What the Heck Is Hackerspace?

I visited Brmlab hackerspace in Prague to find out and it turned out to be one of the strangest and coolest places I’ve ever been to.

Looking for the Hackerspace

I’ve spent at least two hours searching for it. Having an accurate address, I finally managed to find it by exploring all the nearby buildings. It turned out to be a couple of quarters from the original location while the original location was pointing to some ordinary condo.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

You never know what to expect from hackerspace…

Gradually, I started facing different kinds of hacker traces.

Finally, I’ve found it.

No doubt it was the entrance to the hackerspace, but unfortunately, the door was locked. I’ve knocked a couple of times, hoping that there was somebody inside...

Nobody answered.

On my way out, the door unexpectedly opened behind me. That was the first time in my life when I met half asleep Czech hacker. He was very hospitable and agreed to show me the place.

Hackerspace movement

The idea of the place is to let creative makers work on cool things together, sharing tools, space, and knowledge. It’s like open source in the world of DIY. Events and meetups are held regularly as well.

Just have a look at the talk topics wishlist.

Workspace for Developers

In fact, the guy whom I met was literally sleeping there. He was an Android developer if I’m not mistaken.

The workspace had nothing in common with shining yet another IT company’s open space HQ or fancy coworking space. It looked like a truly underground laboratory.

A dig where dirty scripts that would steal all BTCs from your wallet were being developed.

It looked like Prague developers use beer instead of coffee. There were a lot of boxes full of empty beer bottles.

Tiny Datacenter

Just a room with several server racks.

Hardware workshop

Being full of different tools, including 3d printers, 3d milling machines, and a lot of other stuff it looked like Rick’s garage from Rick and Morty.

Chemical lab

I’m not kidding. A quiet place that is hard to find with an underground floor. Mr. White could be jealous of such a lab.

Biological Lab

A biological lab makes a perfect match with a chemical lab if you need something truly organic.

The hackerspace was full of handcrafted devices, like a Raspberry Pi-powered vending machine in the kitchen, a Bitcoin ATM, and loads of PC hardware everywhere.

It was just awesome. Don’t miss a chance to visit.

Highly recommended 10/10

Update:

Brmlab seems to have moved to another place in March 2018. Hope that their new place is even better than the old one.