The Man Who Prints Houses
a film by Marc Webb and Jack Wake-Walker
Enrico Dini is a robotics expert. He is also a self-styled ‘stone alchemist’: able to mimic the process of how rock forms under the seabed. Combining these two skills, he has developed a groundbreaking new construction technique based on the principle of 3D-printing. Enrico’s dream is to one day see houses of any shape and size printed robotically in solid stone — but as we all know, dreams can come at a price…
3D-printing is a method that physically realises digital designs layer by layer using a fluid substance that can be hardened by lasers or other binding agents. To date, it’s been used for small-scale manufacturing and as architectural maquettes. Enrico, however, has far grander plans.
With exclusive access into all aspects of his life, this film follows Enrico as he strives to make his dream of large-scale 3D-printing a reality. From his ambitious business ideas, to financial problems and struggles in his family life, the film tells the story of a visionary inventor shackled by his life’s work.
Having built his printer — the world’s largest — from scratch, there’s no shortage of work offers for this highly-skilled and imaginative engineer. Throughout the course of the film, we see Enrico embark on an array of innovative projects: constructing the tallest printed sculpture in existence, working with Foster + Partners and the European Space Agency on a programme to colonise the moon, solidifying a sand dune in the desert, and printing the closest thing to an actual house: a small Italian dwelling known as a trullo.
The long-term nature of these projects and the current financial climate take their toll on Enrico and his team of workers, as contracts fail to be honoured and the infant technology stutters. Travel back to 2008 and it’s a different story, as Enrico describes how he was staring a €50m investment in the face.
Just as he’s about to sell up and move to London, the stock market crashes… he must rebuild his business all over again.
Divorced from his wife and estranged from his young son who he only sees every other weekend, Enrico has enough reason to complete his opus vitae and ensure decisions in the past weren’t made in vain. Present-day footage contrasts with old home movies to show his life as it is now, and what it could have been. Because of this toing and froing from past to present, The Man Who Prints Houses drifts from a straight-up science documentary to an intimate portrait of a tortured genius who’s literally laying the foundations of a mind-boggling and truly life-changing technological revolution.
The Film Makers
MARC WEBB
Marc studied sociology and photography while working as a runner on feature films before turning his hand to documentary. After working on a few documentaries and on commercial projects in fashion and the art world, he decided to take the plunge and embark on his own feature length project. After a chance meeting with an engineer he penned the idea for ‘The MEN Who Print Houses’ before being introduced to Enrico Dini and ‘The Man Who Prints Houses’ was born.
JACK WAKE-WALKER
While studying linguistics at university, Jack had the chance to direct a documentary about born-again Christian gypsies. Since then he hasn’t looked back, making a number of short documentaries, films and video artworks, not to mention some dodgy rap videos. After working together at an insect-themed festival, Jack and Marc decided to put their creative talents towards a bigger project: with that, ‘The Man Who Prints Houses’ was conceived. Jack has a second life working in TV production, and counts Goran Ivanisevic, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, and Gregg Wallace amongst his heroes.
