Designed for designers, studios, and brands
Designtech, Caracol, and LAMÁQUINA establish Milan’s first permanent hub for robotic large-format additive manufacturing applied to design. Each of these players brings their own expertise to the hub: innovation infrastructure, industrial grade advanced manufacturing technology, and design fabrication expertise.
Designtech is Milan’s primary hub for the design, furniture, architecture, and construction sectors. It connects creative professionals with technologies, manufacturing capabilities, and expertise. These help turn bold ideas into tangible products and built environments.
As Ivan Tallarico, CEO of Designtech, said, “Designtech doesn’t build products. We build the ecosystem that makes breakthrough products possible. We connect technologies, manufacturing capabilities, creative talent and industry partners into a single ecosystem where ambitious ideas become real products, spaces and businesses.”
The technology and production expertise behind the hub
Milan-born Caracol, an expert in robotic advanced manufacturing, plays the role of technological enabler. It brings both hardware and its complete robotic advanced manufacturing ecosystem.
At its core is the Heron AM platform. Now operational within Designtech’s space, it can produce large-scale parts in advanced thermoplastics, sustainable, and recycled materials. Around it, Caracol deploys its Eidos Manufacturing software, materials and process know-how, and years of production knowledge that allow the system to operate at industrial quality.
LAMÁQUINA, on the other hand, brings production know-how and culture. This turns large-scale robotic 3D printing into a genuine design tool. They work at the intersection of computational design, robotic programming, and material research to guide projects from concept to finished piece.
With an international portfolio spanning museums, restaurants, fashion stores, exhibition centers, and cultural institutions, LAMÁQUINA’s founder Aldo Sollazzo is an Italian entrepreneur who built his journey abroad to realize his vision. Today, that vision has come full circle, with Milan providing the ideal environment to scale it.
Aldo Sollazzo, CEO of LAMÁQUINA, said, “LAMÁQUINA works to shape a new market for additive manufacturing in architecture: challenging existing design paradigms and identifying where large-scale 3D printing can have a decisive role in the built environment.”
Sharing robotic fabrication know-how across Italy
Beyond the hub itself, the three partners share a long-term vision. They want to expand the culture and know-how around large-format robotic fabrication across Italy’s design and manufacturing community. The goal is to enable designers, studios, brands, and cultural institutions to develop projects that push the boundaries of production. These would demonstrate concretely what a more flexible, efficient, and sustainable approach to manufacturing can look like.
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