrication culture and industry. 

Overall, supporting Fab Labs to serve as a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship, bridging the gap between digital and physical realms and empowering individuals to produce what they consume.