Campus

‘We started Makerspace Delft to create a community driven workshop’

Need a place to make your innovative and sustainable ideas a reality? Master’s student Chris Groen says the Makerspace Delft was started for just that reason.

Chris Groen: “The selection criteria are that the project has to be innovative and sustainable.” (Photo: Jonathas Laffita van den Hove)

“I’m half Dutch and half Ukrainian and have lived in the Netherlands for about 11 years now. TU Delft was the best university in the country to pursue technical studies and I was also really into aerospace and space flight as a kid, so I thought that Aerospace Engineering was the perfect choice for me. After I finished my bachelor’s I decided to stick to my roots and started a master’s in Aerospace Control & Simulation.


For most of my master’s I was part of the Silverwing team, and once that started winding down, a new idea was stirring around among some of us. We realised that as students we had a real passion to create something that has an impact on society. In addition to being students, we wanted to have more influence on what kind of start-ups are coming out and what kind of technology is being developed. TU Delft has around 20,000 students and a large number of them have the motivation and the capabilities to come up with great ideas which are both innovative and sustainable. So, the ideas are there, but the main issue is that there are very few facilities to actually develop them. There are some small communities, but no fully fledged community that is dedicated to bringing these people together on a consistent basis to be able to talk about their ideas and to be able to prototype their ideas in a community driven workshop.


So, we decided to start Makerspace Delft. We’re still working out the details, but we will have a pilot phase where we will select a number of projects that have expressed interest in using the Makerspace. The selection criteria are that the project has to be innovative and sustainable. We don’t want people just coming here to fix their TV or their bicycle. We want the people who use the Makerspace to have an actual vision for what they are creating. Whether it’s a start-up that is going for profit or whether it’s a competition idea to show off some new sustainable technology, you are very welcome here.


‘We don’t want people just coming here to fix their TV’


We’re located on the Schieweg in a large industrial facility called the Kabeldistrict. The downstairs area where the workshop is located is fully set up and we have started working on the upstairs area. We are ready to invite users to start working in the space this week. We did a survey back in September, which is still open, where you can apply to the waiting list. We’ve already had over 100 responses and more than 80 emails from students who have expressed interest in joining the pilot. From this we have picked out approximately 10 people who will get started next month.


I’ve been working quite hard since September to find organisations that want to support us. Being a part of Silverwing tied in quite nicely because the project was winding down so a lot of the equipment was not being used any more. So, we set up a partnership with them to borrow their equipment. We’re also being supported by the municipality of Delft, which gave us a subsidy to set the place up. I also applied for the Stud Fund and we received some funding from them as well.


The facility that we are in is being sponsored by the Kabeldistrict. They are developing the area into a nice neighbourhood and they are supporting us because they wanted us to be some of the first people to build a community there.


I’m essentially the team manager for the Makerspace. I’m halfway through my thesis and hope to finish around March or April. I’m quite sure there will be delays because of this project but that’s ok. I hope that this Makerspace will function like the other Dream Teams at TU Delft where you have a committee that changes each year. In the future, other students can take over to manage it and keep it going.”


Who are the people who work and study on campus? We meet them in Humans of TU Delft. Want to be featured in this series? Or do you know someone with a good story to tell? Send us an e-mail at humansoftudelft@gmail.com


Heather Montague / Freelance writer

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