"At 12 years old I was a little devil who was no good at anything. Then flipping through a copy of Sciences et Avenir magazine when I was in detention one day I came across three-dimensional printing. I was convinced it was the future and I'd make it my career. Imagining how it could change things, I told myself: 'One day I'll print my sofa'!". Not so much a promise as a determination that drove Nicolas throughout his training. After a vocational diploma in jewellery making, when he learnt technical drawing and the manufacturing limitations of materials, he tackled 3D computer graphics and bought his first 3D printer in 2012. "In the past people took me for a dreamer but today I'm living my childhood dream." Now in his thirties, Nicolas is a happy man, and it shows. If he hasn't yet printed his sofa (only a question of time), with wife Mélissa he has just opened his Comptoir de l’Imaginaire, France's very first 3D-printing café. Part fab lab, part bistro, the 200m2 space equipped with state-of-the-art 3D printers is about modelling and reproducing your dream object. "My aim? To democratise this new technology and see in my customers' eyes what you could see in my own 20 years ago, when I realised this bit of kit would trigger the third industrial revolution!"
10 rue Biscarra, Nice – Tél. 04 83 50 70 02
By Marjorie Modi
Côteweb 2021, création de site Internet sur Nice