The Study of Historical Indoor Microclimate (HIM) to Contribute towards Heritage Buildings Preservation

Knowledge of building techniques, materials and their decay is nowadays quite vast, as well as on the solutions and methodologies of a restoration project, which depends on the goal of the restoration itself. Even the choices on the new usage of historic buildings are often well considered. In the last few years, we have conducted some monitoring campaigns to obtain data related to four distinct buildings, differing in construction times, typology, location, current and historical uses. What has been discovered is that these buildings appear to be able to guarantee historical microclimates surprisingly overlapping to the parameters nowadays considered appropriate to conserve them and the historical patrimony they contain. In this article we show some explanatory results of four case studies from our research. The monitoring control, moreover, allowed us to develop the analysis further, from survey to virtual simulation. In this way it was possible to verify the effects of minimal variations in the architectural characteristics, such as opening or closing a window, covering an open yard, or else removing a cover, reducing the source of light etc. All of these managerial and architectural interventions have a significant effect on the indoor environment of buildings and can improve the conservation status of architecture, sometimes to such an extent that more costly and invasive restorations become unnecessary

Restauro: Conoscenza, Progetto, Cantiere, Gestione

La SIRA, società scientifica che riunisce anzitutto coloro che, nelle università italiane, lavorano nel campo restauro, con i propri studi, la ricerca e l’insegnamento, ha l’obiettivo statutario di promuovere “lo studio e la valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale in ambito scientifico, accademico, civile ed educativo”. I volumi raccolgono i contributi al II Convegno tenutorsi a Bologna a settembre 2018 cui ha partecipato un consistente numero di studiosi in vario modo impegnati nell’Università italiana. L’intenzione fondamentale era fare luce sul rapporto esistente – o possibile – tra i molti aspetti che influenzano il ‘concreto fare restauro’ e che, nel loro articolarsi, possono determinare il successo o l’insuccesso delle attività che connotano il suo sviluppo: conoscenza, programmazione e fattibilità economica, progetto, cantiere e successiva gestione dei beni coinvolti

Library Indoor microclimate monitoring with and without heating system. A Bologna University Library case study

This paper aims to illustrate and give an interpretation of the results emerged from a pilot activity developed within the ROCK project, by the Department of Architecture of the University of Bologna, Alma Mater Studiorum. Through this activity, we studied the indoor microclimate of the University Library of Bologna (BUB), in the Archive and in the Lecture Hall, with the aim to detect how these spaces are affected by the influence of factors such as the outdoor climate and the cooling and heating systems. Moreover, the paper presents the customisation of the probes’ alert system and of the probes itself, used for a one-year monitoring campaign started on the 20th of December 2018. In addition, we calculated the Heritage Microclimate Risk index, to verify the level of risk to which the heritage in the Library is exposed due to the indoor microclimate, and the Predicted Risk of Damage index, that evaluate the more specific risks of damage to which precise objects hosted in there are exposed. Therefore, this paper enriches the research field of Historic Indoor Microclimate, started in 2013, which concerns issues as preventive conservation and restoration in historic buildings. The new insights about the Bologna University Library facilitate the possibility to draw up a specific ‘Indoor Microclimate Management Protocol (IMMP)’ aimed at the preventive conservation of manuscripts and books in historical libraries

Digital microclimate simulation models to support innovative management and preventive conservation processes in cultural sites

Among the least investigated aspects in historical architecture, one is the microclimatic behaviour linked to the preventive conservation of cultural heritage. This aspect should be studied intensively since it is closely related to any deterioration phenomenon of materials and can have a crucial role in updating management systems of cultural sites. Today the sensors that monitor environmental parameters can transfer data in real time into a continuous monitoring logic (cloud platforms) and this, in addition to the development of software capable of modelling the thermo-hygrometric behaviour of buildings, opens up new lines of research. The authors believe that it represents one of the most promising areas of investigation and capable of offering greater results in terms of preventive and planned measures. This contribution collects an experience recently conducted, financed by the Ministry of University and Research, in one of the most prestigious Italian museums, the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN). The monitoring and modelling methodologies are illustrated, as well as the objectives of the intervention, with a view to a fruition that holds the psycho-physical well-being of staff and visitors and the conservation of heritage as close as possible. The results are closely linked to the pandemic experience, with the secondary objective of risk prevention for people and cultural heritage

Castelvecchio Calvisio. A methodology for re-using historic rural villages and small towns

Disciplinary debate on the uses of ancient architecture still suffers from a lack of attention. Intended use; defining a possible methodology to finally identify what functions can be implemented to ensure the virtuous process (as discussed above); attention to the issue of additions \u2013 all these themes must again become central in disciplinary investigations. Today, discipline proposals seem to oscillate between those whose solution simply indicates the return to the building\u2019s original use and those for whom it is more interesting and useful to provide general guidance and method, favoring the goal of minimum alteration, or of prolonging the life and permanence of the architecture\u2019s characterising signs. In this regard we must reflect on the relative poverty of proposals in the disciplinary publications and manuals. But we should also consider the positions that have been briefly summarised above. In this paper the author tries to give a possible methodology on how take with the problem of reuse of small abandoned villages

Design Criteria and Strategies

ThischapterisdedicatedtothreeaspectsofHIMresearch.Firstofall,an analysis of the great step forward in the microclimatic functions of architectures, between the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. This is at the basis of the conflicts that more and more often we see between physical architectures and their microclimate, which end up into slow but inexorable decay of buildings. Second, the nature of these phenomena, due to the imposition of an inadequate microclimate to a building, with an adequate support of literature. In the third and final part, strategies and interventions to reduce the risk of decay are presented along with evaluation criteria to intervene on historic indoor microclimate when this is needed

Il catalogo dei valori, il valore dei cataloghi

La raccolta dati sul patrimonio architettonico condotta nel Comune di Cavallino Treporti nell'ambito del progetto INTERREG IIIA Italia-Slovenia 2000-2006 affonda le sue radici nel bisogno di raccogliere informazioni su di un patrimonio scarsamente frequentato dalle ricerche storiche d'ambito architettonico. Nel contributo si traccia una rapida sintesi del significato e dell'evoluzione del catalogo delle cose d'interesse storico-artistico prima, e dei beni culturali poi. Si fa il punto sulla catalogazione condotta sul territorio, utile alla definizione di una strategia di tutela e di valorizzazione dello stesso

Heritage Communities: cambio di paradigma?

Projects of conservation and restoration of historical architectural heritage, like all design activities carried out in a specific place, are now in a paradigm shift: projects are gradually becoming more and more a product, involved from the start of the process to the end. This evolution, which sees the growth of associations and groups of volunteers interested in their heritage as a side effect, inevitably produces new processes and concepts, in which the built heritage must be increasingly seen as closely linked to the community of reference, both in terms of production of design ideas and in terms of its use and enhancement. This phenomenon, favored by legislative measures and sector charters, requires an adaptation of the approach on the part of those who carry out their own research on historical architectural heritage. Starting from an examination of the evolution of legislation and the measures that underlie this paradigm shift, the contribution aims to give a useful contribution to understanding what fundamental role the University as a public institution is called upon to play, in this new perspective

Ville Venete. Restauro e valorizzazione nel secondo decennio del XXI secolo

Le ville venete, dopo un lungo periodo di fortuna che, dal secondo dopoguerra, aveva condotto agli inizi del XXI secolo ad un aumento dei finanziamenti pubblici e privati, destinati alla loro conservazione; finanziamenti che erano cresciuti man mano, con la crescita dell'interesse verso questo patrimonio, estesissimo e di grandissimo interesse; con la riduzione delle risorse disponibili, conseguenza della crisi economica che ha colpito duramente anche il nord-est del Paese, sono divenute spesso fonte di problemi per chi le possiede, siano essi enti pubblici o privati. Il contributo mostra tre casi esemplari, di ville appartenenti ad istituzioni pubbliche o a privati, di valorizzazione: villa Contarini Simes a Piazzola sul Brenta, di propriet\ue0 dell'Istituto Ville Venete; Villa Franceschi a Mira, oggetto di una intelligente politica di valorizzazione a fini ricettivi-turistici; Villa Barbaro a Maser, uno dei pi\uf9 importanti monumenti tra quelli riferiti ad Andrea Palladio