Victoria Makerspace
The Victoria Makerspace was founded by Derek Jacoby and Thomas Gray in 2010 in a building at the back of a farmer's field outside Victoria, British Columbia as a technology workspace. Initially the focus was on 3d printing, laser cutters, and woodworking but as the membership grew the areas of technology covered grew as well. In 2011, the Victoria Makerspace became Canada's first do-it-yourself biology community lab, following the establishment of labs such as BioCurious and Genspace in the US.
Biology in a community lab is a new concept that the Victoria Makerspace has been ACTIVE in promoting, attending such events as the FBI DIY biology summit in Walnut Creek, California in 2012, and the first-ever Canadian DIY Biology Summit in 2016. The lab has also taken part in the iGEM synthetic biology competition in 2014 with a project on preventing dental decay.
Aside from biology, the Victoria Makerspace has 4000 square feet of general hackerspace facilities including multiple laser cutters and 3d printers, woodworking facilities, metalworking and welding facilities, electronic design and fabrication capabilities, virtual reality and computing facilities, and classrooms.