Chapter A Bridge Between East and West: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Drawing as Synthesis of Two Different Cultures

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

Gestione computazionale BIM delle infrastrutture. Strutture di base, metodi e script per le ispezioni e la manutenzione di ponti esistenti.

Al fine di garantire la sostenibilità sia dei beni costruiti che delle tecniche e delle procedure quotidianamente adottate, si stanno verificando notevoli cambiamenti in ambito procedurale e tecnologico basati su processi sempre più digitalizzati. In termini normativi e legislativi, una progressiva adozione di linee guida e decreti per le infrastrutture esistenti mira ad uniformare i riferimenti per i gestori sulle procedure di censimento, ispezione e intervento. Contemporaneamente procedure di Building Information Modeling puntano ad assicurare l’interoperabilità di scambio tra gli attori coinvolti e a ottimizzare le informazioni definite in riferimento ad effettivi obiettivi da perseguire. Dal lato dell’applicazione poi si entra nelle specifiche competenze disciplinari che concorrono al miglioramento dell’ispezione e della manutenzione con tecniche sperimentali, innovative o perfezionate rispetto al passato. Queste ultime producono molteplici ed eterogenei risultati che in un’ottica di sostenibilità devono essere integrati in una base decisionale omogenea per gestire e intervenire sull’infrastruttura costruita. La presente ricerca si inserisce in questo ambito di veloce trasformazione andando ad identificare i nodi cardine dei metodi BIM-based e della gestione delle infrastrutture, indispensabili a garantire i processi di analisi, controllo e progettazione per la conservazione delle opere infrastrutturali esistenti. A partire quindi dal fulcro della rappresentazione digitale di una infrastruttura costruita, ovvero la configurazione geometrica delle forme e dei legami che si instaurano tra di esse, arricchite poi di contenuti informativi strutturati, sono definiti i requisiti necessari e imprescindibili per ottenere dei modelli informativi interrogabili e arricchiti semanticamente da informazioni differenziate, nonché sono stati prodotti i modelli geometrici informativi per la mappatura.Sono stati strutturati dei sistemi computazionali che trasformano le richieste normative non strutturate, in requisiti informativi valutabili, tramite la creazione di una ontologia delle proprietà per il censimento e l’ispezione di ponti esistenti e la creazione di un data dictionary per l’identificazione univoca dello stato di degrado dei ponti in esame. Sono stati poi prodotti dei modelli geometrici parametrici creati tramite delle regole per descrivere la genesi geometrica delle forme e i collegamenti tra di essi, per ottenere molteplici configurazioni geometriche di ponti a travata a graticcio acciaio-calcestruzzo, in calcestruzzo e a cassone. Questi modelli sono stati poi mappati secondo lo standard IFC 4.3, ottenendo dei modelli interoperabili. Il numero elevato di configurazioni topologiche che si può ottenere permette di gestire con uno sforzo limitato la produzione di modelli informativi per le ispezioni, ottenendo dei placer informativi gerarchici e semantizzati a cui associare le informazioni precedentemente strutturate di attributi da normativa e sullo stato di danno. Sono stati poi prodotti dei modelli informativi di interventi su ponti esistenti che dimostrassero la coerenza geometrica e informativa della modellazione BIM.Existing infrastructures play a fundamental role in social and economic dynamics. In recent years, many European infrastructures of the last century, such as bridges, are almost at the end of their life cycle. Moreover, due to the climate change and additional traffic loads, the rate of deterioration of these infrastructures has increased. Considerable investments, therefore, are necessary for maintaining this existing asset, encouraging on the one hand a more effective management of inspection and maintenance activities, on the other to test innovative intervention techniques to optimize resources. To ensure the sustainability of both built assets and the techniques and procedures adopted on a daily basis, there are significant changes in the procedural and technological fields based on digitized processes. A progressive adoption of guidelines and law for existing infrastructures moves towards standardized method for management, inspection, and intervention procedures. At the same time, Building Information Modeling methods aim to ensure the interoperability between the disciplines and to optimize the information for reaching specific objectives. From the application side, disciplinary skills contribute to the improve the quality of inspection and maintenance with experimental and innovative techniques. They produce heterogeneous results which, from a sustainability perspective, must be integrated into a homogeneous decision-making basis for managing and intervening on the built infrastructure. From this statement, the present research identifies the BIM concepts and methods for infrastructure management, to guarantee the analysis, control, and design processes for the conservation of existing infrastructural works. Therefore, it starts from the geometric configuration of the shapes and the links that are established between them, enriched with structured information contents. Essential requirements are defined to obtain information models that can be queried and semantically enriched by multiple information, and geometric models were produced. Computational systems have been structured which transform unstructured regulatory requests into evaluable information requirements. This was set through the creation of an ontology of properties for the survey and inspection and the creation of a data dictionary for the unique identification of the state of degradation of existing bridges. Parametric geometric models were then produced, created through rules to describe the geometric genesis of the shapes and the connections between them, to obtain multiple geometric configurations of steel-concrete, concrete and caisson girder bridges. These models were then mapped according to the IFC 4.3 standard, obtaining interoperable models. This large number of topological configurations allows the production of information models for inspections with limited effort, obtaining hierarchical and semantic information placers to which to associate the previously structured information of attributes from legislation and the state of damage. Information models of interventions on existing bridges were then produced which demonstrated the geometric and informational consistency of the BIM modeling

Theory and history of Geometry and Representation for the project. Structural Optimization and Topology

Theproposed reser1rch intends, in one hand, to place Geometry and Representrltion in the historicrll-anthropological climate of their genesis; un the other hand, to read their evolutionlimpactsfiir new approaches to thegenesis of architectura/Jengineering artefacts, buth fmm a configurative and structural point of view. However, if we consíder the typicaf primitive/intuitive approaches of Representation, up to its rigorous elaborations based on coherent knowledge of Optics and Geometry, it ispossible to recognize the strong links between artistic experience, mathematical contribution and scientific elaboration. lt is therefiirepossible to offir a broad overview oJ the "state of art" reLating to criticai sector studies, conducted both in Ita/y and abroad, to underiine: - how awareness in multiple areas of Geometry is expressed in the mode and in the process of implementation of archítecture and engíneering, from the iderttion to its realization; - how Representation isplaced as a medium between theory and built. In this sense we intend toJocus on Topology and itsgenesis,far the repercussions in terms of Structural Optimizatíon,fa r theprom ising results that these procedures ensure in terms of reducing the use of material rmd design iterations, without neglecting archítectura/Jengíneering quality, a/so in configuratíve terms