Located in the Certosa district of Milan, CoFactory is the new space created for the community of designers, startups and scaleups for rapid prototyping and the production of small series and limited editions – “a Disneyland of 3D innovation,” says Ivan Tallarico, founder and CEO of Designtech, “an ecosystem to implement change, where it is possible to find both hardware (machinery) and expertise (provided by the startups).”
The project, with design by Pininfarina Architecture, has been formulated as a true urban, technological and collaborative factory that responds to the growing need for 3D prototyping and digital production. A space inside the city of Milan – and the first of its kind in Italy – also promoted by RealStep, a real estate developer specialized in sustainable urban regeneration.
Entering the new urban factory, one sees two distinct zones: one for production, offering hybrid systems of additive production and milling, a flexible work center for the utilization of plastics and advanced materials, light metals and wood derivatives, 3D printers for super-polymers and composites (supplied by Roboze), and the robot by ABB for activities of assembly and printing of unconventional materials. The CoFactory facility also contains a zone for offices, theme workshops, meeting and training works, coworking spaces, organized on the first floor and the loft level, utilizing mobile partitions to permit expansion when needed.
Not just production. In fact CoFactory Designtech sets out to also offer concrete support for collaboration and expertise exchange, through events, pitches, keynote lectures and talks, transforming the facility into a center of innovation and sharing. The space is open to members of the Designtech community and qualified professionals, who can access services and manage their own activities in total autonomy through a special app, with the possibility of reserving their own space, organizing events and interacting with the community in real time.
– Photo © courtesy Designtech
