Have a Frappé With Your Flatpack: Fab Café Combines Coffee Shop with Laser Cutting Service


Masaki Ishitani/CC BY-NC 2.0

A few years ago I predicted that printing shops like Kinkos would go 3D and that every neighbourhood would have its shop where one could go print out their flatpack needs instead of driving to the suburban IKEA. I missed that other trend discussed recently, the coffeeshopification of everything. In Tokyo you can now go to the Fab Café give them your order and your digital file, and they will cut out your design while you sip on your latte.


Masaki Ishitani/CC BY-NC 2.0

Johnny of Spoon Tamago writes:

Fab café, which just opened on March 7th, comes with a laser cutter which, for a fee, anyone can use. However, it’s recommended you have your coffee before operating the machine.


Masaki Ishitani/CC BY-NC 2.0

All you need to bring is an adobe illustrator vector file, which you plug in to the cutter it does the work – in paper, felt, acrylic, wood and other materials too. Pricing to use the machine is a bit steep, but not outrageous: 2000 yen to share the machine with up to 3 people for 30 minutes. It will cost you 5000 yen if you want the machine to yourself.

That doesn’t sound like a lot to me for such a service, particularly considering what a latte costs in Shibuya.


Masaki Ishitani/CC BY-NC 2.0

it is operated by digital media company Loftwork, and designed by Naruse-Inokuma Architects. I suspect we will be seeing this kind of operation in North America soon. Via NOTCOT

Views: 0

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes