Green buildings and design for adaptation: strategies for renovation of the built environment

The recent EU Directives 2010/31 and 2012/27 provide standards of nearly zero energy buildings for new constructions, aiming at a better quality of the built environment through the adoption of high-performance solutions. In the near future, cities are expected to be the main engine of development while bearing the impact of population growth: new challenges such as increasing energy efficiency, reducing maintenance costs of buildings and infrastructures, facing the effects of climate change and adjusting on-going and future impacts, require smart and sustainable approaches. To improve the capability of adaptation to dynamics of transformation, buildings and districts have to increase their resilience, assumed as ‘the capacity to adapt to changing conditions and to maintain or regain functionality and vitality in the face of stress or disturbance’ (Wilson A., Building Resilience in Boston, Boston Society of Architects, 2013). This paper describes the research methodology, developed by the Department of Architecture, a research unit of Technology for Architecture, to perform the assessment of resilience of existing buildings, as well as the outcomes of its application within Bologna urban context. This methodology focuses on the design for adaptation of social housing buildings, aiming at predicting their expected main impacts (energy consumption, emissions, efficiency, urban quality and environmental sustainability) and at developing models for renovation

Do crowdfunding returns reward risk? Evidences from clean-tech projects

The growing literature on crowdfunding has mostly focused on the determinants of campaigns success, as well as on the legal and macroeconomic drivers of the crowdfunding diffusion as a mean to finance innovative projects. Still there are scant evidences on whether the returns for crowdfunders are consistent with the risk profile of crowdfunded projects. By studying 365 European clean-tech projects which raised capital via crowdfunding, we show that once the country risk has been accounted for, the returns are not consistent with the risks related to the technology adopted by the projects. Behavioral factors like bounded rationality or the cultural dimension of investors may explain this apparent mispricing of risks. While projects' returns are, on average, negatively related to risks, we find that projects offering better risk-adjusted returns attract relatively larger average contributions. Our results have important implications for understanding the drivers of crowdfunding returns and its sustainability, and particularly for its diffusion as an instrument to foster the transition to a low-carbon economy.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

La citt\ue0 come laboratorio di trasformazione. Processi partecipativi e modelli urbani circolari.

In contemporary European cities, urban transformations in terms of conservation, development and adaptive reuse follow new models whose adoption, acceptance and impact are closely dependent on different elements, including the need to attract new investment, the stimulation of the tourism economy, the capital allocation: these factors if not properly controlled and managed can compromise cities\u2019 future sustainable growth. The research group of the Department of Architecture of Bologna, working with the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, is focusing its lines of research and experimentation on the historical city, working together under the umbrella of H2020 ROCK project, on the introduction of factors of innovation (technological, environmental, social and economic) in the processes of urban transformation can pursue challenges of systemic and integrated value and become engines of growth and sustainable development at urban scale. The paper illustrates the ROCK circular urban system approach and its replication potential in different territorial contexts, such as Bologna and Bogot\ue0, in connection with BOND project

ICTs for Accessing, Understanding and Safeguarding Cultural Heritage: The Experience of INCEPTION and ROCK H2020 Projects

Today digital technologies offer great opportunities in the field of Cultural Heritage (CH). After a general overview of the European policy documents on CH digitisation, the paper aims to reflect on tools, procedures and methodologies in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a new way of visualization, application and data collection towards accessing, understanding and safeguarding our historic built environment. The focus will be on two ongoing H2020 projects, INCEPTION and ROCK, selected to address the problem of CH digitisation and the access to the corresponding digitized resources in relation to historic buildings and urban districts. Therefore, they are presented as inspiring good practices for tackling this issue considering its impacts both at the architectural and urban scale. Stressing the potentials of enabling technologies, such as 3D laser surveys, environment and climate sensors, large crowd monitoring tools and CH analytic, they are also able to orient future research beyond 2020

