Time and Architecture Massimo Lauria; Riccardo Pollo
Techne (Florence, Italy : 2011),
12/2020
20
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In the Italian language, the term “tempo” (literally time) is a word of daily use to which we attribute many meanings. It can signify a chronological dimension between past, present and future, an ...epoch or a period, a phase of an action, as well as the weather and its change. In philosophical and scientific thought, it was the becoming, the before and after of each moment, the unchanging and uniform time of Galilean and Newton’s physics, the variability of existential states or the memory of a primeval condition. As the physicist and essayist Carlo Rovelli states, time «is perhaps the greatest mystery» (Rovelli, 2017). The journalist Federico Rampini recalls an ancient Afghan proverb «you have the clocks, we have the time», reflects on its value dimension, different from the attitude of western culture to measure this dimension, to attribute meanings according to its precise accounting (Rampini, 2013). The contemporary age thus stimulates reflections on the comparison between different visions of time, from the linear ones, typical of modernity and the industrial age, to the “timeless” phenomena of quantum physics, where only relationships count, up to measures of different types like the succession of the cycles of nature and human generations. In its various meanings, time is a fundamental factor of forecasting, of the future and, therefore, of every project, in the meaning of its Latin etymon projectus, which is the action of becoming and projecting forward. In the relationship with the project, artistic practices therefore imply a very close link with the temporal dimension. Among these, the architecture that «claims that share of aspiration to eternity that lies in the very foundation of the idea of humanity» (Gregotti, 1997). Time and architecture are therefore terms of a powerful dichotomy that considers architecture works and their duration together; their permanence and changes in form and image; their conservation according to the social, productive and urban transformations of the city and landscape. Time in the city is, and has always been, relative. The monuments and old towns have a centuries-old history, the political discussions and dynamics that govern the projects are asynchronous, empty and inconsistent anticipatory announcements of promised architectural works, perennial delays in implementation. Celebrations and festivities live ephemeral seasons, the installations are, by definition, temporary. The speed of transportation and instant communication tools coexists with the slow time of the man who walks and with the real-time processes of the smart city. The time of unfinished works is interrupted. In recent days, humanity has experienced a new dimension of time, that of the pandemic. A time that we perceived suspended and widened. Inversely proportional to the contraction of space that has suddenly become insufficient due to the confinement at home and to sharing living and working in a single environment. An unmeasurable event – the pandemic – invisible, of which we do not know and cannot imagine its boundaries, another “hyper object”, as Timothy Morton could define it, like Global Warming and Nuclear Holocaust (Morton, 2013). The new scenario cannot fail to be a topic of reflection, as well as a dramatic break in the biography of the living. Many of the changes taking place were already present, or at least they were in Western culture: smart working, telemedicine, distance education, sociality no longer experienced in physical contact but through social media. All different phenomena investigated by many and often referred to as the ability of technology to make them possible in accordance with man’s boundless confidence in governing his relationship with the environment. The eruption of this planetary phenomenon also linked and favoured – but probably not determined – by technology, therefore pushes us to observe reality in a different way. And although the authors of the Dossier have not been allowed to explicitly address an issue, the pandemic that is not yet manifest but perhaps already immanent to the environmental theme, it is certain that these latter events seem to strengthen the relationship of connection space-time, and of these two entities, with architecture and more generally with nature. In the past, these relationships were fulfilled and evolved through the succeeding alternation of generations. The ancient city centuries-old construction sites were built with the contribution of the entire community, which then proudly displayed its ancestry, memberships and social goals. The architecture was the synthesis of a complex process that allowed its construction by workers, custodians of knowledge of local techniques and materials, their processing and conservation. The collective enjoyment of historic buildings was a prerequisite for their durability and compatibility between urban transformations, needs of civil society and representative functions of architecture. On the other hand, the buildings’ construction has always required long times. Incomparably longer, however, has always been the time necessary for them to give rise to a place, become part of the city, be accepted by the inhabitants. Time, when referring to architecture, evokes and therefore naturally combines with the idea of transformation and the