TEMA

Category: Vol. 10 N. 2 (2024)

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  • Tools for the knowledge of the built heritage

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  • Steel architecture available for all. Renzo Zavanella’s work between design and production (1946-1958)

    Renzo Zavanella stood out in the Italian framework for the research of architectural and construction solutions, which, taking advantage of steel construction, aimed at the mass production of buildings using prefabricated, demountable, reusable elements. Zavanella’s efforts to collaborate with the manufacturing sector, which was oriented toward the massive diffusion of steel architecture in the 1950s, are not well known. Through the analysis of key buildings, this study aims to highlight this collaboration.

    Between 1946 and 1958, there were two phases of the architect’s work: the first one concerned the construction of OM temporary exhibition pavilions (1946-1953); the second one, linked to the collaboration with UISAA and CECA, concerned prototypes for the assembly production of buildings. The steel structure service station (1954) represented the first project for the mass production of buildings, but the prototype was not built. The acme of this phase coincided with Expo 1958 when Zavanella developed a steel structure house project for UISAA, involved in the construction of the CECA pavilion. Budget problems forced the reduction of work; Zavanella reviewed the project for the exhibition, but the weakness of the context in which he worked manifested itself again.

    The contemporary Italian construction developments confirmed the obstacles that affected Zavanella’s work. Mass-produced buildings and the idea of a steel construction available for all remained largely unimplemented.

  • The importance of “the continuity of history”: Ignazio Gardella’s Monument to the Victims of the Partisan Struggle and the Victims of Piazza Loggia

    “The continuity of history” appears in the project report written by Ignazio Gardella for the monument built in 1984 at the Vantiniano cemetery in Brescia. The Vantiniano stands out as the first monumental cemetery in Italy (1815). The architectural layout, the relationship it establishes with the city and the unified composition of the project by Rodolfo Vantini will constitute a model for many 19th-century Italian cemeteries, such as the one designed by G. Barbieri in Verona (1829).

    The paper traces the research in progress about the Vantiniano site from the historical-architectural and symbolic point of view, focusing on Gardella’s Monument to the Fallen of the Partisan Struggle and the Victims of Piazza Loggia, and introducing a study of its architectural features and symbolic aspects.

    We propose to consider the cemetery not as a set of buildings and monuments placed within a perimeter (the city of memory separated from the city of the living people) but as a spatial system which must have a relationship with the city. This relationship is applied in Gardella’s project. The analysis and the survey of the monument demonstrate this link and highlight this architecture as a “continuity of history” symbol. Gardella’s monument embodies the theme of the external envelope and the relationship with the context. Its geometry and the brick façades give a modern touch to the cemetery and create an intense dialogue with the roughness of the brick walls of neighboring industrial sites.

  • A preliminary study for the knowledge process: Pier Luigi Nervi’s Taormina Stadium

    The article highlights the fragilities of a specific category of 20th-century heritage, namely football stadiums. These architectures are even more vulnerable as they are subject to continuous regulatory and performance adjustments that clash with the building’s cultural, historical and technical values. Therefore, there is a need to raise awareness of the protection of these architectural works so that interventions can be carried out that combine technical innovation and heritage conservation.
    The paper provides a synthesis of the research conducted on football stadiums designed and built by Pier Luigi Nervi, in collaboration with his son Antonio, in Italy’s second half of the 20th century. The analysis was carried out on various levels to grasp their specificities, understand their current state, and make the necessary comparisons to identify a case study for further evaluation. The Taormina stadium is a unicum concerning the others considered, both for its compositional and structural components and for additional vulnerabilities that denote it and, at the same time, constitute an exceptional example. Archive research and field investigations outline this architecture’s original characteristics and current state of conservation. This process of anamnesis shows how awareness-raising assumes a fundamental role in assisting the different competencies involved in preserving these assets.

  • The rewriting of the urban palimpsest through an “evocative building renewal” of two Milanese architectures

    The topic of urban regeneration consistently involves a reflection on the relationship between pre-existence and transformation, between permanence and the research for an image renovation of the buildings that participate in the construction of the urban palimpsest. A contemporary architectural narrative cannot overlook the fundamental coherence between what it was – and now what is lost – and what remains. That point is symbolic of what happened in some industrial districts, which were subject to a functional conversion that is still in progress. As a result, these industrial archaeologies appear as silent buildings without any function. Otherwise, a building could still be used and play a leading role in the urban setting as an integral part of the contemporary urban story. In this instance, the conservation requests frequently prevail over the transformation requirements. However, this does not preclude design strategies that can also encompass the partial or complete renovation of the building, solely focusing on the functional and technological enhancement of the exterior envelope or even the reorganization of the interior spaces. Two significant examples of these directions – namely the first pertaining to the recuperation of industrial archaeology heritage that has been incorporated into the urban fabric, and the second aimed at reshaping buildings that necessitate urgent technological and formal renovation – were executed by Park Associati in the past decade.

