Regenerating Urban Spaces under Place-specific Social Contexts: a Commentary on Green Infrastructures for Landscape Conservation

This study investigates the issue of green infrastructures in contemporary cities, adopting a strategic vision for increasingly complex metropolitan regions. Green infrastructures play an important role in ecological services and biodiversity preservation, improving significantly the quality of life of residents and visitors. The social dimension of gardens and parks at local (e.g. urban district) scale and green infrastructures at larger spatial scales is also addressed, fostering the relationship between local communities and urban landscapes. With economic crisis, urban parks are increasingly considered a primary component of integrated strategies for urban regeneration with a bottom-up approach, addressing the demand for "natural landscape" in peri-urban areas. By recovering public spaces with social purposes and providing a comprehensive strategy for aesthetic improvement of common goods, the analyzed case studies give examples of specific measures for promoting environment-friendly urban regeneration strategies under place-specific social contexts

Chapter KID. Il disegno di un nuovo tipo di bicicletta

The 43rd UID conference, held in Genova, takes up the theme of ‘Dialogues’ as practice and debate on many fundamental topics in our social life, especially in these complex and not yet resolved times. The city of Genova offers the opportunity to ponder on the value of comparison and on the possibilities for the community, naturally focused on the aspects that concern us, as professors, researchers, disseminators of knowledge, or on all the possibile meanings of the discipline of representation and its dialogue with ‘others’, which we have broadly catalogued in three macro areas: History, Semiotics, Science / Technology. Therefore, “dialogue” as a profitable exchange based on a common language, without which it is impossible to comprehend and understand one another; and the graphic sign that connotes the conference is the precise transcription of this concept: the title ‘translated’ into signs, derived from the visual alphabet designed for the visual identity of the UID since 2017. There are many topics which refer to three macro sessions: - Witnessing (signs and history) - Communicating (signs and semiotics) - Experimenting (signs and sciences) Thanks to the different points of view, an exceptional resource of our disciplinary area, we want to try to outline the prevailing theoretical-operational synergies, the collaborative lines of an instrumental nature, the recent updates of the repertoires of images that attest and nourish the relations among representation, history, semiotics, sciences

WOOD AND GENERATIVE ALGORITHMS FOR THE COMPARISON BETWEEN MODELS AND REALITY

Abstract. This study examines the emblematic case of a test room and its relation to digital modelling. This space is the result of a multi-optimization process that has been physically built for the verification of the initial hypotheses. As a result, it is actually a Physical Twin, designed to be transformable by removing a wall. The same space, on the other hand, has become useful for testing the Digital Twin logic by associating a BIM model with a dynamic representation of the data captured by the sensors. The representation is thus placed at the core of this cyclic phase between reality and representation, with the goal of validating the proposed theories through empirical practice, improving digital computational ability, and identifying pathways for monitoring space's interactions with the environment and those who live in it

URBAN PARAMETRIC PERCEPTION. THE CASE STUDY OF THE HISTORIC CENTRE OF PERUGIA

Abstract. The study describes a new approach methodology to detect and represent emotions from signals measured by an Emotiv EPOC cascade. The developed algorithm aims to obtain an analysis of emotions based on EEG data with interpolation of these using the concepts of the circumplex model. This tool will help in the analysis of emotions produced by the atmosphere of an environment in relation to the position, detected by GPS. In addition, the same algorithm will be used to search for a graphic representation of immediate reading, by means of colour association with the output values obtained, to integrate those of gaze analysis obtained by Pupil Player software and position data

Re-sewing the urban periphery. A green strategy for fontivegge district in Perugia

The present study debates on the issue of urban regeneration in contemporary cities, adopting a strategic vision which includes the use of vegetation and green infrastructure to create a network of public spaces. Especially, urban periphery lacks of public spaces, meaning a public use of urban space for outdoor activities and social networks. The extraordinary program for the Italian peripheries, addressed to all the metropolitan cities and provincial capitals in 2016, inspired to Renzo Piano idea of “resewing” urban fabrics, has been a good opportunity for testing new approaches to urban regeneration. The case study investigated in this study is the financed project for the city of Perugia, which provides different interventions aimed at improving (and developing new) public spaces through vegetation enhancement and a large area destined to vegetable social gardens as a strategy for urban infill. By recovering public spaces with social purpose and providing a comprehensive strategy for aesthetic improvement of the city, the case study provides a representative example, how greening the city may promote together biodiversity conservation and urban regeneration