Bose-Einstein Condensation in Gap-Confined Exciton-Polariton States

The development of patterned multi-quantum well heterostructures in GaAs/AlGaAs waveguides has recently allowed to achieve exciton-polariton condensation in a topologically protected bound state in the continuum (BIC). Remarkably, condensation occurred above a saddle point of the polariton dispersion. A rigorous analysis of the condensation phenomenon in these systems, as well as the role of the BIC, is still missing. In the present Letter we theoretically and experimentally fill this gap, by showing that polariton confinement resulting from the negative effective mass and the photonic energy gap in the dispersion play a key role in enhancing the relaxation towards the condensed state. In fact, our results show that low-threshold polariton condensation is achieved within the effective trap created by the exciting laser spot regardless of whether the resulting confined mode is long-lived (polariton BIC) or short-lived (lossy mode). In both cases, the spatial quantization of the polariton condensate and the threshold differences associated to the corresponding state lifetime are measured and characterized. For a given negative mass, a slightly lower condensation threshold from the polariton BIC mode is found and associated to its suppressed radiative losses as compared to the lossy one

Riuso e riciclo ispirano l'urbanistica

La complessit\ue0 che caratterizza le sfide delle citt\ue0 a scala globale richiede un ripensamento delle questioni legate alla gestione delle risorse, all\u2019 integrazione dell'innovazione a livello urbano, alle dinamiche dei vari sistemi che compongono la citt\ue0

Il Progetto europeo ROCK. La citt\ue0 come laboratorio di conoscenza e innovazione

Urban systems are increasingly intended as \u201cpools\u201d of formal and informal resources to be re-activated with the ambitious goal of achieving global goals related to sustainability and innovation. The cities are reactivating their urban and social capitals, proposing themselves as guarantors of the distribution of benefits and values, setting the basis for framing themselves as laboratories. ROCK project aims to develop an innovative collaborative and systemic approach to effective regeneration and adaptive reuse strategies in public spaces and generally in historic city-centres. The spatial and collaborative approach is tested addressing specific needs of research-areas. Main expected impacts deal with the achievement of effective and shared policies able to accelerate public spaces regeneration, improve accessibility of material and immaterial heritage and social cohesion, increase awareness and participation in local decision making and civic engagement. With reference to Bologna, the two key concepts of the project, based on consolidated models are: a creative city and a city of knowledge. Creativity and knowledge are understood as potentialities and \u201cdevices\u201d that can innervate and boost the economic and social growth of the city, transforming it according to models based on sustainability. The central concept and operational objective of ROCK is the co-planning of actions (safety, \u201cgreen\u201d lifestyles, \u201cliving lab\u201d, etc.) that allow a co-production of the city (by decision makers and technicians but also by city actors and users) in a mutual recognition of visions, knowledge, skills. The key-concept that moves the project is the circular approach and flow in which a social action is fundamental for constant construction of the city and its public spaces as a common good

Resilient communities. Social infrastructures for sustainable growth of urban areas. A case study

Climate change, natural and human-made disasters, overcrowding spaces, waste production, and energy access are just a few of issues that our cities have to deal with. At the same time, cities offer a promising intervention field to foster collaborations in planning and managing sustainable infrastructure for sustainable growth. Creating resilient cities has both social and physical dimensions. Reinforcing local identity and culture contributes to positive relationships among individuals, improving their collective ability to face change. The City of Bologna is engaged in the definition of pilot actions to promote the active participation of stakeholders for the acceleration of Local Urban Environment Adaptation Plan for a Resilient City, linked to Common Goods Regulation: act together (collective regeneration of urban spaces), live together (new welfare, health and well-being), grow together (collaborative spaces for innovative jobs and enterprises). In this context the Research Group of the University of Bologna is involved in the development of a flexible and replicable methodology to support the transition to more sustainable urban context. This paper illustrates this methodology and the experimental study carried on to establish active mechanisms of engagement of citizens, associations, creative communities, private bodies, aiming at increasing community resilience and sensitivity and fostering sustainable growth

Cultural heritage-led initiatives for urban regeneration. Pilot implementation actions in Bologna public spaces

This paper deals with the research experience nurtured during the \u201cROCK- Regeneration and Optimisation of Cultural heritage in creative and Knowledge cities\u201d project (EU Horizon 2020 \u2013 Grant Agreement n. 730280) and with the initiatives carried out during its first two years of implementation. In particular, the contribute focuses on the use of Cultural Heritage as a catalyst for urban regeneration and on reactivation actions of public spaces in Bologna, aiming at fostering collaborative practices, social cohesion and innovation