  • Industrialization and prefabrication of thin vaults and shells in Latin America during the second half of the 20th century

    After World War II, the socio-economic difficulties in some Latin American countries often led to political instability conditions. In this complex context, solutions were adopted by some designers to meet looming needs: housing for populations reduced to poverty and the construction of strategic infrastructures.
    In these countries, starting from the 1940s, the introduction of new techniques and materials – such as concrete and steel – enabled the industrialization of building processes. This also allowed the experimentation of standardized models of thin vaults and shells using the traditional thin vaults, whose technique was imported from the Iberian Peninsula as a reference.
    The solution of “thin” vaults is one of the most interesting, given the peculiarities that distinguish it from other systems. The small thickness of such vaults derives from the consideration that their strength is determined by their shape and cohesive behavior, following the theories of R. Guastavino Moreno.
    Based on these assumptions, this paper aims to review some solutions developed for the prefabrication of thin vaults and the construction of some remarkable buildings. Based on the principles of prefabrication and reinterpretation of the traditional construction technique, the solutions adopted in some emblematic buildings can be useful for suggesting the development of new technical solutions to put in place shells and thin vaults in the second millennium.

  • Scan-to-MesHBIM: implementing knowledge about historical vaulted ceilings with open tools

    Accurate three-dimensional (3D) models for Heritage Building Information Modeling (HBIM) remain a significant challenge. This paper proposes a methodology that combines the Poisson Surface Reconstruction (PSR) technique with open-source management software to address this issue. The methodology uses automatically generated mesh models to produce reality-based 3D models of historical buildings. These models are enriched with geometric and semantic parameters according to BIM standards. The resulting methodology, Scan to MesHBIM, is an open 3D interface allowing experts to analyze and create a detailed set of properties adhering to construction rules.
    To test the workflow, we selected two case studies of different vaulting types: the Renaissance barrel vault with cloister heads and lunettes from the Ducal Palace in Urbino (Italy) and the Gothic ribbed vault from St. André Cathedral in Bourdeaux (France). The use of implicit surfaces proved to be an efficient means for obtaining accurate 3D objects; then, the enrichment of the 3D models ensures a better understanding and more in-depth management in the field of Cultural Heritage (CH).

  • Automatic Recognition of Bio-Colonization Processes on Historic Façades: Application on Case Studies

    Many factors (physical, chemical, natural, and human activities) contribute to the degradation of historic buildings. Preventive conservation is a cost-effective approach international preservation bodies recommend to mitigate risks to built cultural heritage. A substantial challenge is bio-colonization, especially by microalgae, which affects brick-facing masonry surfaces due to environmental factors (i.e., temperature and moisture), leading to progressively increasing deterioration. Early detection systems could be useful to reduce damage from these organisms. Advances in computer vision and machine learning, such as convolutional neural networks, offer promising solutions for automating the identification of building pathologies using image collection. This research focuses on developing predictive models using convolutional neural networks to monitor bio-deterioration on historic façades, specifically targeting early-stage microalgae colonization. After a training phase using laboratory-induced bio-colonization on brick samples, the method was applied to real case studies of architecturally significant buildings affected by bio-colonization. In fact, a substantial number of digital images of these buildings, even if taken for other purposes, are available. The work shows that analyzing these images with the trained network facilitates the early detection of bio-colonization, providing a contribution to the field of built cultural heritage conservation.

  • Indoor environmental quality in an Apulian kindergarten

    Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in school buildings is crucial for the health and well-being of students, educators, and staff. Poor air quality and inadequate thermal conditions compromise students’ comfort and can lead to potential long-term health issues. Since children’s comfort differs from adults’, it is important to consider surveys on IEQ in school buildings. For this reason, this paper focuses on air quality and thermal comfort in kindergartens in Italy. An IEQ monitoring campaign was conducted within a kindergarten, with data used for thermal comfort and IAQ analyses, including CO2 levels generated by occupants and thermal discomforting hours. The simulations of carbon dioxide levels showed that the amount of CO2 accumulated in the classrooms exceeds the threshold recommended by ASHRAE guidelines. During the winter seasons, CO2 levels are significantly higher than those accumulated in summer due to the limited ventilation practiced during the colder months. Moreover, thermal comfort analyses indicate that the summer season can be problematic due to overheating: 42% of the occupied hours during the monitoring period exceeded the temperature threshold, causing thermal discomfort for the occupants. The winter thermal comfort analyses demonstrated that heating systems are essential to maintain temperatures within comfort thresholds.

