Princes Garden Hackspace to close this week
The space will close this week, as the Dyson School of Design Engineering leave the building.
The Hackspace at 10 Princes Gardens will shut this Monday, following “departmental changes”.
The Hackspace, which is mainly used by students to produce prototypes, will close on Monday 12th March. Imperial College Advanced Hackspace (ICAH), who operate the space, say the change is the result of their host – the Dyson School of Design Engineering – moving out of the building.
In the email, ICAH said: “During the opening of the Invention Rooms in White City we were adamant that we will not be closing the space in 10 Princes Gardens, and at the time this was our intention. However, we were made aware of certain changes earlier this week that make it impossible to continue to keep the space.”
They recommend student use the new Hackspace in the Invention Rooms on the White City campus, which opened last year. From 12th March, the Hackspace at the Invention Rooms will extend their opening hours, to 10am - 11pm. ICAH say this “is something the community have been asking for consistently over the last few years.”
While the Hackspace ‘node’ in Princes Gardens is closing, ICAH say they will be opening a new ‘node’ at the Dyson School of Design Engineering’s workshops in ACE150.
The move was described as “disappointing” by some students. One user of the hack-space, a final year student from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, told Felix: “This is very disappointing news. While I think opening the White City space for longer is a good thing, the fact remains that closing the space will be very inconvenient: many people will go to the space to start printing, and then return several hours later when it’s done. This won’t be possible if we’ve got to travel to White City.”
“The Hackspace is incredibly important for a number of students, not only those from the Design Engineering course, but across different departments. This will have a direct effect on the work of students who regularly use the space.”
In a statement, ICAH said “We are committed to making the Advanced Hackspace the best network of spaces in the world designed to turn ideas into a reality. With our new spaces coming online both at South Kensington and White City we have dramatically increased the scope of what we can offer our users.” The Hackspace at 10 Princes Gardens is part of the Imperial College Advanced Hackspace (ICAH), which provides a network of facilities across South Kensington and White City. The space offers students the opportunity to use 3D printing techniques and laser cutting, to “quickly prototype small builds and projects.”
The Invention Rooms on the White City campus, which opened last October, is the latest space to play host to the ICAH.
