This is a place where people can share resources and creative ideas and build things together

With electric drills, laser cutting machines, sandpaper and circuit boards scattered around, Beijing Makerspace, located in the Zhongguancun International Digital Design Center, could be mistaken for a typical engineering workshop.

Yet, it differs from a regular workshop in that it is a laboratory where people can share resources and creative ideas and build things together.

The lab's mission is to develop open-source hardware and encourage innovation. Here people share knowledge so that anyone can build on what somebody else has done to facilitate innovation.

"Once you get an idea, you can come to Makerspace and make it true," said Wang Shenglin, the lab's co-founder. "It's a lab for anyone who has a dream."

With electric drills, laser cutting machines, sandpaper and circuit boards scattered around, Beijing Makerspace, located in the Zhongguancun International Digital Design Center, could be mistaken for a typical engineering workshop.

Yet, it differs from a regular workshop in that it is a laboratory where people can share resources and creative ideas and build things together.

The lab's mission is to develop open-source hardware and encourage innovation. Here people share knowledge so that anyone can build on what somebody else has done to facilitate innovation.

"Once you get an idea, you can come to Makerspace and make it true," said Wang Shenglin, the lab's co-founder. "It's a lab for anyone who has a dream."

From spiders to sensors

Founded in 2011, the lab has given birth to some interesting objects, including a spider robot made by Cheng Cheng, a hardware engineer in Beijing and a frequent visitor to the lab.

The spider robot can be remote-controlled by a cellphone application. Press the direction keys displayed on a cellphone screen and you can order the spider to advance, back, and turn around. Press the "shoot" key and the spider unleashes a hail of plastic bullets.

Cheng credited his success to the open-source plans and schematics shared by other makers online. To make the robot, he first bought an assembled toy spider, then installed a motor and a control board that can manipulate the robot through Bluetooth technology.

At Makerspace, one does not have to be a guru in software programming or circuit design to produce a device. Makers can work in teams so that they are able to stand on each other's shoulders, said Wang. Visitors to Makerspace include college students, designers, engineers and other professionals. "Regardless of your professional background you can come here with your ideas," he said.

One weekend, a team of about 10 people including software programmers, engineers and fashion designers came together in Beijing Makerspace for a Hackathon program. It required them to create something within 48 hours. After brainstorming, they decided to make a musical T-shirt.

Their initial plan was to record sound waves into the computer and print the pattern on a T-shirt. After experiments, they found a sound lasting for one second would produce a 1-meter-long pattern. A T-shirt was not big enough to record meaningful music.

Then they altered their design, writing a computer program to translate colors on a T-shirt into musical notes. They scanned colored bars on the T-shirt, and heard music. It was a success.

Makerspace is more than a fun place for do-it-yourself (DIY) lovers. Some of the devices made there have commercial value.

A device made by Wang Bolong, a Makerspace member, to gauge audience reactions to rock-and-roll performances has been installed in several bars in Beijing.

When he first came to Makerspace, Wang was a postgraduate student majoring in precise instrument in the Beihang University and the lead singer of a rock band.

At the band, he found excited audience members tend to get involved in the performance and move to the song's rhythm. He hit upon the idea of producing a "sensing" floor that can visualize audience's excitement and project it onto a screen. At Beijing Makerspace, Wang Bolong delivered his brainchild into the real world. His project has attracted attention and investment from investors.

Zhang Ming, in his late 20s, read about 3D printers in a magazine, and decided to build one himself. He bought the necessary raw materials online and got the circuit boards from one of his friends. Now a printer he made is housed in Beijing Makerspace. It is used to print physical prototypes that would have been impossible to make as quickly or as cheaply before.

Search for permanence

Beijing Makerspace was jointly founded by Wang Shenglin and Xiao Wenpeng. Xiao, then a software programmer in a well-known computer company in Beijing, was passionate about open-source hardware. In his spare time, he often discussed design ideas with fellow enthusiasts through his blog. Later, they moved the online discussions to offline DIY gatherings.

In the beginning, they brought tool kits to every meeting. Not long after, they found a fixed venue was necessary.

"A big project cannot be finished at one meeting," Xiao said. "It is inconvenient to move half-finished products around town. So there must be a fixed place."

In the beginning of 2011, they rented a 20-square-meter apartment in central Beijing and met once a week with people who shared their interests in technology, design and art.

Among these DIY fans was Wang Shenglin. A finance degree holder from the prestigious Renmin University of China, Wang loves exploring science in his spare time.

He thought of making a touch-screen desk after seeing a movie with scenes featuring intelligent furniture. He decided to turn the futuristic movie scene into reality. Months later, he made a desk with a surface like a giant iPad.

When Beijing Makerspace was founded, a big difficulty was obtaining funding. "From March 2011 to the beginning of 2013, there were no salaries for anyone," Wang Shenglin said.

In April 2012, Beijing Makerspace held a Makers Carnival in the capital, which was attended by dozens of makers from more than 10 countries. The event brought Beijing Makerspace to the attention of the Administrative Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park in China's "Silicon Valley" - north Beijing's Zhongguancun area. The committee awarded the title "Innovation Incubator" to Beijing Makerspace and supported it with an office of about 200 square meters. Later, it was expanded to nearly 1,000 square meters.

With this more spacious office, the organization regularly hosts lectures and seminars as well as activities such as the Hackathon, ZHIZAO workshops and Creatica.

ZHIZAO workshops include training on the operation of a rich variety of equipment and introductory courses on software application such as AutoCAD and Pro/Engineer.

Creatica is a creative education program to inspire children to "think, argue and be creative." It is offered in the forms of summer and winter camps and weekend activities. These activities are currently sponsored by companies such as Intel, Lenovo and Google.

Wang Shenglin said his team also provides a one-package solution to makers who want to start their own businesses. To develop a product, a startup team has to do many trivial but time-consuming things, such as finding hardware and software engineers. After producing product prototypes, it has to find people to design the packaging, market products, and provide after-sale services. He added the company helps startups solve these problems.

In addition, the team also produces devices in small batches for makers all over the world.

In his eyes, the past decade was one of the Internet, while the coming decade is one of "software-hardware-cloud technology." So it is a decade of end products and makers.

More makerspaces have sprouted up in cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Guiyang.

On January 4, the first workday in 2015, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the Chaihuo Maker Space in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. Li's visit signals the government's encouragement to both makerspaces and makers.