Towards (R)evolving Cities Urban fragilities and prospects in the 21st century

Towards (R)evolving Cities: Urban Fragilities and Prospects in the 21st century first questions how we perceive the ‘intelligence’ of a city. The New Frontier of development for urban civilisations certainly includes digital and technological evolution, but it does not consider technology to be the final answer to all contemporary cities’ problems. The formidable challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have thrown existing urban fragilities into stark relief. At the same time however they have highlighted the potential of digital solutions for reaching a new level of interconnected civility. (R)evolving cities evolve by adopting the principles of the circular economy in the higher interest of their citizens’ well-being: they consume therefore without devouring, recycle as much as possible what they metabolize, limit the effects of their ecological footprint and ultimately lead their inhabitants, with maternal guidance and care, to a new idea of citizenship. As protagonists of this evolutionary leap, the citizens of (R)evolving cities will abandon their predatory approach, reaching a higher stage of integration in the ecosystem and becoming more respectful of reciprocal relationships. (R)evolving cities are above all ‘polite’ cities, or rather cities whose citizens are consciously educated in the principles of sustainable development, the essential basis for contemporary civil coexistence

La Città fragile: dalla Smart alla (R)evolving city

Il superamento del concetto di Smart city per arrivare a quello di (R)evolving city, mette innanzi tutto in discussione cosa si debba intendere per ‘intelligenza’ di una città. Certamente la Nuova frontiera per lo sviluppo delle civiltà urbane ricomprende l’evoluzione tecnologica, ma non considera la tecnologia come la risposta definitiva a tutti i problemi delle città contemporanee. La (R)evolving city evolve introitando i principi dell’economia circolare, nell’interesse superiore del benessere dei suoi cittadini, e dunque consuma senza divorare, ricicla il più possibile ciò che metabolizza, contiene gli effetti della propria impronta ecologica ed in ultima analisi guida con materna e gentile cura i suoi abitanti ad un concetto nuovo di cittadinanza. Come attori del cambiamento evolutivo dei sistemi urbani, i cittadini della (R)evolving city abbandonano l’approccio predatorio evolvendo ad uno stadio superiore di organismi, integrati nell'ecosistema e rispettosi delle reciproche relazioni. La (R)evolving city è soprattutto una città ‘educata’, o meglio una città i cui cittadini sono consapevolmente educati ai principi dello sviluppo sostenibile, considerati come base oramai imprescindibile della convivenza civile contemporanea

ZEB Prototype Controlled by a Machine Learning System

This communication concerns a research project by the Interdepartmental Research Centre for Territory Construction Restoration and Environment (CITERA) of Sapienza University of Rome in collaboration with ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development) based on the realization of a 1:1 scale demonstrator of a Zero Energy Building that allows continuous experimentation of new technologies for innovative photovoltaic systems, efficient storage systems and high-performance envelope materials. In particular a measurement protocol has been developed for both the overall efficiency of the building and the individual technological components with a view to a comparative critical analysis of the integration of the individual components in the building-system complex. All the technological systems has been used in Solar Decathlon Middle East 2018 competition in Dubai. The project concerns the development of a control and management system for photovoltaic energy production systems for the ZEB prototype, based on an intelligent self-learning system (AI) able to optimize the parameters of self-produced electricity supply based on real consumption of air conditioning equipment, electrical power supply to the equipment, access control and safety equipment. The most immediate result concerns the integrated design of both the hardware systems for the production and use of electricity and the algorithms that continuously measure parameters such as grid load, consumption and electricity production, and which takes into account weather forecasts, energy tariffs, and learns the trend of electricity consumers through the use of artificial intelligence

Design of three outdoor combined thermal comfort prediction models based on urban and environmental parameters