action of construction. But also, with regard to this aspect, there are differences between the present and the past, when designers often did not see their most ambitious works completed. Palladio never saw one of his buildings completed. The Sagrada Familia, symbol of the city of Barcelona and whose construction began in 1882, is still being completed today after having accompanied the life of its designer, Antoni Gaudi. The case of the Spanish basilica demonstrates how the history of the time-architecture relationship does not follow linear patterns and successions between design, construction and use, showing the paradox of a building that is a symbol of a city, enjoyed by millions of visitors but not yet completed; a unique architectural work that is still in construction and under restoration, studied by the disciplines of engineering and architecture. The natural course of time appears so upset: past, present, future coexist and chase each other in a circular succession of events that confirm the intuition, present in the expression widespread among architectural technology scholars, of Valerio Di Battista at the end of the last century, of «project of the existing» (Di Battista, 1992). Principle according to which a linear and unidirectional temporal succession can no longer be associated with the “life” of an architecture. At the same time as the metabolization of these theories, other terminologies brought to the general attention further questions on the time concept: that of techniques (Nardi, 1990), their appropriateness (Gangemi, 1988), recovery (Caterina, 1989), building maintenance (Molinari, 1989). An evolutionary process that took place, first through the conscious definition of the characters of the new complexity connected to the theme of the intervention on the existing building stock, prefiguring as a priority the search for knowledge tools and suitable intervention methods. In the following decades the meanings of terms such as conservation, reuse and requalification have been declined according to the significance that the technical-scientific lexicon still adopts in the present. In this perspective, time faded in its boundaries and is no longer uniform but a generator of sequences and cyclic modification processes. In one of his last writings, Vittorio Gregotti, quoted here because of a heartfelt tribute to a protagonist of 20th century architecture, says that past, present and future take on meaning as «material of the architectural project», like space, context and function (Gregotti, 2020). His interpretation of time is therefore that of one of the “structural materials” that the project shapes. Time, place and space represent an opportunity for the present to confront a poetic, disciplinary and civil past. What many researchers and intellectuals – Ruskin, Riegl, Yourcenar – have referred to as true “beauty”. In the contemporary urban environment, on the contrary, time seems to have lost these dimensions and values, just as the civic sense that supported the most important works seems to be lacking. Buildings completed with the rapidity of industrial processes are placed with indifference in the city, contradicting the dialogue between “conservation” and “transformation” typical of the historic town. Such historic contexts, where well preserved, seem to show organicity, compatibility with the environment, evoking in definitive the abused but powerful concept of sustainability as well as the most current one of resilience. The extension of the construction time phases has changed compared to a more static and slower past, becoming pressing and close, functional to programmed lifetimes, linked to the solution of contingent problems and short-term financial goals. According to Salvatore Settis, contemporary urban transformations are to a large extent subject to negotiation between public authorities on the one hand, and area owners, investors and property developers on the other. So, the uncontrolled expansions of the city or even certain regenerations of dismissed and abandoned places are the result of economic or financial calculations, rather than architectural works (Settis, 2017). Logics are therefore too often dictated by short-term economic visions, inconsistent with the times of the social and cultural construction of the city. The short durations and the frenetic constructions in fact often escape the control of the project and are “suffered” by the city. Construction sites are subject to slowdowns, accelerations and abrupt interruptions creating new urban landscapes dotted with contemporary ruins, new simulacra dedicated to ambition
The Next Generation EU (NGEU) is the European Commission's recovery plan to respond to the economic and social crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, worsened by the severe economic uncertainty ...caused by the war on Europe's borders. A further topic addressed in this section is that of architectural and technical design and, in particular, of the Technical-Economic Feasibility Project (PFTE) in light of the Guidelines by the "Autorità Nazionale Anticorruzione" (ANAC), or National Anti-corruption Authority, and its centrality in the so-called integrated contract procedures, reintroduced by the PNRR after its exclusion in the 2016 Procurement Code. The second part of the book addresses the relationship between Public-Private Partnership (PPP) schemes and PNRR projects. The role of the private sector becomes essential.
