by There is a place where you can meet independent keen innovators, lovers of design, mechanical engineering, electronics and physical computing. Where degree, master’s and PhD students develop prototype research alongside manufacturing companies seeking new solutions.
This place is Polifactory, Politecnico di Milano’s makerspace. A place open to training, research and consultancy, dedicated to businesses, organisations and institutions. A place of tangible experimentation into the relationship between design and digital fabrication processes, to promote a new culture of doing.
Here, they investigate future scenarios of advanced manufacturing. Here, they promote talented multi-disciplinary youngsters and their abilities to design and prototype innovative product and service solutions that integrate design and technology. Here, you can experiment with laser-cutting machines, large-scale milling machines, and 3D printers. Here, you will also have at your disposal a fully equipped electronics workbench with microcontrollers and microcomputers with sensor kits, plus a bench with tools and electro tools.
A space measuring 300 m2 that houses a co-working area, dominated by a big shared table that seats the designers and researchers and two labs—the Machine Shop and the Workshop—fitted out with machines and tools for analog and digital fabrications. A kitchen and a lounge lend openness and informality to this space, stimulating people to socialise and perhaps to come up with new projects over a coffee and a chat.
Polifactory is part of what we call our four Large Infrastructures for research. Conceived and developed by the Department of Design with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, it aims to weave together and boost the different project cultures at the Politecnico.
Guiding our exploration of all this is Scientific Director Stefano Maffei.