An Unwavering Commitment To Innovation

Enrico Dini is known for incredible innovations in 3D printing and the first to build a working 3D printer for printing buildings. He became world famous as “The Man Who Prints Houses”. He invented the “D-shape” printer, the world’s first construction scale 3-dimensional printer. The machine prints using natural materials like sand, earth, and perhaps also lunar dust. It is the biggest 3D-printer in the world, handling objects as big as six metres cubed, layered in 5mm sections. The technique, says Dini, brings together the best of printing technology and robotics. He is presently working with Foster & partners, Renzo Piano, Fuksas, Zaha Hadid Architects, UN studio on this new technology.

- Sharmila Chakravorty

Enrico Dini and Paolo Carboni highlighted the potential of the 3D printer in architecture and design – a technology that should have gained mainstream acceptance owing to the endless opportunities it presents but still struggles to find the right backing and investor buy-in. Speaking on large scale 3d printing in architecture – think big, print bigger, Enrico Dini, a pioneer in 3D printing, mentions that inventions don’t happen by chance. He takes us back ten years, to Buti near Tuscany in Italy where he and his brother first 3D-printed an object. The outcome wasn’t as aesthetically pleasing as they have expected, but they had achieved an important milestone. They had developed the technology for 3D printing from scratch, which of course needed tweaks and adjustment to be as near perfect as possible. The object they created, Radiolario Pavilion, too was tweaked, grinding it to bring out its aesthetics. The purpose was to celebrate the potential of 3D printing, to showcase an iconic, complex, free-form structure. The inspiration for the object was the organic shape of amoeba. What they wanted was an unreal shape that could be not be m