A new paradigm for deep sustainability: biourbanism

Biourbanism introduces new conceptual and planning models for a new kind of city, valuing social and economical regeneration of the built environment through developing and healthy communities. Thus, it combines technical aspects, such as zero-emission, energy efficiency, information technology, etc. and the promotion of social sustainability and human well being. In effect, this new paradigm endorses principles of geometrical coherence, Biophilic design, BioArchitecture, Biomimesis, etc. in practices of design and also new urban policies and, especially Biopolitics to promote urban revitalization by ensuring that man-made changes do not have harmful effects to humans. Green city standards start inside the designs of each building and continue either in unbuilt spaces surrounding buildings or inside complex infrastructural networks, connecting buildings and people. The proposed presentation should illustrate how new exciting developments recently, such as fractals, complexity theory, evolutionary biology and artificial intelligence are interrelated and constantly stimulate interaction between human beings and the surrounding environment. New Biophilic solutions in designs of buildings have been proved as attractive opportunities for new markets of housing. Thus, some new infrastructural projects start embracing Biophilic advanced solutions which finally aim at energy efficiency and optimal performance. As parallel activity we can now see emerging new innovative monitoring systems of building health not only in small scale, but also in large scale buildings, such as rail stations, for example, and commercial centres or even sometimes entire educational complexes integrated to new infrastructural projects. Some important case studies are going to be presented; they have been analysed and evaluated by Biourbanism and Biophilia principles and applied methods of design

The city of future: biourbanism and constructural law

Nowadays dynamic elements in urban fabric are often concealed by the insertion of stylish new architecture; real patterns of social life (‘bios’), have been replaced by rigid geometric grids and compact building blocks. New Urbanism and Biourbanism affirm that cities are now risking to be unstable and deprived of healthy social interactions. As an expansion of older historical urban fabric patterns, harmonious architecture can have a positive impact on the fitness of both human body and mind. Not only Biourbanism attempts to reinstate balance and lost values in the urban fabric, but also reinforces human-oriented design emergences in micro and macro scales. As a multifaceted discipline, it embraces laws of physics, such as Constructal Law and acknowledges its noticeable and unremitting influence to urban human behaviours. Urban life and behaviours are based upon systems of human communication formed by dynamic patterns; we are now talking about negotiating boundaries between human activities, changes in geographic mapping and mainly about sustainable systems to support uninterrupted growth of communities worldwide. Therefore, as a vital shift in architectural education, not only Biourbanism offers the opportunity to explore patterns and linguistics deeply imbedded into the built environment, but also enables scholars and communities to come together and participate actively into fast and innovative urban interventions. Projects developed during educational and professional training aim at reinstating memorable and preferential paths of communication, favouring everyday life rituals of the body and mind. Hence, by following everlasting laws of physics and formulas inherited from nature, architectural forms can be considered as the real innovation in urban design and planning of the City of the Future.Conference presentation funded by Department of Engineering

Complexity and biourbanism: thermodynamical architectural and urban models integrated in modern geographic mapping

The paper was presented on 5th April 2012 by Eleni Tracada in Theoretical Currents II conference in the University of Lincoln.Abstract Vital elements in urban fabric have been often suppressed for reasons of ‘style’. Recent theories, such as Biourbanism, suggest that cities risk becoming unstable and deprived of healthy social interactions. Our paper aims at exploring the reasons for which, fractal cities, which have being conceived as symmetries and patterns, can have scientifically proven and beneficial impact on human fitness of body and mind. During the last few decades, modern urban fabric lost some very important elements, only because urban design and planning turned out to be stylistic aerial views or new landscapes of iconic technological landmarks. Biourbanism attempts to re-establish lost values and balance, not only in urban fabric, but also in reinforcing human-oriented design principles in either micro or macro scale. Human life in cities and beyond emerges during ‘connectivity’ via geometrical continuity of grids and fractals, via path connectivity among highly active nodes, via exchange/movement of people and, finally via exchange of information (networks). All these elements form a hypercomplex system of several interconnected layers of a dynamic structure, all influencing each other in a non-linear manner. Sometimes networks of communication at all levels may suffer from sudden collapse of dynamic patterns, which have been proved to be vital for a long time either to landscapes and cityscapes. We are now talking about negotiating boundaries between human activities, changes in geographic mapping and, mainly about sustainable systems to support continuous growth of communities. We are not only talking about simple lives (‘Bios’) as Urban Syntax (bio and socio-geometrical synthesis), but also about affinities between developing topographies created by roadways and trajectories and the built environment. We shall also have the opportunity to show recent applications of these theories in our postgraduate students’ work, such as a 3D model as a new method of cartography of the Island of Mauritius, with intend to highlight developments in topography and architecture through a series of historical important events and mutating socio-political and economical geographies. This model may be able to predict failures in proposed and/or activated models of expansion, which do not follow strictly morphogenetic and physiological design processes. The same kind of modelling is capable to enable recognition of ‘optimal forms’ at different feedback scales, which, through morphogenetic processes, guarantee an optimal systemic efficiency, and therefore quality of life.ADT funds, university of Derby

