DROPCITY IN ▶ PROGRESS
2024 PUBLIC PROGRAM
Daily: 11am - 7pm
At via Sammartini
38-60 Milano
Entry to all events is open to the public and free of charge.
Could we scale Enzo Mari Autocostruzione manifesto to imagine and transform architectural typologies, facilitating innovative interventions?
In April 2024 Dropcity will start its space renovation works bringing on-site large 3D printers, advance machineries and great builders to reconstruct the infamous Milan Central Station warehouses. The long-abandoned tunnels will be revitalised and transformed into research centers, open-space offices, exhibition areas, labs and more.
During Milan Design Week WASP’s 3D printing site will open its doors to the public, showcasing its technologies in action. Printing itself from within, as the title says, and so starting its restoration works in preparation for the official opening of the operational center in October. Inside Tunnel 54 the architectural 3D Crane printer will be used to manufacture multifunctional wall modules, designed through variable parametric designs. For the first time another experimental printer model will be used to print directly from within the tunnel alongside its walls, introducing a new approach to architectural 3D printing for building facades. Simultaneously, a clay 3D printing farm will be employed for the construction of architectural elements, including a parametric brick wall composed of hundreds of uniquely designed pieces. These modules will be mass-produced using WASP’s customized serial production system, enabling 24/7 automated production of ceramic products with different designs and in large quantities.
At the same time, the Dropcity self-built initiative continues at Tunnel 46 with a new construction concept curated by Prof. Martin Postler and Benjamin Unterluggauer.
From waste and raw material to finished product, Future Frames aims to generate a new construction system imagined by the partnership between the industrial design department (MUID) of Muthesius University in Kiel with Studio Streev. The live architectural intervention shows a tangible approach on how to minimize the material-intensive production of traditional timber-framing. In collaboration with Dropcity, Studio Streev has developed a customized timber frame inner shell for their tunnels to test this approach. Each structure will be partially built and installed on site during Dropcity in Progress 2024 using a versatile in-house developed CNC machine by Studio Streev allowing to manufacture structures tailored to local needs. The CNC machine mills timber joints to connect parts without glue or screws. In order to maximize material yield, thinner then regular wooden profiles can be utilized. Furthermore, following the collapse of over 5,000 trees during Milan’s storm of 2023, the government issued a call for proposals for their reuse, which Dropcity were awarded. These trees are integral for the raw material of the tunnels’ internal roofs, which will be transformed with a state-of- the-art joinery machine from Kiel University, building-in infrastructure in real time.
Finally, Dropcity is introducing its long-term collaboration with SOCII collective from Tbilisi, Georgia. A joint venture intended to experiment the engagement of people for construction parts and phases, resulting as a whole embracing spirit of participation and teamwork. At Tunnel 38 SOCII will create cultural connections and design interventions, integrating infrastructures formulated with WASP and MUID Kiel, such as the assemblage of timber joints into arched ceilings, restoring Milan Central Station benches abandoned for decades and assembling 3D printed modular partition walls and blocks into different design typologies.
After years of imagination and urban program analysis in 2024 Dropcity will finally take place being built from its inside, defining new forms of construction methodologies and an innovative approach to large architectural developments.
More info here: https://www.dropcity.org/#events