The D-Shape project was born from the creative legacy of ing. Corradino D’Ascanio, inventor of the helicopter and the Vespa, and from the scientific one of his trusted collaborator ing. Egisto Dini, former Director of the Calculation Office of Piaggio and Full Professor of Automotive Construction at the University of Pisa. Since 1993, his son Enrico with his elder brother Riccardo offer their customers divergent solutions to process and product issues in various industrial sectors (tanning sector, footwear sector, automotive sector, aerospace sector, clothing sector).

In 2004 the D-Shape project was started, when during a demonstration of a 3D printer for office purposes, the idea to scale up the process came up. Something similar to the 3D printing technique could be used to build houses, bringing automation to the construction industry. This is how the story began.

D-Shape covers a large number of sectors:

• Environmental Sector: selection method and automatic separation of containers for liquids with artificial vision and with RX filters; methods for the remediation of arid soils;

• Military Sector: implementation of anti-ballistic protection systems;

• Archaeological Sector: realization of a replica of the Palmyra Arch and other monuments;

• Maritime Sector: realization of 3D printed: Coastal Protection and Coastal Restoration Modules, Fish Repopulation Modules, Artificial Cliffs;

• Artistic and Urban Furnishing Sector: realization of several 3D printed objects of design.

• Construction Sector: innovative construction systems for buildings and building components (large-scale 3D printing) and related recipes and methods for the development of recycled building materials.

Since its beginning, D-Shape has collaborated or collaborated with ENEA, CNR, Scuola Superiore S. Anna, ESA (European Space Agency), prestigious Universities such as TU Delft, TU Eindhoven, ETH Zurich, MIT, Harvard, TU Munich, Ecole Centrale Lille, with construction multinational companies such as BASF, OMYA, SCG with prestigious architectural and engineering firms such as Foster & Partners, ARUP, Zaha Hadid Architects and many others. Many of our projects have gained worldwide visibility bringing prestige to Italy.