The current trend of urbanization growth, take along a substantial increase in the outdoor temperatures within built environments, affecting the liveability of outdoor space, reducing the thermal comfort of citizens. Outdoor thermal comfort is usually evaluated with complex models on large scale, considering neighbourhoods, districts, or cities, without focusing on local and accurate predictions. The present study is aimed at contributing to the topic by proposing a simple yet accurate combined prediction model, able to assess the outdoor thermal comfort around a theoretical isolated building. A set of parameters, such as wind velocity, relative humidity, solar irradiation, and building height, has been used to quantify their effect urban comfort at fixed air temperature. The same parameters have been used for the development of a predictive correlation for the three outdoor thermal comfort indexes (UTCI, PET and SET). Comfort data was calculated by CFD simulations where the environmental parameters was variated in a fixed range. The main contribution to outdoor thermal comfort is provided by solar irradiation affecting the comfort indexes values up to 50%, the second is the wind velocity affecting up to 25% the thermal comfort indexes. The variation of building height is less impacting (around 15% of comfort values) as well as the relative humidity (5%). At least, three correlations have been elaborated for each outdoor thermal index. Correlation’s quality has been evaluated using RMSE and percentage difference, obtaining a maximum average value of 0.71 and 1.48%, respectively

Optimization of design and management of a hydroponic greenhouse by using BIM application software

The paper deals with hydroponic greenhouses that can be used both for crops cultivation and as a space for hosting events, thanks to its transformability characteristics. The project combines the concepts of circular economy and agricultural activity, creating environmentally sustainable hydroponic greenhouses, from the design to the management phase, thanks to the use of a multidisciplinary BIM approach (Building Information Modelling). The use of application software in BIM logic such as MC4® Energy and Arch Energy (Tool developed by Sapienza University of Rome) for the energetic performance evaluation and Tally® Environmental Impact Tool for LCA Analysis, has improved the design of a modular and flexible architecture, energy-efficient and water-efficient, with advanced climate control. The project offers a possible solution to the main future challenges of food production such as the limited space, the urbanization process, the scarce availability of resources such as water, fossil fuels, minerals and the increasing demands of consumers in terms of functionality and product quality

La gestione digitale dei sistemi urbani. Una chiave per affrontare le sfide della sostenibilità ambientale nel settore edilizio

Il problema della sostenibilità ambientale è sempre più critico, in particolare nelle aree ad alta densità abitativa e urbane, dove l’impatto delle attività umane è significativo. La sostenibilità si riferisce alla capacità di mantenere un equilibrio tra l’uso delle risorse naturali e la conservazione dell’ambiente. Attualmente, i sistemi urbani e l’ambiente costruito sono responsabili di circa il 75% delle emissioni di gas serra a livello globale e consumano circa il 75% delle risorse energetiche del pianeta. Inoltre, oltre il 65% della popolazione mondiale vive e lavora nelle città, concentrando le attività emissive in tali contesti

Sustainable Restoration of Cultural Heritage in the digital era

The reprocessing, preservation, and maintenance of the wide historical architectural heritage in Italy represent one of the main challenges of digitalization; not only it is one of the oldest among in Europe, but it is also widespread across the country between cities and rural areas.  The care of such an aging built environment needs a carefully planned approach that can take advantage of new technologies such as Historical/Heritage Building Information Modelling (H-BIM) and Digital Twin (DT). The final goal is to promote a long-term sustainable restoration with high qualitative standards. Usually, the topic of sustainability is discussed for new constructions where it is of fundamental importance to save materials, energy, land use and to reduce the carbon footprint. However, being the number of historical buildings elevate in Italy, the concept shall be extended also to them, that are way more fragile if compared to the surrounding. Moreover, cultural heritage is connected to specific challenges that need to be addressed. What was happened in Aquila region after the earthquake of 2019 must not happen again. Digital technologies can be used to prevent such a catastrophic event, preventing and limiting damages, providing evaluable information, and realizing a tool that can be shared among the stakeholders to restore the physical and cultural value of an historical building also in case of extreme events

BRIDGING THE DISTANCES, AN INTEGRATED APPROACH (in Moving forward for an Ageing Society: Bridging the distances pag: 7-8)

In order to address both primary and secondary consequences of an increasing ageing population, our societies are called today to adopt a completely new mind-set. Studies and policy exercises carried out at national and international level, seem to address the issue of Ageing societies from unilateral sector-based perspectives. Even the health sector, generally considered as having the most wide-ranging approach, runs the risk of providing only an incomplete picture compared to the complexity of the problem. Concentrating on single issues instead of looking at the problem as a whole, could lead to the kind of perverse incentives that have slowed down the implementation of a very ambitious exercise, such as the Millennium Development Goals, set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000

The Age of the Anxiety: mobilità e università ai tempi del Coronavirus

Delle molte possibili crisi globali, quella di una pandemia non era tra le prime ad essere considerate come più immediatamente pericolosa