Cape Town — A "design laboratory" that was launched in the city yesterday promises to provide a bridge that will bring informal traders into the mainstream economy with sophisticated computer software used to enhance product design and build prototypes of design ideas.

The Fabrication Laboratory, already popularly known as the "FabLab" is the culmination of a project spearheaded by the Cape Craft and Design Institute in collaboration with the Western Cape provincial government and the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Strategy of the national Department of Science and Technology.

It was opened in the city centre by provincial Minister for the Environment, Planning and Economic Development, Tasneem Essop, who said the innovative new facility would bring "critical connections to the economy of the Western Cape".

The design laboratory, she said, would enhance products emerging out of the "second economy", preparing them for global markets in a way that would effectively confront one of the fundamental challenges of the Western Cape economy, and that of the country as a whole - integrating the country's informal economy with mainstream economic activity.

An added benefit to this process was the building of social cohesion, the provincial minister told an assembled group of crafters, designers, computer technicians, architects and engineers.

The FabLab is situated at the Centre for Innovation, billed as a state-of-the-art resource venue aimed at promoting cutting-edge design, product development and process technologies for crafters and designers of the Western Cape.

There is also a resource centre providing market intelligence, offering the potential to turn one of South Africa's, and the continent's, understated strengths - unique artistic design - into a valuable contributor to economic growth once they become properly marketed and competitive in the global target markets.

The Fabrication Laboratory itself is sponsored by the respected Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, which also assisted with technology and software.

According to the founder of the FabLab concept, Neil Gershenfeld, a researcher and director at the Institute of Bits and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "a FabLab can mean a lab for fabrication or simply a fabulous laboratory".

Mr Gershenfeld yesterday addressed the crowd gathered at the launch of the centre via a video linkup to the renowned Boston-based College.

The laboratory features laser cutters that can make two-dimensional shapes that can later be assembled into three-dimensional structures, a sign cutter that uses a computer-controlled knife to plot flexible electrical connections and antennae and other high-end design technology.

Use of the FabLab - its technology and staff assistance in the development of design ideas - comes at no cost, opening up a plethora of possibility to crafters and innovative designers and powerful opportunities to people from economically disadvantaged communities.

Another programme of the Centre for Innovation is the Product Development Clinic, aimed at helping crafters and designers build on strengths and overcome weaknesses to enable their products to become commercially viable.

Several crafters have already benefited from this programme, which is not free but is heavily subsidised to allow for a rate of R50 per 50-minute consultation.

One crafter, Thobeka Mdiza, came to the Product Design Clinic after receiving an order for 300 beaded bags, which she was unable to cope with. The clinic advised her to screenprint panels for her bags and only partially bead them, allowing her to increase production from one panel to five panels a day.

Within three months, her turnover increased by 10 times, and now she is training other beaders to keep up with demand for her products.