Biourbanism for a healthy city: biophilia and sustainable urban theories and practices

The paper was given via audio/slides file on 4th September 2012 in the International Convention on Innovations in Engineering and Technology for Sustainable Development, 3-5 September 2012, in Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Erode District, Tamil Nadu, India. The paper was peer reviewed and accepted in July 2012.Vital elements in urban fabric have been often concealed for reasons of design. Recent theories, such as Biourbanism, suggest that cities risk becoming unstable and deprived of healthy social interactions. Our paper aims at exploring the reasons for which,fractal cities, for example can have beneficial impact on human fitness of body and mind. During the last few decades, modern urban fabric lost some very important elements, only because urban design and planning became stylistic patterns of fancy aerial views to show mainly iconic signature architecture. Biourbanism attempts to reestablish lost values and balance, not only in urban fabric, but also in reinforcing human-oriented design principles to be easily implemented and understood. The Lancet Commission of Healthy Cities provides an analysis of how health outcomes are part of the complexity of urban processes, highlighting the role that urban planning can, and should play in delivering health improvements through processes of reshaping the urban fabric of our cities around the globe. This paper describes how the application of Biourbanism’s principles can improve the quality of the urban environment with reference to both physical transformations of it and psychological impact upon city inhabitants. Therefore, these principles are accomplished to support urban structural sustainability.ADT and School of Technology funds

Restauro

La scheda informa dell'articolazione didattica dei Laboratori di Restauro attivati all'interno del Corso di Laurea in Architettura a ciclo unico. Si illustrano gli scopi condivisi dei sei corsi attivati e si sintetizzano le tematiche sviluppate nel lavoro applicativo condotto dagli studenti. Sono inoltre allegati casi di studio affrontati dagli stessi studenti nel Laboratorio tenuto dall'autore del prodotto

S. Prassede: linee di ricerca sul luogo e sui vaLori spaziali della Basilica di Pasquale I

Nell’articolo l’iniziativa di costruzione della chiesa di S. Prassede viene affrontata dapprima riguardo al tema della collocazione della fabbrica in rapporto alle condizioni del sito e successivamente riguardo al criterio progettuale adottato: questioni che ovviamente si connettono fra loro, e che consentono una rilettura dell’intervento, sia ai fini di una comprensione del valore urbano dell’iniziativa, sia rispetto alla conformazione spaziale che contraddistingue l’organismo. I valori proporzionali dell’edificio vengono confrontati a quelli delle altre due chiese realizzate da Pasquale I, S. Cecilia e S. Maria in Domnica, soffermandosi in particolare sull’aspetto peculiare della dilatazione della navata centrale in rapporto alle navate laterali.In this article, the construction of the church of S. Prassede is addressed with regard to the location of the building—in relation to the conditions of the site—and to the design criterion. These issues are obviously connected and allow for a reinterpretation of the building, both for the understanding of its urban significance and regarding the particular spatial configuration of its structure. The proportions of the building are compared to those of the other two churches commissioned by Paschal I, that is, S. Cecilia and S. Maria in Domnica, particularly focusing on the unusual expansion of the central nave in relation to the lateral aisles.Nell’articolo l’iniziativa di costruzione della chiesa di S. Prassede viene affrontata dapprima riguardo al tema della collocazione della fabbrica in rapporto alle condizioni del sito e successivamente riguardo al criterio progettuale adottato: questioni che ovviamente si connettono fra loro, e che consentono una rilettura dell’intervento, sia ai fini di una comprensione del valore urbano dell’iniziativa, sia rispetto alla conformazione spaziale che contraddistingue l’organismo. I valori proporzionali dell’edificio vengono confrontati a quelli delle altre due chiese realizzate da Pasquale I, S. Cecilia e S. Maria in Domnica, soffermandosi in particolare sull’aspetto peculiare della dilatazione della navata centrale in rapporto alle navate laterali

