The journey of our Creative Center Fablab TnUNI started gradually, at times it was winding, sometimes with blind turns and sometimes with longer breaks, but in the end with a happy ending.

The original idea of the Creative Centre was conceived in 2017, when we as a university joined a consortium with the Trenčín Self-Governing Region and the city of Trenčín. The vision was to build one large creative centre on the site of the former Merina factory in Trenčín, specifically in the former dyeworks building, part of which is now declared a technical cultural monument, including the iconic “Owl”, the building of the first mazut power plant in Trenčín, which during the 1st World War II was the first oil-fired power plant in Trenčín, and the first one in the Czech Republic, the first one in Trenčín. It was the first mazut plant in the Czechoslovak Republic, which supplied electricity to the Merina plant and the city of Trenčín.

A preliminary Architectural Study and a Feasibility Study of the possible establishment, operation, financing and focus of the Creative Centre in Trenčín have been prepared. The current state of the creative industry in the region, its strengths and opportunities for development and professionalisation were also analysed in detail. The building was selected for a comprehensive reconstruction, financial resources for its purchase were prepared, a functional consortium and a project board were formed.

In 2017, meetings were also held with creatives and artists in the regions, where the intention of the Creative Centre was presented. The only thing to do was to wait for the announcement of the project call by the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic in order to submit the planned project plan and apply for funding. And there it all froze. The call was finally announced only two years later and with completely different rules than originally presented. The applicant could no longer be a consortium, but its individual members on their own.

As building a modern Creative Centre is a very demanding investment project, it cannot be realised without project financing. Therefore, we had to flexibly change our strategy and start the preparation of the project plan for the University Creative Centre without the participation of partners. Similarly, the city of Trenčín, which had a project for the reconstruction of the functionalist Hviezda cinema, did the same. Therefore, in December 2019, 2 projects were submitted for the establishment of Creative Centres in Trenčín (one project was submitted by the City of Trenčín and the other by our University).

And so it has happened that two creative centres will grow in Trenčín, but they will complement each other synergistically. One centre is being built by the city of Trenčín in the building of the former Hviezda cinema and has a primary focus on the cultural industry. The other is our university creative centre # FabLab TnUNI, which has a focus on the creative industry. We are looking forward to cooperation and if Trenčín’s candidacy for European Capital of Culture 2026 is successful (we will know in the next month), it will be a very intense cooperation.

The Faculty of Special Technology as a technical faculty in Trenčín was strategically selected as the internal university partner of the Creative Centre, which will cover the Creative Centre FabLab TnUNI with its expertise and know-how. Therefore, the centre was located in the university campus in Trenčín-Záblatí.

Getting financing was not that easy, as it often happens in project financing of large investment projects. At the end of 2020 the results of the evaluation were published and unfortunately our project plan was not approved for funding in stage 1. Even though it met all the criteria and was positively evaluated. Due to the impact of the Covid pandemic, the evaluation process reduced the allocated resources for the project call and shifted them to other priorities related to the Covid pandemic. This was a big disappointment for us, but we were not broken and we tried to initiate alternative forms of project funding. We were hopeful that funding could be found for our project.

After difficult negotiations, we did it! In April 2021, the additional increase of resources in the project call was launched and in August 2021, the contract on the non-refundable financial contribution in the amount of EUR 4.066 million was signed.

The preparation of the project plan for the university creative centre was a team effort, many thanks to all those who believed in our vision and especially to the people who were at the birth but are no longer with us.

We are at the beginning of building, currently we already offer 3D printing and scanning services. It is already certain that the Creative Center will be established and gradually in the next blogs we will present our vision, specific services for creatives, technical equipment, future members and life in the center.

On behalf of the project team of the Creative Centre #FabLab TnUNI

Tomas Hanulík