Special Prize（3 projects）

FabCafe Global Prize

A Prize to honor “Bottom-up Actions for the Community”

The crQlr Awards 2022 Special Prize will spotlight bottom-up activities aimed at solving community issues with the intention of honoring the courage of local sustainability players. Its ultimate goal is to encourage diverse activities in regions across the globe that have the potential of eventually transforming society and the world as a whole.

Special Prize Theme

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. 
YouFab Global Creative Awards : https://www.youfab.info/

Call for Entries

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

Judging Criteria

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?

Special Prize Judges

• Kotaro Iwaoka (FabCafe founding member, FabCafe Hida)
• Kousuke Kinoshita (FabCafe Kyoto)
• Lingchih Yang (FabCafe Toulouse)
• Jeremie Bellot (FabCafe Strousbourg)
• Atsuko Ogawa (Loftwork Kyoto)
• *Judge moderators: Kelsie Stewart (crQlr Awards Chairman), Kazuto Kojima (Loftwork Producer)

Merits

• 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.