3D technology is already changing our lives

 In the work “Dalla fabbrica alla comunità” (From the factory of the community), Adriano Olivetti explains how an economic form becomes the mediator of the aspirations of the people, and for this to happen, the factory and the environment must be linked by solidarity.

At a time of crisis, or rather, of great change, like the one we are going through, what can reinforce the solidarity is the action of some social players, who become interpreters of this change, namely, representative associations, research centres, universities and businesses.

The operation SmartupLab (digital production laboratory), created by the LIUC University in Castellanza and UNIVA (the Union of Industrialists of Varese Province), in the last stage of the roadshow in the territory, sought to talk to the community about the enterprise culture in the broadest sense of the term, for two reasons: to reinforce that bond that Olivetti speaks about and, as Marco De Battista from UNIVA explained, “because nowadays, business have to know the entire ecosystem that surrounds them.” On the steps of the Santuccio Theatre, very close to Varese town hall, that ecosystem took shape, when called by the 3D revolution. Together with the entrepreneurs, there were students, young computer geeks, politicians, bank clerks, consultant, makers, and the curious, including Mayor Attilio Fontana, who was sitting in the front row, listening carefully.

The speakers, starting with Maurizio Melis, a journalist with Radio24, followed by young SmartupLab researchers, to the top of UNIVA, spoke about new 3D technology, about the change in the cultural paradigm that the Internet of objects involves, about new job opportunities and the new skills that are necessary. And so, for a few hours, the Santuccio Theatre, in the words of the UNIVA Chairman, Giovanni Brugnoli, “has become an interactive community of innovators and makers in flesh and blood, given that the understage was filled with drones and 3D printers working away, thanks to the contribution of Luca Perencin and Davide Ardizzoia.

The metamorphosis they spoke about started some time ago, and it is nearer than we might think: it is present in the Christmas tree in Lonate Pozzolo, which lights up thanks to a Tweet, and in Formula One Ferraris. “You only have to go to a shop to see 3D printers next to the washing machines and fridges,” Melis said.

The SmartupLab mission is not to drop knowledge down from above, but rather to stimulate and “arouse creativity in the area”, so that it may become an active player in the change. Michele Graglia, the Chairman of the LIUC University in Castellanza, who has been preaching metamorphosis for years, does not explicitly mention the Italian academic Enrico Moretti (the author of the book La nuova geografia del lavoro, The New Geography of Work, published by Feltrinelli), who found so much fortune at the court of Barak Obama. It is clear, however, that this was what he meant; territories become competitive if they have the ability to create and activate intelligence. And the more intelligence there is in a territory, the more intelligence is created. How else can we explain the existence of such places as Silicon Valley?

The third industrial revolution does not require huge amounts of capital. The barriers to entering are: creativity, new knowledge, the ability to work in a group, and the ability to imagine new businesses, as demonstrated by Samuele Astuti and Giuseppe Catalfamo, two creators-activators of SmartupLab. Their low-cost technological provocations, launched from the stage of the Santuccio Theatre, using a smartphone, Arduino cards and 3D printers costing a few hundred euros, are nothing but the expression of that change.