MACHINE LEARNING AND LANDSCAPE QUALITY. REPRESENTING VISUAL INFORMATION USING DEEP LEARNING-BASED IMAGE SEGMENTATION FROM STREET VIEW PHOTOS

The study is centered on the value of visual perception in the measurement of landscape quality. The research aims to define a digital methodological process and criterion for assessing the quality of a landscape, using along a road georeferenced image as open source big data. Artificial intelligence system, trained to recognize and quantify the elements present, processes these images associating area data, therefore converted them into values according to specific criteria. In each image, it evaluates positive or negative characteristics of the path, and the sum of all big data values generates an index (L-value). This approach is tested in different case studies, validating AI results with Collective Intelligence, using anonymous questionnaires. The proposed process transforms the perceptual data inherent in the photographs into information, from which it extrapolates a knowledge path synthesized in map, representation of perceived qualities of the landscape

Analytical Comparison of Optical Methods to Evaluate the Potential of the Photo Modelling Technique for Cultural Heritage

A comparison of commercial 3D photo modelling software applications is presented. Starting from the simple acquisition of digital images, and based on the principles of photogrammetry, photo modelling represents a user-friendly and economical way to digitally preserve and three-dimensionally reproduce cultural heritage objects. The aim of this research is to evaluate the potential offered by the technique by reviewing a range of commercial and opensource software applications and making a comparison with reference data points obtained from a structured light 3D scanner. A marble artefact was selected from the collection of the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria di Perugia (Italy) as a test case for the analytical comparison of these two optical techniques

Developable wooden surface for lightweight architecture: Bio-Dune Pavilion

Within the broad context of teaching and research, the results of a project involving a pavilion based on developable wooden surfaces, parametric design, and digital fabrication are presented through the collaboration of Ibero-American universities. The project addresses applications of wood to architecture that involves the CNC cutting of plates, thanks to the properties of developable surfaces. The in-depth knowledge of the geometrical properties of these surfaces opens up a wide range of morphological exploration and new constructive solutions. The proposed system provides a creative response to the criteria of limited material resources (a thin sheet of material) and low production and assembly costs as an analogy with natural construction. This high-tech and low-cost system, together with the Bio-mimetic design, offers an eco-compatible proposal to the three processes under study: design, manufacture, and assembly

refugee camps as an opportunity for promoting alternative development strategies based on carbon credits

Abstract The difficult social issues faced by non-governmental organizations regarding planning, management, and evolution of the refugee camps led to evaluating alternative development strategies. Indeed, innovative technologies could be promoted for sustainably enhancing local economy. The present model suggests the exploitation of high-albedo materials to generate cool oases in hot climate contexts. The benefits derived by this proposal were investigated by simulating the application of high-albedo devices on shelters in Zaatari, then the avoided carbon emissions were quantified, and several scenarios were discussed. In the framework of the Emissions Trading System, the carbon credits, which can be obtained and sold by contributing to the global warming mitigation process, are estimated to be around 150,000 tons CO 2-eq . Considering the market tendencies presented during the COP21 in Paris, the intervention is demonstrated to be sustainable in economic and environmental terms. The payback period is estimated in 3 years in the most reliable scenario. The work presents the main results of a wider research that also included consideration about the urban planning of the camps

Modular patterns in hygroscopic 4D printing design – Form and programming of the material

4D Printing (4DP) can be used to create bio-inspired, hygro-responsive actuators using Wood Polymer Composites (WPCs). The research emphasises the role of precise control of kinematics through material programming and printing parameters to achieve dynamic shape-change mechanisms in response to environmental factors. In 4DP, the geometric configurations of printed objects depend not only on the materials but also on their combination, time, and environmental stimuli, leading to the concept of material architecture: in the context of 4DP, the relationship between form and matter is, therefore, redefined. In this paper, the relationship between the responsive WPCs 4DP actuators with their material architecture and their hygroscopic deformations is discussed, highlighting the role of the modular patterns in the definition of the reaction to the stimulus and the final configuration of the object.   Article info Received: 17/09/2023; Revised: 13/10/2023; Accepted: 22/10/202