Stereotomy, Sustainable Construction and Didactics. Case study: a new Museum for Matera, European Capital of Culture 2019

The paper describes the students’ works, which included posters and physical models, were the partial outcomes of the current 3rd year design studio, led by Prof Giuseppe Fallacara and taught with the support of Maurizio Barberio and Micaela Colella, both Ph.D. students at the Polytechnic of Bari. The text illustrate an experimental teaching/learning approach which Giuseppe tested during the design studio. This approach was inspired by the concepts of ‘Experiential Learning’ and ‘Flipped Classroom’, consisting in a series of “cooperative classes”, where tutors and students interacted and discussed in an absolute spirit of intellectual equality. The goal was to simulate the activity of a large architecture practice, involved in the design of a public building, which generally requires the contribution of a large number of architects and designers. The students were given a brief for a new museum and multipurpose centre in Matera, Italy, which was recently nominated European Capital of Culture 2019. They had to deliver a design proposal, a rapid prototyped model and a short video

The structural tree: new experimentation with reinforced stone

Starting from the reinterpretation of the natural forms that recurs in the consolidated shapes of historical buildings, the research proposes the umbrella vault as isolated selfsupporting cover. The research outcome, defined with the term "structural tree", can be considered as an extreme experimentation of the cooperation possibilities between natural stone and steel reinforcement. The idea arises from the observation of fan vaults in which appears an isolated support: its static behaviour works, of course, because of the presence of an opposite structural portion. In this case, on the contrary, there are no lateral supports but it arises as a self-referential element, while the task of restoring the structural balance is left to the upper reinforcement that allows a free composition of the "tree" without static constraints. The study is based on a formal research that combines the possibility to create serial and repeatable compositions with the achievement of an ideal static equilibrium configuration of the stone structure that considers the collaboration between the voussoirs and the upper reinforcement. The steel structure is not assumed as a pre-tensioned reinforcement, like in the other prototypes, but as a passive reinforcement to recreate the compression condition of the arch, usually generated by the opposing forces belonging to the two symmetrical halves

Chikungunya Virus in Aedes albopictus, Italy

Chikungunya Virus in Aedes albopictus, Ital

Stone Skin. Applicazioni in architettura e design di gusci free-form ultraleggeri in pietra naturale fibrorinforzata

La ricerca indaga le possibilità di utilizzo in architettura e design di pannelli in granito, marmo o pietra naturale a dop-pia o singola curvatura, rinforzati attraverso l'utilizzo di strati di fibra di carbonio o fibra di vetro, per la costituzione di gusci lapidei ultraleggeri. La combinazione tra questi due materiali consente la riduzione dello spessore delle com-ponenti lapidee fino a pochi millimetri e il raggiungimento di grandi performance di resistenza statica del nuovo ma-teriale. Il progetto è frutto di una collaborazione tra gli scri-venti (Politecnico di Bari) e l'azienda ticinese di lavorazione del marmo e del granito Generelli SA

Parametric morphogenesis, robotic fabrication, and construction of novel stereotomic hypar morphologies: Hypar gate, hypar wall, and hypar vault

The chapter explains the studies the New Fundamentals Research Group is carrying out on the digital update of stereotomy. Between the various experiments, the chapter focuses on the group or prototypes designed by the geometry of the hyperbolic paraboloid, both at the macro (architectural organism) and micro scale (architectural elements). Several full-scale prototypes have been designed and built, using specific parametric codes, to define the geometrical morphogenesis properties of the built structural morphologies. Consequent theoretical reflections are fully explained