The sale of public real estate assets is one of the main issues in the governments agenda. The goal is to find resources and improve the management of the building stock. Such assets are different ...from each other and transformation involves issues of urban and regional importance. Former military sites are mainly characterized by: different types (barracks, military airports, military bases, military hospitals, firing ranges, powder magazine, ports), spread out, obsolescence and environmental liabilities. Also historical buildings are relatively few in the military building stock. It follows that these assets cannot be converted to other uses without a technological knowledge. The paper discusses the key issues in rehabilitation of the military sites with particular attention to recent international experiences. The paper then goes on to focus the role of the research institutions in the screening required of the military real estate to be divested.
The paper proposes a reflection and a point of view on the design of the contemporary hospital and the architectures for health according to “vertical” or “horizontal” typologies. The aim is to ...identify in various configurations, the relationships between the quality of the spaces and specific requirements in relation to the most recent developments in medicine both from the organizational and functional points of view and the social component. The method consists in defining a framework of demanding and performance comparison of different hypotheses, supported by indirect and direct analysis of the outcomes, through an analysis matrix related to case studies, considered as best practices among the architectures for health.
Traceability is considered a crucial requirement to enable Circular Economy (CE). Product and process life-cycle data can facilitate circular asset management preserving the asset's value over time ...and reducing resource consumption. Many scholars point out how the loss of traceability data, lacking information reliability, and unstructured data are still barriers to the widespread application of CE. In the building façade sector, an increased interest on traceability is dictated by a growing demand for environmental product certifications. However, these aspects are often limited to collect data at supply chain stage, thus neglecting a huge amount of information produced during the asset service life. To foster an accessible and life-cycle oriented asset traceability, this research investigates the Internet of Things (IoT) as a potentially disruptive technology for supporting information management. The objective of this work is twofold: (i) to identify what façade life-cycle information is needed to promote CE and (ii) to clarify the enabling role of IoT in tracking, storing, and sharing such information. Through a scoping review combined with interviews to professionals, a theoretical framework structured on four key elements (stakeholders, information list, information management tools, and IoT) is proposed to fill the literature gap and support façade industry in the circular transition. Further research will have to be conducted to face the digital-physical integration issues and develop business models able to fully exploit traceability information value.
•This research clarifies the value of traceability data for building façade system.•Life-cycle information flows were mapped and organized in a common framework.•12 types of information were identified as crucial for the implementation of CE strategies in the façade sector.•5 main IoT-enabled opportunities were analyzed to address the issue of traceability.
The Italian public housing building stock is considerable, although quantitatively less than that of other European countries,. The public policies adopted in the last decades have pushed the supply ...of housing by the private sector and supported the sale of the assets by the public housing authorities. Those buildings are often degraded and obsolete. Nevertheless, the issue of redevelopment of this part of the residential building stock is a central focus, also because of its important social role, especially in the current period of crisis. One of the recurring factors in the Italian case is the low quality of this building stock due to the lack of an organic maintenance activity. The paper reports the first results of a research carried out by the Department of Architecture and Design in cooperation with a social housing public authority, the Regional Agency for the Central Piedmont House (ATC). The goal of the research was the development of methodologies for estimating and analysis of maintenance requirements. Moreover, the study suggests and develops a forecasting tool for the planning of maintenance operations and redevelopment of the large building estates.
•An experimental assessment of the impact of the perlite content on the thermal performance of plaster is here presented.•Analyses have been carried out through laboratory, in-situ measurements and ...heat and moisture transfer simulations on a real case study.•The embodied energy and embodied carbon have been assessed for different percentages of perlite content.
