Threads have already made visible the first encryption activity of humans about 30,000 years ago.

Also this year House of All in cooperation with Fab City Hamburg e.V. was part of Code Week Hamburg, to bring young people in particular closer to the connections between digital technologies and textiles.

The focus was not only on technical developments in an increasingly virtual world, but also on raising awareness for the importance for the importance and production of materials. House of All UG wants to make recyclable clothing affordable according to the principles of distributed design. and make them accessible to everyone through digital participation in the design process.

⫸ What socio-economic impact do manufacturing and design processes have on us and our environment in the process, both from a historical and current perspective?

⫸ What materials can be used and reused locally on site?

⫸ What are the best design strategies for greater circularity?

These are just a few of the questions being explored at OpenLab Circular Textiles, among others, and formed the basis of all the workshops during Code Week in Hamburg.

👾 All workshop participants immersed themselves in the world on the road to digitization, learning what knitting has to do with coding, for example, how to make their own spindles and whorls in the 3D printer, or even how to make their own weaving frames with the laser cutter.

OpenLab Days

You would also like to experiment with software and textiles, or just have a look?

👉 Then come and visit the OpenLab Circular Textiles at House of All!

📌 Collonaden 72, 20354 Hamburg, Every Wednesday to Friday from 2-6 p.m.

Explore various workshop content & themed worlds as well as opportunities around digital manufacturing methods & textiles:

Lasercutter - cutting with light

Dive into the world of lasercutting, a technology that works with focused light. In this workshop, we worked together to create weaving frames that will be used in another workshop. We also gained insight into the software and explored the process of creating data. The cut objects can be used in many ways, whether to repair clothing, as decorations, window pictures, or even to build lamps. There are no limits to your creativity!

Coding is weaving

Weaving is one of the oldest forms of coding. We made weaving frames on site with a laser cutter, ready for use to create custom weaving artwork in the basic weaves of canvas, body and atlas. This workshop showed us how weaving and the world of codes are interconnected.

Spinning thread with 3D printer spindles

This workshop focused on combining tradition and innovation. Threads made visible man’s first coding activity some 30,000 years ago. Not only did we learn the craft of spinning, but we also explored the possibilities of 3D printing. Using the 3D printer, we printed our own spindles and made custom whorls that we then used directly.

From the loom to the smartphone

Together we explored the fascinating world of weaving and learned why weaving is considered the “great-grandmother” of all modern technologies. On real looms, we were shown the secrets that form the basis for smartphones, tablets and laptops. The highlight was the opportunity to weave on analog and digital looms ourselves.

Knitting is coding

The first data carriers: The first computers used punched cards as data carriers for binary code. But did you know that punch cards were once invented to reduce child labor in the textile industry? In this workshop, we spent the morning creating our own code and using a knitting machine to make it visible and tangible. In the process, we learned more about material processing in garment manufacturing and sustainability.

Hacked knitting machine

Coding with AYAB: AYAB (All Yarns Are Beautiful) is an Arduino kit that digitizes hand knitting machines and opens up whole new possibilities. In the course, we learned about the software and made knitting samples to tackle our own projects. This workshop was a starter for hand knitters who want to learn about machine knitting, or for anyone who has an appetite for color, yarn, and software experimentation. We didn’t get deep into the Arduino hack, but we did gain some fascinating insights.

Funding

The OpenLabs are funded by dtec.bw and dtec.bw is funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU.