Architecture and Sustainability: Utopia or a New Design Commitment?

The cities are held on rhythms that last for generations, and architectures, that are part of the territory, remain for centuries. A very long time with respect to the life of each of us: everyone lives in the city designed by others and helps to form a city where others will live. It takes years to return the image to the cultures that have desired and designed the city: the short history of thirty years of a new discipline

Chasing Smart Communities standards: Lesson Learnt from Geothermal Communities Project in Montieri (Italy)

Abstract European Smart Cities and Communities initiative is asking cities to improve quality of urban life by developing actions aiming at better integrating infrastructures and rationalizing energy use. Lessons learnt from former European demonstration projects represent a valuable expertise on integrated actions aimed at developing innovative measures at urban level. The paper reports and discusses the first results of demonstration activities undertaken in the Italian site of Geothermal Communities project (European Commission, FP7 CONCERTO initiative) where best practices in geothermal energy use, integrated with other renewable energy sources and retrofitting measures, were implemented

CONCERTO AL PIANO: A SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

Urban pilot project is transforming micro-communities in the heart of Italy’s Piedmont region. Concerto AL Piano is a European project aimed to demon- strate the economic and social benefits in investing in energy saving and re- newable energy in the process of urban regeneration. Thanks to the co-operation of the many players in this effort, as well as the support from the region, a previous project of a Photovoltaic Village was a success, and Alessandria became the largest PV village in Italy. Alessandria further promoted energy saving concepts, including encouraging sustainable construction under the banner of Concerto AL Piano. The project includes a mix of interventions: the recovery of existing social hous- ing, the construction of new eco-buildings and the provision of a district heat- ing system in cogeneration. The project has been governed by a partnership be- tween the local authority, public housing agencies, private building companies, universities and research centres. An urban regeneration process has been set-up to become a key action in the Strategic Energy Action Plan (SEAP). Concerto AL Piano in Alessandria has motivated many of the local residents to play a part in eco-construction and energy retrofit projects. Getting citizens involved in energy projects is proving to be the key to success for a region’s effort to promote sustainable construction and energy saving systems

Rigenerazione urbana e percorsi di innovazione / Urban Regeneration and Innovation Paths

This essay introduces urban regeneration concepts with a smart city perspective, and elaborates around the possible transformations of the city towards new design, management, and intelligent controls. It compares the innovative ferment of many cities in the world, with their differences and peculiarities, sometimes with their entropy, caused by simply assuming product innovation, without a consistent social and cultural framework. Smart City has impressively introduced the data issue in the city, not only as a cognitive element for improving the urban design, but as a widespread, accessible information on elements, infrastructure, city places. The transition from the sustainable city to the smart city has its focus on data availability, and has its matrix of success on the economy linked to data. In recent years smart city concepts have been very popular for the industry, who joined cities in their efforts towards a new information and communication society, who devised the Internet of Things, and pulsed the augmented-reality to develop and spread knowledge on a city scale. The industry is looking for innovative solutions to address new markets, in rapid evolution. European cities can provide genuine demonstration platforms: living labs as demo-zones to test full scale applications; to compare, to measure them in their socal and economic impacts; to propose sustainable and self-sufficient innovation to the internal market and to the emerging economies. Intelligent districts, decentralized renewable sources, eco-building, info-mobility, new vehicles, smart grids, decentralized solutions are areas of research and development with an innovatory impact on our urban fabric, but at the same time on our government and professional structures, on our education and research systems. Data networks that are available, chaotic, but good enough are disruptive technologies, unthinkable in the past, to support decisions, strategies, lines of action

Rigenerazione urbana e percorsi di innovazione / Urban Regeneration and Innovation Paths

This essay introduces urban regeneration concepts with a smart city perspective, and elaborates around the possible transformations of the city towards new design, management, and intelligent controls. It compares the innovative ferment of many cities in the world, with their differences and peculiarities, sometimes with their entropy, caused by simply assuming product innovation, without a consistent social and cultural framework. Smart City has impressively introduced the data issue in the city, not only as a cognitive element for improving the urban design, but as a widespread, accessible information on elements, infrastructure, city places. The transition from the sustainable city to the smart city has its focus on data availability, and has its matrix of success on the economy linked to data. In recent years smart city concepts have been very popular for the industry, who joined cities in their efforts towards a new information and communication society, who devised the Internet of Things, and pulsed the augmented-reality to develop and spread knowledge on a city scale. The industry is looking for innovative solutions to address new markets, in rapid evolution. European cities can provide genuine demonstration platforms: living labs as demo-zones to test full scale applications; to compare, to measure them in their socal and economic impacts; to propose sustainable and self-sufficient innovation to the internal market and to the emerging economies. Intelligent districts, decentralized renewable sources, eco-building, info-mobility, new vehicles, smart grids, decentralized solutions are areas of research and development with an innovatory impact on our urban fabric, but at the same time on our government and professional structures, on our education and research systems. Data networks that are available, chaotic, but good enough are disruptive technologies, unthinkable in the past, to support decisions, strategies, lines of action

Benchmarking Energy Sustainability in Cities

Energy efficiency is a strategic component of urban sustainability. The aim of this workshop is to address benchmarking techniques in energy efficiency and sustainability as a management tool in the context of urban and local community actions towards sustainability. The workshop also identifies and discusses methodologies and tools to measure urban sustainable energy and energy efficiency in cities. It is well known that standard benchmarking techniques, such as per capita or GDP normalization, are missing important features of the collected data used for benchmarking. Rigorous benchmarking techniques are likely to play an increasingly important role for policy-making authorities and for local authorities to assess their energy efficiency actions, to monitor their performance, exchange experience and learn from each other. In order to develop reliable and robust benchmarking techniques, different databases on energy consumption and location should be integrated with statistical and energy performance assessment methodologies. A special session was dedicated to databases, methodologies and GIS based tools for assessing energy sustainability in urban areas

CONCERTO AL PIANO. SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSFORMATIONS

Concerto AL Piano, in Alessandria at the NW of Italy, is one of the 58 integrated energy demonstration sites promoted by the European Commission within the 6th and 7th Framework Programme. Concerto AL Piano is aimed at demonstrating the economic and social benefits in investing in energy saving and renewable energy in urban regeneration. The project includes a mix of interventions: the renovation of existing social housing, the construction of new eco-buildings and the provision of a cogeneration district heating, integrated in the urban environment

Avaliação da contração de polimerização de três resinas compactáveis, medida por picnômetro a gás

Modern restorative dentistry has been playing an outstanding role lately since composite resins, allied to adhesive systems, have been widely applied on anterior and posterior teeth restorations. The evolution of composite resins has mostly been verified due to the improvement of their aesthetic behavior and the increase in their compressive and abrasive strengths. In spite of these developments, the polymerization shrinkage inherent to the material has been a major deficiency that, so far, has been impossible to avoid. Using a gas pycnometry, this research investigated the polymerization shrinkage of three packable composite resins: Filtek P60 (3M), Prodigy Condensable (Kerr), and SureFil (Dentsply/Caulk), varying the distance from the light source to the surface of the resins (2 mm or 10 mm). The pycnometer Accupyc 1330 (Micromeritics, USA) precisely records helium displacement, allowing fast and reliable measurements of the volume of composite resin immediately before and after polymerization, without interference of temperature or humidity. Results were not found to be statistically different for the three tested resins, either for 2 mm or 10 mm-distance from the light source to the composite surface.A Odontologia Restauradora moderna tem se destacado nos últimos anos e as resinas compostas, aliadas aos sistemas adesivos, têm sido muito empregadas para restaurações de dentes anteriores e posteriores. A evolução das resinas compostas tem sido constatada na melhoria do seu comportamento estético e no aumento da sua resistência à compressão e à abrasão. Apesar dos avanços mencionados, a contração de polimerização, inerente a esse material, continua sendo uma grande deficiência e, por enquanto, impossível de ser evitada. Nesta pesquisa a contração de polimerização de três resinas compostas compactáveis, Filtek P60 (3M), Prodigy Condensável (Kerr) e SureFil (Dentsply/Caulk), variando-se a distância entre a fonte de luz e a superfície das resinas em 2 mm e 10 mm, foi avaliada pelo método da picnometria a gás. O aparelho picnômetro Accupyc 1330 (Micromeritics, EUA) mede o deslocamento de gás hélio com grande precisão, permitindo medições rápidas e fiéis do volume das resinas compostas antes e após a polimerização, sem interferência da temperatura e da umidade. Os resultados mostraram que não houve diferenças estatisticamente significantes entre as três resinas avaliadas. Independentemente do tipo de resina composta, também não houve diferenças significantes para as distâncias de polimerização de 2 mm e 10 mm

Proceeding of the Workshop "Benchmarking Energy Sustainability in Cities"

Energy efficiency is a strategic component of urban sustainability. The aim of this workshop is to address benchmarking techniques in energy efficiency and sustainability as a management tool in the context of urban and local community actions towards sustainability. The workshop also identifies and discusses methodologies and tools to measure urban sustainable energy and energy efficiency in cities. It is well known that standard benchmarking techniques, such as per capita or GDP normalization, are missing important features of the collected data used for benchmarking. Rigorous benchmarking techniques are likely to play an increasingly important role for policy-making authorities and for local authorities to assess their energy efficiency actions, to monitor their performance, exchange experience and learn from each other. In order to develop reliable and robust benchmarking techniques, different databases on energy consumption and location should be integrated with statistical and energy performance assessment methodologies. A special session was dedicated to databases, methodologies and GIS based tools for assessing energy sustainability in urban areas.JRC.F.7-Renewables and Energy Efficienc