TOWARDS DIGITAL TWIN DRIVEN CULTURAL HERITAGE MANAGEMENT: A HBIM-BASED WORKFLOW FOR ENERGY IMPROVEMENT OF MODERN BUILDINGS

Europe has numerous historic buildings that need to become more energy-efficient, which need permanent maintenance and refurbishment to fulfill sustainability and use requirements. Asset owners and asset managers need to adopt new strategies to protect listed buildings while optimizing costs and benefits during their life cycle. In this sense, the digital transition proves to be a moment to seize for opening new scenarios. The Digital Twin paradigm promises to be valuable for enabling the sustainable knowledge, conservation, restoration, and management of built assets and solving the dilemma about protecting the architectural identity of these buildings while adapting them to the functional and performance requirements dictated by the regulatory framework. This study proposes a workflow that integrates Heritage Building Information Modeling (HBIM) and Building Performance Simulation (BPS) tools for data-driving the energy improvement of Italian listed modern buildings built between the 1920s and 1960s. After acquiring information about the building, the HBIM model and the Building Energy Model (BEM) are realized based on the International Foundation Classes (IFC) standard. Energy intervention measures are defined, construction costs are computed, and benefits during the intervention life cycle are predicted in thermal demand. Finally, an expeditious multi-criteria analysis allows for comparing different intervention combinations and indicating the optimal solution for the energy improvement of the building concerning energy, economic, and financial issues. These outcomes represent the first step towards realizing a dynamic, accessible, and sharable Digital Twin

Il progetto ADRISEISMIC: ricognizione delle tecniche costruttive nei centri storici dell’area Adriatico-Ionica. The ADRISEISMIC Project: a survey on the building techniques in the historic centres of the Adriatic-Ionian area.

The research herein presented was carried out within the issues of the Adriseismic project, funded by the Interreg Adrion program, to address seismic vulnerability through a multidisciplinary approach. The project aims at developing new integrated approaches to innovate and harmonise the normative, technical and training frameworks in the ADRION area, providing ready-to-use methods, tools and procedures that will be integrated into the existing policies and practices, thus strengthening local responses and reducing vulnerability to natural hazards. The starting point of the activities was to deepen the knowledge of the built heritage in each country involved in the project, especially the local building techniques in the historic centres of the Adriatic-Ionian area, then qualitatively correlate them to possible seismic weaknesses. The typical construction characteristics of the buildings present in these Countries, both traditional and more recent ones, were analysed. In the first phase, the investigations were conducted by collecting all possible data in the six countries involved in the project: Italy, Croatia, Albania, Serbia, Slovenia and Greece. Then, the building techniques were divided according to their structural function, defining four macro-categories: vertical masonry structures, vertical reinforced concrete structures, horizontal structures and foundation structures. In the last phase, the results collected for each country were compared, highlighting a common general framework with substantial similarities between the various countries’ construction characteristics, despite different historical-cultural events and distant regulatory practices. This result demonstrates how the availability of the same building material governs construction solutions, even though human events are very different

Building Information Modeling and Building Performance Simulation-Based Decision Support Systems for Improved Built Heritage Operation

Adapting outdated building stocks’ operations to meet current environmental and economic demands poses significant challenges that, to be faced, require a shift toward digitalization in the architecture, engineering, construction, and operation sectors. Digital tools capable of acquiring, structuring, sharing, processing, and visualizing built assets’ data in the form of knowledge need to be conceptualized and developed to inform asset managers in decision-making and strategic planning. This paper explores how building information modeling and building performance simulation technologies can be integrated into digital decision support systems (DSS) to make building data accessible and usable by non-digital expert operators through user-friendly services. The method followed to develop the digital DSS is illustrated and then demonstrated with a simulation-based application conducted on the heritage case study of the Faculty of Engineering in Bologna, Italy. The analysis allows insights into the building’s energy performance at the space and hour scale and explores its relationship with the planned occupancy through a data visualization approach. In addition, the conceptualization of the DSS within a digital twin vision lays the foundations for future extensions to other technologies and data, including, for example, live sensor measurements, occupant feedback, and forecasting algorithms

