Journal Article

CULTURA TECNOLOGICA, AMBIENTE, ENERGIA: PROSPETTIVE DELLA RICERCA E DELLA SPERIMENTAZIONE

Tucci, Fabrizio, Hausladen, Gerhard

2017

Overview

Examples of how the principles articulated above are put into practice include initiatives of research and experimentation produced by the Architectural Technology and Design Technology for years, which for years are being developed and stratifying in the world and in Italy (Matteoli, Peretti, 2013; Losasso, 2014; Lucarelli, Mussinelli, Trombetta, 2016), anc recently are focusing on several strategic axes: on reducing climate-altering emissions, energy consumption and operating costs, as well as the use of tangible and intangible resources; on rationally distinguishing and collecting waste m materials in general, together with the different phases of the life cycle on all levels and at all scales: the individual component, the building, the urban district, the city, the territory; on preserving and enhancing the quality of life and the environment through initiatives addressing the expansion, development and spread of clean energy from renewable sources, the bioclimatic quality of confined, intermediate and external spaces, along with environmental wellbeing in a broader sense; on reutilising recycled materials or construction components from structures no longer in use, plus left-over materials from construction sites; on upgrading existing resources, so as to retool, restore reuse and maintain them, and on regenerating urban districts and cities. The ongoing translation into practice of the developments generated by research in recent years has led to the birth of nothing less than brand-new categories of construction products, which, having been given the name of 'variable property materials, or VPM, offer, among the many results of these developments still in progress, characteristics specifically studied and designed to increase the capacity of such materials for dynamic interaction with factors involving the environment, the climate and energy (1); 2. enhancement of the natural passive bioclimatic behaviour of building organisms considered both in their entirety and as part of the systems of their urban settings or environmental contexts (Daniels, 2013), all of which entails, in addition to improving factors of environmental wellbeing and liveability, lowering the energy needs of the entire unit involved in the initiative; 3. experimentation with techniques, technology, components and materials of ever increasing ecological value and ever lower levels of \"grey\" energy (Petzet, Heilmeyer, 2012), this also leads, indirectly, to lower overall consumption of energy in operating procedures, something that can be accomplished by drawing on the most advanced research efforts at all levels and scales - indeed, today scale can practically be considered to no longer exist, with everything from the individual component to the overall territory being covered - based on the most far-reaching interpretation of the Life Cycle vision, in the direction of the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (Valdivia et al., 2011), which must necessarily characterise any process involving the conceptualisation, planning and execution of initiatives in our constructed realities; 4. research into forms of energy selfproduction utilising renewable sources increasingly integrated into building organisms, and therefore generated onsite, being based to a growing extent on the use of material resources that effectively prove to be renewable (Shaikh et al., 2014) (such as organic and dyesensitised solar cells in place of those made with silicon)(2); 5. distribution and sharing on networks - in forms that prove increasingly dynamic and adaptable over time to the needs manifested by various categories of architecture, servicing the different functions drawn up by users, as well as the variety of need that can arise in a given day or in the course of the seasons - of energy produced in 'clean' (with emphasis on the fact that 'clean' means totally - and not merely partially - free of harmful emissions, the main cause of global warming and, more on general, of the climatic alterations currently underway) (El-Khoury et al., 2012)(3). First of all, attentive analysis of the existing housing stock must be carried out, without any preconceptions, but only a desire for more thorough, in-depth knowledge, classifying the structures by age, the technological systems used in the architecture, the types of plant-engineering systems involved and the operating temperature of the systems of thermal regulation (hearting and air-conditioning). Moving from the size of components to that of whole wall-systems or roofsystems able to interact dynamically in accordance with changes in climatic and environmental conditions, the importance of experimentation related to the following must also be stressed: - 'dynamic-air solar5 walls (at the present time, dynamic trombe walls are undergoing interesting evolution and development), able to transfer to the consolidated performance features of passive solar walls the capacity to interact in real time with environmental factor changes, above all changes in sunlight during the day and seasons; - envelopes featuring micromotors potentially linked to both user and network operation and regulation of building management systems as the key elements of a system able to receive data and information related to environmental conditions for which they are programmed through sensors and IT networks (within buildings or belonging to a wider, more complex external network), and to transmit them in real time to implementors' that allow for transformation of parts of the envelope5s configuration, including on a small scale, through the action of the micromotors. 2Reflections on the establishment on a systemic footing of resources generated in renewable fashion, as well as on their redistribution, starting with the central importance of their accessibility, necessarily set the stage, and with noteworthy impetus, for research to seek out a renewed concept of sustainability driven by the triple vector of environmental, social and economic concerns, and which, at the same time, can prove capable of engaging in a dialogue with the three all-important terms of equity, inclusiveness and adaptability, all with the focus firmly placed on the question of energy - the third fundamental term in the title of this essay - as constituting one of the epoch-making issues to be addressed and resolved, even if this means drawing on a totally new way of thinking, conceiving and perceiving the city, so as to bring into play the problems presented - as well as the opportunities offered - by the issue of energy within the context of the modernday urban landscape. 3It should be noted that the traditional paradigm for the distribution of energy, starting from a centralised point of departure, with uninterrupted dissemination and extension, is giving way, in conceptual terms, to a system of tangible and intangible networks consisting of sets of public axes and infrastructures that are strong and efficient, combined with urban nodes and conglomerations set on a more \"human\" scale, meaning one at which accessibility, environmental balance, energy efficiency, bioclimatic performance, the comfort level of open and confined spaces, social value, safety and solidarity can be safeguarded and optimised.

• Publisher: Firenze University Press Università degli Studi di Firenze
• Subject: Culture / Environment / Green buildings / Technology