makerspace

noun

mak·​er·​space ˈmā-kər-ˌspās 

variants or less commonly maker space

plural makerspaces also maker spaces

: a communal public workshop in which makers (see maker sense e) can work on small personal projects

Something like this future is already present in the small but growing number of industrial shops called "makerspaces" that have popped up in the United States and around the world. The Columbus Idea Foundry is the country's largest such space, a cavernous converted shoe factory stocked with industrial-age machinery. Several hundred members pay a monthly fee to use its arsenal of machines to make gifts and jewelry; weld, finish, and paint; play with plasma cutters and work an angle grinder; or operate a lathe with a machinist.

—Derek Thompson

The maker space, which opened last year, houses equipment and tools like laser cutters, 3D printers, a woodworking shop and more for members to utilize to create or repair items.

—Colin Slark

Examples of makerspace in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Cruces Creatives, a makerspace in southern New Mexico, is another example of a CommunityShare hub. —Kate Cassada, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024

Exploration Commons at 50 East is a 14,000-square-foot interactive community space with a teaching kitchen, meeting rooms and a makerspace filled with 3D printers, a laser cutter, sewing machines, resin printers, podcasting equipment, virtual reality equipment and more. —Thomas Goodwin Smith, Baltimore Sun, 5 Feb. 2024

The work included the addition of Exploration Commons, a project that transformed the basement of the library into a makerspace with a professional teaching kitchen and other collaborative workspaces and meeting rooms. —Sherry Greenfield, Baltimore Sun, 27 Aug. 2023

The group began as a Discord chat group founded by Jay Li of the Hack Manhattan makerspace. —IEEE Spectrum, 30 Mar. 2020

The makerspace is staffed with GE Appliance employees to help with projects Monday through Friday 5-8 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. —Olivia Evans, The Courier-Journal, 7 June 2023

Inside, library officials say, the modernized building would feature shorter, more accessible bookshelves, new restrooms, dedicated space for job skills development, study rooms, and makerspaces. —Jackie Valley, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 May 2023

Odds are the funds will go toward enhancing the school’s makerspace. —John Benson, cleveland, 1 July 2020

Plastic sheeting separates the various stations in the makerspace and there is Plexiglas separating librarians from people at the checkout area. —Steve Sadin, chicagotribune.com, 6 July 2021

Word History

Etymology

maker + -space (in workspace "space for working, working memory on a computer")

First Known Use

2009, in the meaning defined above