Wooden Truss Analysis, Preservation Strategies, and Digital Documentation through Parametric 3D Modeling and HBIM Workflow

The main focus of this paper is the most recent phase of a large research project that has studied several wooden roof structures in the area of Bologna, belonging to a set of important historical buildings, all dating back to the 16th and 18th centuries. In particular, the behavior of the wooden trusses that support pitched roofs is analyzed, according to a methodological approach, based on generative algorithms that can help researchers and technicians to improve the comprehension of wooden structures\u2019 behavior during their entire lifespan. While all the previous case studies concerned churches, this latest step extends the survey to the roofing system of the Municipal Theater of Bologna, which has a span of approximately 25 m. The core of the process concerns the automatic transformation of the point cloud into 3D models using parametric modeling tools, such as Grasshopper generative algorithms. Following this workflow, it is possible to speed up the creation of different truss models by changing only a few input parameters. This updating of the research protocol automatically creates a Building Information Modeling (BIM) model and a calculation model for the wooden trusses to perform a structural stress analysis by linking Grasshopper tools with Dynamo-Revit features. The procedure that has been developed from previous studies is still evolving and aims to speed up the modeling procedure and introduce new tools and methods for interpreting the functioning of these structural elements when surveyed through terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) devices

The Process of Digitalization of the Urban Environment for the Development of Sustainable and Circular Cities: A Case Study of Bologna, Italy

The residential heritage that was built during the great expansion of real estate after the Second World War has severe deficiencies in structural safety, fire resistance, energy efficiency, and accessibility and these cannot be solved with sustainable renovation measures. This study focuses on replacement interventions and promotes a management model that addresses three areas (technical, social, and economic) and it refers to the application of the circularity principle to the construction sector for the goal of climate neutrality by 2050. The final objective is to define a protocol—namely, the guidelines—to reference in a decision-making process that promotes urban regeneration by comparing demolition with reconstruction and renovation. The proposed methodology allows for the determination of suitable areas in Bologna for replacement and the joining of the municipal geodatabase with data from archival research on building permits in 1949–1965 by using GIS software. This digital archive can be implemented in a digital twin for an urban block, which can become a predictive tool for urban planning and the management of the whole life of a building. The main result is the characterization of urban blocks by identifying typical features belonging to specific building libraries that are validated with density analyses. These urban clusters and building archetypes can be used to assess targeted intervention measures by using specific tools, such as predictive maps and 3D city models

Neural networks for the rapid seismic assessment of existing moment-frame RC buildings

The study presented in this paper analyses and investigates the possibility of introducing a general and rapid methodology based on an artificial neural network (ANN) to assess the seismic response of existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. Starting from investigations carried out on buildings located in the outskirts of Bologna, 928 finite element models have been developed on the basis of the most recurrent data. The input parameters representing the characteristics of the structures were systematically varied and, through modal dynamic and non-linear static analyses, the outputs representing the seismic response were recorded. The resulting dataset was used to create a function, based on ANN, that can reliably predict the seismic behaviour of a RC structure. Finally, by means of k-fold cross-validation, the instruction of the function was optimised and simultaneously verified, obtaining a coefficient of determination for the totality of the samples and the previously unseen cases of 0,94 and 0,88, respectively. The result obtained not only aims at enriching the existing framework on the subject, increasing the awareness of the seismic issues affecting this building typology, but also constitutes a prioritization system that could highlight the need for structural renovation

An expeditious methodology for the seismic vulnerability assessment of building aggregates

