Architecture that will be. A thesis on the Minet El Bassal District in Alexandria, between Traditions and Innovation, during the "Third Industrial Revolution".

The emerging impact on the planet of 3D printing, at all levels, doesn’t seem to limit itself to the simple modification of the traditional means of production, indicating a deeper and far more diffuse transformation, referred to by some as the “third industrial revolution”. 3D printing has become a process accessible to everyone. Up until a few years ago, in fact, those who built a company and produced, for example, spare parts for the automotive supply sector or for electronic devices, were considered the pioneers of their respective fields; while today, the true pioneers of modern craftsmanship are common people that, to fulfill their needs, autonomously build what they need. Those are the so-called makers. Once he has designed a tridimensional model, a maker can take advantage of 3D printing in different ways, some of which will be listed right now, while the others will be treated in deeper detail in the full paper. The purchase and/or the building of a personal printer; the employment of share printing by non-profit associations like Fablab, Maker-spaces, Hacker; the use of Internet for direct contact with companies that develop personalized printing also for private production. “The true revolution is not the development of technology, but its democratisation: to make it accessible to an enormous group of people who can experience it and improve it”, as said by Chris Anderson, former director of Wired magazine, author of the book “The Long Tail” and editor of the essay “Makers: The New Industrial Revolution”. “Today we have instruments like the world wide web to help us: the inventor of today isn’t an isolated genius anymore, as he can make use of the joint effort of other individuals. In its workshop, instead of a plane, a buzz saw and a drill, we would see the inevitable computer, on whose screen the item takes shape, and a three-dimensional printer”.