Acciaio e performative architecture. Enric Ruiz Geli e Cloud 9, Edificio Media TIC, Barcellona, Spagna, 2007-2010

Media TIC da problema a opportunità: per rispondere ai requisiti di riduzione degli impatti ambientali ed energetici l’edificio è stato pensato come produttore di energia e autoregolante rispetto a stimoli esterni. Il progetto complessivo ha generato diversi gradi d’innovazione tecnologica. È formalmente un cubo rappresentativo del mondo digitale per ospitare le attività di Information and Comunication Technology. Progettato e costruito in digitale con processi CAD-CAM, combina in modo espressivo sforzo creativo e consapevolezza ambientale. La struttura di acciaio, bioluminescente, è costituita da portali reticolari da cui si sospendono i solai interpiano. L’involucro è una combinazione molto personale dell’architetto Enric Ruiz-Geli con parti rivestite di cuscini pneumatici in ETFE, attraente e allo stesso tempo funzionale per l’autoregolazione della luce e della temperatura interne

Acciaio e schermature tessili, Gerber Architekten, Biblioteca nazionale King Fahad, Riyadh, Arabia Saudita, 2004-2013

Attraverso la combinazione ben riuscita di vecchio e nuovo, tradizione e modernità, la Biblioteca Nazionale di Re Fahad mostra un aspetto uniforme e rappresentativo. Le caratteristiche salienti del nuovo edificio sono la facciata tessile, quale forte segno architettonico urbano, e il tetto di acciaio, che copre la nuova costruzione così come il vecchio edificio. L’involucro schermante in acciaio e tessile tecnico, minuziosamente progettato, riflette correttamente la cultura araba e la dignità sociale di questo luogo ricco di tradizione. La geometria delle morbide e leggere vele tessili, poste su una tensostruttura a rete di cavi di acciaio simile a una filigrana, richiama la decorazione tradizionale e la struttura si rifà alle classiche tende arabe, da interpretare come un segno di continuità culturale, al di là della moderna ingegneria civile e della tecnologia

TECHNICAL TEXTILES AND THIN INSULATION MATERIALS. NEW SCENARIOS FOR THE ENERGETIC RETROFITTING

In the building sector, there is a growing interest in the technical textiles, in particular as components for facades and also as potential replacements for the current options that seek energy efficiency through mass. The role of textiles in retrofitting from inside rooms is gaining more importance. The traditional wallpaper is evolving to interactive renovation possibilities by smart textiles, till to the thermal retrofitting. The paper deepens the feasible integration between wall covering textiles and thin super- insulating materials, coupling thermal function with sensorial and aesthetic ones. The goal is to identify which materials are suitable to achieve the new smart component

Environment load of EFTE cushions and future ways for their self-sufficient performances

p. 754-766Monticelli, C.; Campioli, A.; Zanelli, A. (2009). Environment load of EFTE cushions and future ways for their self-sufficient performances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/673

Life Cycle Assessment in Architecture as Decisional Tool in the Design Stage

The horizon of sustainability calls into question extremely complex phenomena, both in terms of social, economic, and cultural transformations, and in terms of the ecological implications of building activity in its wide territorial and temporal extension, and in terms of and the techniques to refer to. On this last aspect, in particular, today it is necessary to counteract the tendency toward an inconsiderate simplification of the aforementioned complex phenomena, because this simplistic approach is precisely the cause of the often trivialized and sometimes radically wrong interpretations. The chapter develops the theme of environmental sustainability precisely in this complex perspective, assuming the consideration of the entire life cycle of building products, whether they are materials, components, or buildings, as an inescapable reference horizon and the measurement of energy and resource consumption and of the impacts that are determined along the life cycle (Life Cycle Assessment—LCA) as the main tool for assessing the concrete sustainability of design choices with rigor and scientific basis

Acciaio e riqualificazione strutturale. Make architects, edificio per uffici LSQ London in Leicester Square, Londra (Regno Unito), 2013 - 2016