Sulla storiografia del restauro

Non è stata ancora affrontata una riflessione approfondita sulla storiografia del restauro architettonico, sugli approcci riscontrabili nella letteratura prodotta e su un loro inquadramento nel più ampio contesto della cultura storica. Il presente contributo intende fornire alcuni elementi di analisi su tale argomento, con l’auspicio che ciò possa costituire lo spunto per l’apertura di un dibattito, magari esteso anche in senso extradisciplinare. A questo scopo, vengono esaminati tre fattori importanti che entrano ni relazione tra loro: 1) il dato costitutivo – del tutto particolare e gravido di conseguenze – di una storiografia nata con la stessa disciplina che ne forma l’oggetto, ovvero il fine strumentale o dimostrativo che ha caratterizzato il ricorso alla storia; 2) la complessità e problematicità dell’oggetto d’indagine, sia a causa del processo di ampliamento del campo disciplinare del restauro, come è andato maturando nel tempo – e dunque in rapporto alla vastità ed eterogeneità dei beni riferibili al patrimonio storico –, sia per la molteplicità delle implicazioni che interagiscono determinando sviluppi e accadimenti; ossia: clima culturale, evoluzione artistica, orientamenti ideologici (ovvero idee di restauro), sapere scientifico, capacità tecniche, contesto politico, sociale, economico, contingenze finanziarie, condizioni istituzionali, normative, gestionali, e altro ancora; 3) le tendenze in atto nella storiografia contemporanea, e cioè il fenomeno generale dell’espansione e al tempo stesso della frammentazione dell’universo considerato dagli storici; evoluzione che di pari passo è andata progredendo assieme all’apertura nei confronti del pluralismo delle culture e alla disponibilità a cogliere, su un piano relativistico, significati e valori nei diversi contesti del mondo. La diversificazione e l’articolazione degli approcci riguardo alla storia della conservazione del patrimonio ci hanno senz’altro fornito maggiori capacità di comprensione. E continueranno a farlo, al crescere di un interesse sempre più diffuso a livello globale. Ma resta imprescindibile che lo sguardo storico si rivolga al restauro come esito di architettura, nella sua ampia dimensione, che cioè indaghi il passato a cospetto delle opere, permettendo così di stabilire, in base alla loro interpretazione, relazioni con il presente

La letteratura thriller: commento e traduzione del romanzo "Angle of investigation: three Harry Bosch short stories" di Michael Connelly

Questa tesi si propone di descrivere le caratteristiche generali del thriller, ripercorrendone la storia fino ai giorni nostri; e, più in particolare, di Michael Connelly, autore, negli ultimi vent’anni, di molti romanzi, tra cui la raccolta di racconti Angle of Investigation: three Harry Bosch short stories, di cui si presenta in questa sede una proposta di traduzione

Sviluppo di un codice di calcolo per il dimensionamento e la verifica dell'assetto di un veicolo a due ruote.

La presente tesi è stata sviluppata in collaborazione con l'Ente Sistemi Meccanici e Calcoli del settore R&D Piaggio Scooter.Sono state analizzate, revisionate ed aggiornate le metodologie di calcolo per la verifica ed il dimensionamento dei componenti carattterizzanti l'assetto di un veicolo a due ruote.Il risultato finale di tale attività è stato lo sviluppo di Assetto 2.0, un nuovo software di calcolo concepito secondo il paradigma della programmazione orientata agli oggetti (OOP), in grado di garantire elevate caratteristiche di flessibilità, manutenibilità e riusabilità

The city of the future and the laws of physics: Biourbanism and constructal law

Nowadays dynamic elements in urban fabric are often concealed by the insertion of stylish new architecture; real patterns of social life (‘bios’), have been replaced by rigid geometric grids and compact building blocks. New Urbanism and Biourbanism affirm that cities are now risking being unstable and deprived of healthy social interactions. As an expansion of older historical urban fabric patterns, harmonious architecture can have a positive impact on the fitness of both human body and mind. Not only Biourbanism attempts to reinstate balance and lost values in the urban fabric, but also reinforces human-oriented design emergences in micro and macro scales. As a multifaceted discipline, it embraces laws of physics, such as Constructal Law and acknowledges its noticeable and unremitting influence to urban human behaviours. Urban life and behaviours are based upon systems of human communication formed by dynamic patterns; we are now talking about negotiating boundaries between human activities, changes in geographic mapping and mainly about sustainable systems to support uninterrupted growth of communities worldwide. Therefore, as a vital shift in architectural education, not only Biourbanism offers the opportunity to explore patterns and linguistics deeply imbedded into the built environment, but also enables scholars and communities to come together and participate actively into fast and innovative urban interventions. Projects developed during educational and professional training aim at reinstating memorable and preferential paths of communication, favouring everyday life rituals of the body and mind. Hence, by following everlasting laws of physics and formulas inherited from nature, architectural forms can be considered as the real innovation in urban design and planning of the City of the Future.Department of Engineering fundin