  • Critical Analysis of Restoration Practices Against Rising Damp

    The restoration of architectural heritage from rising damp is a complex technical and scientific challenge. The paper illustrates a comprehensive approach to address this issue. It highlights critical information gaps and specific topics that need further investigation in the state of the art and current practices. The research methodology adopts a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to the restoration process with the integration of historical investigation, knowledge of building elements and materials, non-invasive diagnostics for identifying degradation phenomena, methods and materials for restoration, and long-term monitoring.
    The research activity is part of a broader project aimed at establishing operational protocols with advanced technologies for the planned and preventive maintenance of architectural heritage. The outcome will be a digital platform, an open-access tool to support integrated building design and conservation, ensuring sustainable conservation practices to managing rising damp and related issues.
    The paper focuses on the restoration processes of two significant case studies: the Church of San Gennaro in Capannori (Lucca) and the Church of San Giuseppe in Rosate (Milano). The research results provide valuable insights into the effectiveness and durability of different intervention methods. Moreover, the critical analysis facilitates the choice of best practices for sustainable building heritage conservation.

  • Assessing the mitigation potential of environmental impacts from sustainability strategies on steel construction value chain: a case study on two steel products in Italy

    Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) plays a crucial role in sustainability evaluations and impact assessments, especially in the field of environmentally and eco-friendly materials or system production and building design for the construction sector. However, stakeholders and professionals tend to use LCA mainly to develop an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) or assess building sustainability certification. This research investigates the possibility of using the LCA results to assess the potential for further mitigation of the environmental impacts on the construction industry. Starting from a previous study on the steel construction value chain performed by authors to develop two steel product datasets for the Italian LCA database, this work aims to identify how sensitivity analysis can guide industries in choosing sustainability strategies to mitigate their impacts further. The study focuses the sensitivity analyses only on one specific sustainability strategy for each of the two previously analyzed steel products (A. beams and angles and B. hollow sections), thus potentially limiting the generalizability of findings to a broader range of sustainability strategies but demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed method and its replicability to other products and production scenarios.

  • Methodology for Improving Manufacturing and Assembly of Lightweight Prefab Systems

    The increasing adoption of prefabrication in the Global North reflects a response to the urgent demand for safe and affordable housing. This demand is compounded by the necessity to meet contemporary standards for aesthetic quality, structural safety, and energy performance, all within the context of the current climate and safety challenges. Prefabrication, underpinned by the principles of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA), offers a pathway toward modernizing construction practices. Specifically, lightweight steel profile technologies, particularly suited for low- and mid-rise buildings, offer an efficient solution to meet these evolving demands. However, to achieve widespread adoption, further optimization is necessary. The reduction of material use, fabrication waste, and production time, alongside cost reduction, will be critical in aligning prefabrication technologies with sustainable development goals. This paper presents an eight-step methodology in which manufacturing and assembling strategies are considered since product development and according to which materials and components are selected, prototyped, and tested to optimize both mechanical and environmental performance. The methodology has been validated through an academic and industrial venture that aimed to optimize a lightweight cold-formed steel volumetric system for housing applications. The study demonstrated to achieve a system that fully met the structural requirements while also minimizing the use of material, waste, and production time. In doing so, this work contributes to a broader effort to modernize construction practices and address the dual imperatives of safety and climate resilience.

  • Digitalization of existing buildings to support renovation processes: a comparison of procedures

    The low energy efficiency in our built environment underscores the urgent need to renovate existing buildings and implement cost-effective interventions. Increasing end-user awareness and providing a clear framework for efficient workflows for professionals to widely adopt renovation best practices is critical. Digital technologies are crucial in this context, as they streamline the renovation process by reducing time, costs, and errors and improving interoperability. A major application of these technologies in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector involves organising data into digital models that can manage various process stages, from planning to monitoring. The initial data collection on existing buildings is essential, yet current methods are often expensive and time-consuming. Although research has explored the trade-off between accuracy and feasibility in data acquisition and processing, a balanced approach that considers the affordability of survey methods and the effectiveness of the resulting data for further modelling has yet to be finalised. This study compared three data acquisition and processing strategies based on their limitations, potential, and requirements for BIM-based digital modelling. Despite some limitations in detailed roof and façades geometrical modelling, all methods were suitable for energy performance simulations. Results provide insights into optimising digital acquisition methods for large-scale renovations.