In the last few years, thermal insulating plasters have started to be an attractive solution for the insulation of already existing wall structures, especially old masonry ones, where refurbishment interventions can involve the replacement of damaged plasters.
Intensive research efforts are being made to reduce the thermal conductivity and the environmental impact of these materials by optimizing their mixtures (combination of lightweight aggregates, binders and additives).
In the present study, the hygrothermal performance and environmental impact of the different perlite-based plasters that are currently being developed have been investigated.
A series of analyses has been carried out, at a material scale, by means of heat flow meter apparatus, to determine the relationship between the perlite content and the thermal properties. Moreover, the effect of the moisture content on λ has been analyzed, and the embodied energy and embodied carbon of the four mixtures have been assessed using both the cradle-to-gate and the cradle-to-site approaches.
Furthermore, in-situ measurements have been conducted at a demonstration site, at a component scale, and a series of heat and moisture transfer simulations has been carried out to evaluate the actual thermal behaviour of the plaster under real operating conditions.
The thermal conductivity values of the four plaster mixtures ranged from between 0.118 W/mK and 0.059 W/mK, thus demonstrating that the perlite concentration had a significant impact on the reduction of thermal conductivity and that the embodied energy of the applied material (5 cm thickness) decreased as the perlite content increased. Moreover, the results of the measurements on the demonstration building and the hygrothermal simulations have revealed that the thermal insulating plaster is able to reduce the U-value of the wall. However, an increase of 26–30% of the actual thermal conductivity should be considered when the material is exposed to real operating conditions.
Scientific research has been acknowledged to play a pivotal role in achieving the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. Vice-versa, since its adoption, the 2030 Agenda has been reinvigorating the academic ...production on sustainable development. This study provides a systematic literature review of the most used and newly developed approaches by academic research to support the achievement of the SDGs in the EU. The results are presented by descriptive, bibliometric, and content analysis. The descriptive analysis highlights a rising interest of scholars in operationalizing the 2030 Agenda, with a growing interest at the urban level. A text-mining tool was employed to scan the most investigated SDGs in the selected papers. Major interest by scholars is devoted to environmental concerns (especially linked to SDG 13, 7, 6, 12, and 15), while social issues (e.g., SDG 4, 5, and 10) still deserve more research. The bibliometric analysis unveiled poor intra-cluster connections, highlighting the need for more transdisciplinary research. The most recurrent research fields on the SDGs in the EU are governance, circular economy, ecosystem services, urban localization, and decision making. We advise future studies to focus on gaps highlighted and adopt a system perspective, boosting Policy Coherence across governance levels and scales of implementation by looking at trade-offs and assessing context-specific priorities.
TEMPO E ARCHITETTURA Lauria, Massimo; Pollo, Riccardo
Techne (Florence, Italy : 2011),
01/2020, Letnik:
20
Journal Article
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Il giornalista Federico Rampini nel richiamare un antico proverbio afgano «voi avete gli orologi, noi abbiamo il tempo» riflette sulla sua dimensione valoriale, che e cosa diversa dall'attitudine ...della cultura occidentale di misurarla questa dimensione, di attribuirle significati in funzione della sua precisa quantificazione (Rampini, 2013). Tra queste l'architettura che «rivendica quella quota di aspirazione alleternita che sta nel fondamento stesso di idea di umanita» (Gregotti, 1997). Un evento di portata non misurabile - la pandemia - invisibile, di cui non conosciamo e non riusciamo a immaginarne i contorni, un altro "iperoggetto", cosi potrebbe definirlo Timothy Morton, al pari del Global Warming e dell'Olocausto Nucleare (Morton, 2013). Il caso della basilica spagnola dimostra come la storia del rapporto tempo-architettura non segua schemi e successioni lineari tra progetto, edificazione e fruizione, mostrando il paradosso di una costruzione che e luogo simbolo di una cittå, fruita da milioni di visitatori ma non ancora completata, oggetto di restauro e di studi da parte delle discipline dell'ingegneria e dell'architettura.
