Interview to Alessandro Volpato from Bauhaus University Weimar

What LAUDS means and how do you envision the future of production in Europe?

LAUDS represents a significant opportunity to test a new type of factory, one that does not merely manufacture products, but also serves as a living experiment for innovative forms of collaboration. It offers a space in which a more sustainable future can be explored by the actors willing to engage with it.
My understanding of a traditional factory is that of a closed physical space where individuals, expertise, and machinery converge to produce useful products or artifacts under an entrepreneurial paradigm. While I admire the complexity and efficiency of this system, I also question whether the same structure could operate as an open platform, one that invites external experts to share knowledge and form collaborative groups. By integrating core values from open-source practices, such a system could remain agile enough to address niche problems that are relevant at a local or individual scale, even if they are not viable at a global one. This capacity for interaction can help restore a sense of meaning between industrial activity and the realities of its surrounding context.
Through my work with maker communities, I have observed how conceptual ideas emerging from grassroots environments have contributed both technical innovation and a shared spirit—often evolving into start-ups or social initiatives. These broader networks connect young, motivated individuals with universities, mentors, and industry, forming a dynamic engine that supports a functional and adaptable society.
LAUDS factories position themselves at the intersection of these sectors. They suggest the possibility of a highly efficient production environment in which learning and onboarding are actively facilitated, hidden potential is quickly identified and tested, and feedback is rapidly reintegrated into the system. This approach consciously trades short-term financial efficiency for a longer term strategy: one that anticipates obsolescence, develops alternative trajectories, and supports viability when market demand shifts away from currently optimized products.
Adopting a modular approach to learning, skill acquisition, design, machining, and creation points toward a future for the European production industry in which the malleability of individuals supports smoother transitions between roles. In this model, expertise becomes a function of continuous learning between academia and industry. At the same time, the use of local resources encourages specialization beyond urban centers, attracting talent to rural areas, enabling niche production environments, and fostering resilience through diversification. If such a model proves viable at a broader level, it can then be scaled through more conventional entrepreneurial mechanisms.
I believe it is important to include within production systems a cultural fermenter that creates symmetry between the needs of society and those of industry. This ensures that the European cultural values remain a driving factor in creating the European future.

What’s the role of BUW?

Bauhaus University Weimar contribute to the LAUDS project focuses on participatory events, sustainability, knowledge exchange, replication, and dissemination. BUW supports the co-creation of urban manufacturing scenarios, contributes to defining sustainability requirements and shared economic value, and participates in developing transformative impact indicators. It also helps shape the “maker-to-market” alignment of the LAUDS framework.
Moreover, BUW organises and contributes to high-visibility dissemination events, talks, round tables, transdisciplinary workshops, and exhibitions at major international venues such as Ars Electronica, and university-based events. This includes delivering artistic and educational methodologies, curating artistic outcomes, and hosting a scientific event within an existing conference.
Overall, BUW plays a key role in replicating LAUDS factories, guiding partners in aesthetic and artistic dimensions, and maximising the project’s visibility and impact across art, design, technology, and urban manufacturing communities

What expertise can you offer?

My background is in biology, and my goal is to research and develop renewable alternative materials and practices that can replace environmentally unsustainable ones.
My current practice focuses on designing with fungal composites; these are materials grown from mushrooms and intended for use in product design and the construction industry. Other application areas are also being currently researched.
I currently work between universities and industry. Within academic contexts, I teach structural approaches to create objects using fungal composite materials. Outside academia, I experiment with new ideas, implement them in practice, and support small entrepreneurial initiatives through consulting and collaboration.
I have also spent several years in the Berlin maker scene, where I learned to value access to digital fabrication technologies and to explore their potential as tools for education and collective learning.
Within this framework, I operate primarily according to open-source principles. I share know-how to help others overcome similar challenges and to create synergies that enable goals which would be difficult to achieve individually.