Buinho is a non-profit association based in Messejana, a small historic town in Baixo Alentejo. In December 2015 we opened Portugal's first rural FabLab here.
Eleven years on, it is a place where digital fabrication, art, education and community meet — and where people who would rarely cross paths work side by side: artists from all over the world, children from the region's schools, seniors from the villages, makers and teachers from across Europe.
2015
our FabLab opens in Messejana
400+
artists and makers in residence since 2016
9
municipalities in the Beja district where we work or have worked with schools
8
Erasmus+ projects with a Good Practice label
Mission
To reduce inequalities in access to creativity, technology and learning, from a rural territory — bringing artists, schools and communities together.
Vision
Messejana as an ecosystem of spaces that complement each other, where art, digital fabrication, education and sustainability create opportunities for those who live here and for those who come from afar.
Three areas
Our work is organised in three areas that constantly overlap:
Education — coding, robotics, digital fabrication and inclusive technology in the schools of Baixo Alentejo, and adult learning in the villages. Shared with Zingarelho, the learning lab that grew out of Buinho in 2020.
Gambiarra — creative residencies where art, technology and community meet.
Transição — repair, circular economy and biomaterials: Repair Cafés, Precious Plastic, mycelium.
Spaces and labs
Buinho grows house by house in the historic centre of Messejana. Today there are eight: four residency houses — Casa Buinho, Casa de São João, Casa da Avó and Casa da Padaria — with private bedrooms and studios; three houses for labs and creative work — the FabLab, the education makerspace, the Textile Lab, Precious Plastic and the Bio Lab; and a house for our European volunteers.
Our vision is a network of spaces that complement each other, always open to residents, educators and makers. Artists, designers, writers, educators — individuals or teams — you are invited.
Networks and recognition
Erasmus+ accreditations — School Education (we coordinate the EIRA consortium of seven school clusters in the Beja district), Youth, and the European Solidarity Corps Quality Label.
Networks — the international Fab Lab network (Fab Foundation), European Creative Hubs Network, Vulca and FabLabs Portugal.
Recognition — eight projects with the Erasmus+ Good Practice label; Best Volunteering Project Award 2024 (Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps National Agency) for Comunidade Reparação Alentejo (Alentejo Repair Community); Creative FLIP Learning Lab (Creative Europe); case study in «Les tiers-lieux en Europe» (ANCT, 2023).
Team
A team working across education, digital fabrication, art and European cooperation.
Founder and director. PhD in Fine Arts; researcher at CIDEHUS — University of Évora.
Co-founder. Research, European projects and quality. PhD in Tourism.
Pedagogical coordinator and FabLab manager. MA in Educational Psychology.
Production and administration; residency coordinator since 2018.
Trainer — digital facilitation and visual documentation.
Trainer — learning pathways with young people and adults.
Participation and logistics.