Special Prize

About the Special Prize
“FabCafe Global Prize” winning projects

Honoring “bottom-up activities” for the community

A total of 4 prizes has been awarded to bottom-up actions aimed at solving local community issues, regardless of category or community size
Comment from Kotaro Iwaoka, FabCafe Global Prize judge / FabCafe founding member and CEO of Hidakuma Co.

First of all, we’d like to express our huge gratitude to all those who entered. All of the judges learned so much through the process of reviewing this year’s entries. I hope this helps to fulfill the purpose of the Special Prize, which is to spotlight bottom-up activities aimed at solving community issues and make them more widely known. Overall, there appear to be so many initiatives around waste, particularly in food and clothing. This points to a strong sense of crisis: we have yet to escape the system of mass production and consumption, even when we should be accelerating the shift to a circular economy.

Because most crQlr Award entries meet the first and third criteria “Leverage Local Resources” and “Regenerate Natural Resources”, the Special Prize focuses on the second: “Started and Sustained by the Community”. Three of this year’s Special Prize winners take different community-led approaches. Fair, Circular Solar Panel builds communities through open-source development. Sargablock revives communities by transforming local issues into opportunities. Nihon Kusaki Lab collaborates with communities by setting up laboratories in local areas. And a fourth Special Prize winner, Casa Gallina, aims to sustain communities by means of education rather than material circulation, reminding us that circularity goes beyond thinking about resources.

We award these four projects a Special Prize because they each have something to teach us about how bottom-up approaches can comprehensively solve local issues.

Founding member of FabCafe, President and CEO of Hidakuma

Kotaro Iwaoka

FabCafe was created with the expectation that it would be a place to empower anyone to turn their small idea into a reality by opening up access to new fabrication methods and tools to people who normally would not be involved in the process of making. In this way, FabCafe hoped to become a catalyst for ideas to grow in unexpected and wonderful directions so that everyone could experience the power of making.

Since the start of FabCafe, I have attempted to break down the thresholds and barriers to entry that FabCafe was supposed to have eliminated, but the reluctance to take the first step certainly still exists. I have been told that the concept of FabCafe seems complex and its mission difficult to understand. But whenever I hear people say things like, “At FabCafe, you have to make something amazing so that everyone will recognize your efforts”, I can’t help but think, “No, it’s not like that!”

Each FabCafe is tied to its location, and even the first FabCafe, FabCafe Tokyo (which only later added “Tokyo” when FabCafe Taipei opened), was just a point in a wide world, rooted in one region. In order to increase the number and diversity of people who can physically access this community, FabCafes have been created in various locations worldwide.

The YouFab Global Creative Awards (“YouFab”)* also started with the objective of helping creators realize the value of their everyday endeavors and projects. Since its foundation, YouFab has served as a platform that can be accessed from all over the world, both where FabCafe is and is not located.

Even so, I continue to hear people express their hesitance to take their first step to make something.

I believe the activities and works that come to life through FabCafe are all truly extraordinary. However, rather than the final result, what FabCafe really wants to pay tribute to is the fact that someone has taken action on their own, and has garnered the courage to express it.

For the crQlr Awards 2022 Special Prize, FabCafe would like to place the spotlight on the creators who have boldly undertaken a “bottom-up action” in an attempt to solve a problem in their own community. By applying for the crQlr Awards, you can gain the support of new peers that will empower your project. In turn, your initiative may serve as inspiration for others around the globe, thus becoming a new link in a chain of mutual encouragement. It does not matter how big or small your community is: even a small village is a large enough society for the people who live there. Through the crQlr 2022 Awards, we want to better connect these local creators to their next-door communities, which we hope will eventually lead to the creation of an even greater circular society.

*About YouFab
YouFab is an award run by FabCafe since 2012, which first began as a competition for creators to simply come together. It aims to build an influential community of creators through a platform that connects the creators directly with society.
YouFab looks at how bridges are connected between various elements such as the environment, the social, the economic, and the political, with design. It calls on creators from around the world who challenge what we see as normal, by “hacking” into these norms with the medium of design, and continuously looks forward to seeing new ideas that are “hacked”, that excites and provokes the imagination.

Initiatives and projects created to solve community issues, regardless of category or community size, are invited. A total of three Prizes will be awarded.

Projects that meet one of the following criteria will be considered eligible for the crQlr Awards 2022 Special Prize:

1. Leverage Local Resources:

How does your project make use of local resources, such as materials and knowledge, to tackle its challenge?

2. Started and Sustained by the Community:

How does your idea or project sustain its activities through the involvement of the local community?

3. Regenerate Natural Resources:

How does your idea or project eliminate waste or pollution while regenerating natural resources?

• Winning projects will be presented with “crQlr Certification” kits aimed at supporting and publicizing circular economy initiatives.
• For each winning entry, the FabCafe judges will give an evaluation on the points they found insightful about the work. These comments will be posted on Loftwork and FabCafe materials. (These comments will be considered as Creative Commons).
• Brushing up business plans and services, business matching.
• Participation in business, academies, and creator networks that are engaged in activities aimed at implementing circular economy systems.
• Winning entries will be promoted in communication platforms such as FabCafe, Loftwork, IDEAS FOR GOOD, Circular Economy Hub, and other media sponsors.