An in-depth knowledge of the historical buildings allows us to predict the damage mechanisms that can be generated by an earthquake on a built fabric, thanks to the study of historical documents and to surveys carried out on site. An expeditious assessment procedure based on indicators related to the masonry behaviour of building aggregates has been developed. The method has a preventive purpose, as it allows to classify the building aggregates of a historical center before a seismic event occurs. The paper illustrates the protocol for the expeditous evaluation of seismic vulnerability of building aggregates in Italian historical centres, which is based on the determination of synthetic indicators to provide a preliminary assessment of their potential damage under the earthquake. The 2012 earthquake in Emilia-Romagna allowed to test the effectiveness of this method. Its application to the building aggregates of the historic center of Mirandola (MO) allowed to verify how it would have been possible to identify in advance the damage scenario recorded after the earthquakes

Digital and Territorial Trails System for Developing Sustainable Tourism and Enhancing Cultural Heritage in Rural Areas: The Case of San Giovanni Lipioni, Italy

Depopulation has become a significant issue for local culture and built heritage conservation of many European rural areas. In San Giovanni Lipioni, a province of Chieti (Italy), this phenomenon has increased to the point that, nowadays, there are only 150 inhabitants and no significant economic activities. In this regard, the present paper aims to describe the crucial role of nature-oriented tourism in an economic, social, and revitalization strategy; how digital tools can be used to map and create a territorial trail system between municipalities; and, finally, outline the operations necessary for reactivation. The proposed methodology consists of a first digital survey phase using GPS receivers and outdoor navigation apps. The second phase would create a web platform with a system of virtual itineraries between villages, named “The Golden Leaves Paths”. After that, the last phase concerns the creation of analysis factsheets to guide the maintenance of paths and the design of iconic signage with artistic illustrations based on the oak leaves leitmotif to be installed along the paths. A local social promotion association will employ the outcomes, technical drawings, and strategies to reactivate paths as an attractive element for nature-oriented tourism and create a digital platform to foster the village’s territorial and cultural heritage

Seismic Strengthening of Existing RC Structure Through External 3D Exoskeleton

The seismic hazard in the southern regions of Europe is known as one of the most critical issues when considering the improvement of the existing buildings in terms of energy and structural behavior. The use of integrated plug-and-play systems can be a solution to the most common obstacles occurring during the different phases in the building practices: from the design to the realization. Within the framework of the European project Pro-GET-onE, a case of structural strengthening obtained by applying a steel exoskeleton connected to the reinforced concrete (RC) structures of an existing building has been presented. The modelling, the linear and non-linear analyses were conducted with finite element software. They have been implemented for the pilot case of Athens, and the results have been achieved in relation to different parameters such as PGA, shear exploitation and displacement in the plastic phase. This approach determines an increase in the global stiffness of the structural system with a consequent reduction in displacements. Depending on the actual plasticization of the RC frames, the resulting excursion in the plastic phase of the exoskeleton is proven to provide a dissipation of extra energy and a stiffness increase in the existing building

A European Project for Safer and Energy Efficient Buildings: Pro-GET-onE (Proactive Synergy of inteGrated Efficient Technologies on Buildings\u2019 Envelopes)

The paper describes the progress of the four-year European project Pro-GET-onE currently under implementation. This research and innovation project is based on the assumption that greater efficiency, attractiveness, and marketable renovation can only be achieved through an integrated set of technologies where all the different requirements (energy, structural, functional) are optimally managed. Thus, the project focuses on the unprecedented integration of different technologies to achieve a multi-benefit approach that is provided by a closer integration between energy and non-energy related benefits. The project aims to combine different pre-fabricated elements in a unified and integrated system resulting in a higher performance in terms of energy requirements, structural safety, and social sustainability. The project attempts to achieve this goal through the introduction of innovative solutions for building envelopes to optimally combine the climatic, structural, and functional aspects through a significant architectural transformation and a substantial increase of the real estate value of the buildings. This augmented value obtained through the application of the inteGrated Efficient Technologies (GETs) is extremely important when considering the necessity of creating an innovative and attractive market in the energy renovation of existing buildings towards the target of nearly zero energy buildings (nZEBs)