La riqualificazione della piazza e la ristrutturazione dell’edificio per uffici tutelato LSQ sono il risultato di uno studio calibrato delle necessità urbane a Leicester Square a Londra, che hanno ridato ordine urbano e rivitalizzato lo spazio pubblico. Dell’edificio esistente l’intera facciata è stata conservata come pelle esterna, per mantenere l’immagine dell’antica grandezza elegante della piazza, in contrasto con i vicini edifici contemporanei. Tale intervento ha visto l’acciaio quale protagonista nelle operazioni di cesura, di ricucitura tra facciata esistente e costruzione di una nuova intera struttura volta a massimizzare le altezze interpiano e gli spazi aperti e liberi per gli uffici. L’opera di acciaio è stata l’unica soluzione possibile, da un alto, per la sua duttilità a far collaborare parti vecchie e nuovi sistemi costruttivi, dall’altro, per la facilità di montaggio e le dimensioni discretizzabili in piccoli elementi, considerando il contesto compresso tra edifici e uno spazio di cantiere limitatissimo. Interessante è anche il trattamento antincendio dell’acciaio, calibrato zona per zona in funzione delle destinazioni d’uso. The redevelopment of the square and the renovation of the listed LSQ office building are the result of a calibrated study of urban needs at Leicester Square in London, that have restored urban order and revitalized public space. The entire facade was preserved as an exterior of the existing building, to maintain the image of the ancient elegant grandeur of the square, in contrast to the contemporary building neighbours. This intervention saw steel as the protagonist in the cracking operations, between the existing façade and the construction of a whole new structure designed to maximize the floor levels and the office open spaces. The steel work was the only possible solution, on the one hand, because of its ductility to cooperate with old and new construction systems, on the other hand, ease of assembly and discretizable dimensions in small items, considering the compressed areas between buildings and a very limited construction site. Also interesting is the fire protection of the steel, calibrated zone by zone according to the destination of use

The Sustainability of Adaptive Envelopes: Developments of Kinetic Architecture

AbstractThe paper presents an overview of adaptable envelopes and shading systems applied in contemporary architecture; it offers a study of different design approaches and a brief analysis of exemplifying case studies. The aim of the research is the gathering of built examples relevant to outlining a state of the arts of adaptive façade systems and also understanding their environmental performances. Nowadays two different trends emerge in building development. On the one side the new challenge is given by the possibility to reconfigure the new spaces following environmental changes and users needs, while on the other the focus is on the increase of efficiency and the optimisation of materials for reducing energy consumptions in constructions. The building envelope is the primary subsystem through which external conditions and environmental changes can be regulated and therefore acquires great relevance in the development of new approaches to sustainable building solutions. In this review paper several examples are shown and compared, understanding the search for dynamics applied in architecture and the effectiveness from an environmental sustainability point of view

Structural membranes in architecture: an eco-efficient solution for the future?

The essay concerns the research conducted during the four years of the EU-COST Action TU1303 Novel Structural Skins (2014-2017), in which the authors coordinated the Working Group 2: Sustainability and Life Cycle Analysis of structural skin. The first objective was to investigate research trends in innovative applications of structural membranes, environmental performances and durability of textile materials in a life cycle perspective. Then, some principles of membrane sustainability have been developed, such as strategies for a more informed project, and three prerequisites for a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach optimized for membrane structures have been identified. Their application, in the early design phases, is aimed at verifying the advantages and disadvantages, and the correct exploitation of the properties of membrane materials in the architectural design context

Experimental manufacture of a pneumatic cushion made of etfe foils and OPV cells

This paper presents the preliminary activity from which the fabrication of a new kind of ETFE foil fully integrated with a Smart, Organic, Flexible and Translucent Photovoltaic building component (named SOFT-PV) begins. A prototype of SOFT-PV cushion will be the object of optical, mechanical and thermal tests to preview all problematic aspects of the fabrication process and the environmental impact evaluation with LCA methodology

Life Cycle Design and Efficiency Principles for Membrane Architecture: Towards a New Set of Eco-design Strategies

The typical membranes for building are polymer-based materials, which have origin from fossil fuel. Nevertheless, they are supposed to become very lightweight building components, compared with other typical ones, and, due to their lightness, involve fewer stiffening structural materials (bio-based or not) than other traditional massive components. The need of understanding their real potentials and limits in terms of eco-efficiency is declared. The paper presents the research results about the eco-efficiency principles in the field of membrane architecture, based on the application of Life Cycle Assessment methodology to membrane structures. The paper presents a systematic review of the state of the art, with the aim to demonstrate the advantages of the Life Cycle Design strategy answering to the environmental sustainability. A comparison matrix about existing environmental data on membranes (environmental impacts, EPD, Recycling and up-cycling processes) and the LCA studies are part of the shown research output. On the need of harmonization of the research about the availability of LCA data for membranes and on the basis of the collected information, a first set of eco-design principles for membranes structures is proposed. Concluding, the authors reveal the current gap between the research studies and the real praxis in architectural design referred to a specific context and envisage further improvements of the application of the eco-efficiency principles starting from the early design phases