Looking Sideways Andrew Sleigh

In this episode, I’m visiting three people all working in maker education. My first stop is at the Shenzhen American International School in the Shekou district of Shenzhen, to meet Carrie Leung, who teaches a maker-based curriculum there. Just down the road from SAIS is Steamhead Makerspace. Set up by James Simpson, it’s a space where […]

In this episode, we focus on design – and in particular, how designers help bring products to life through Shenzhen’s vast network of suppliers and manufacturers. Shenzhen is a destination for anyone who manufactures electronics products, whether they’re Apple, or a hardware startup that’s just cruised through its crowdfunding goal. Some of the bigger manufacturers have […]

In China, the term makerspace can mean many different things; some unrecognisable to people used to a European or American use of that word. But Chaihuo X.Factory would be familiar to any maker coming from outside China, with a co-working desk space, machine shop and woodshop, and an enviable selection of tools. Chaihuo is perhaps most […]

In this episode, I speak with Vicky Xie, who’s the global cooperation director of SZOIL (Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab). As well as running a fablab, they help foreign companies plug into the local supply chain, helping them understand how to work with factories, component manufacturers and designers in Shenzhen. We talk about open source in […]

In the 2nd episode of this special series reporting from Shenzhen, the world centre for electronics manufacturing, I speak with Christina Zhang, the co-founder of Kittenbot. Kittenbot make educational robot kits with motors, sensors and onboard computers, all built using open-source hardware and software. They’re built on the popular Arduino platform, and can be controlled […]

Welcome to the first in a special series of Looking Sideways focusing on maker culture in Shenzhen, the world centre for electronics manufacturing. Over the last 30 years, this city has grown to a population of 15-20 million people, who’ve flocked here to work in factories, and the associated supply chain, or start businesses in design, […]