Jacopo Gaspari

Co-design for Resilience: Solutions, Services and Technologies for Urban Spaces

Resilience design strategies anticipate significant detrimental climate change to create optimal conditions to face the continuous and deep changes of urban environment, acting on the causes (mitigation) and on the effects (adaptation). The paper illustrates a methodology that combines technological and social aspects for the transition to resilient districts and communities with the aim to co-deliver city-based solutions and services and to drive sustainable growth in vulnerable contexts.

Opportunities And Barriers To Pre-assembled And/or Pre-casted Systems In Retrofitting Actions

The introduction of severe requirements concerning energy efficiency, combined with the need to boost retrofitting actions while reducing time, impacts and costs, offer new fields of action for pre-assembled and dry construction systems in the building sector, especially in the refurbishment of the residential stock. This paper describes the initial results of a study run by a research team of the University of Bologna, Department of Architecture, concerning this topic. The study was carried out in two stages: the first investigated the barriers affecting the application of preassembled and/or pre-casted systems to retrofitting, such as law, technical and geometrical constraints; the second investigated the most effective solutions to be pursued. The following factors were key drivers for the refurbishment techniques: lightweight of components and systems suitable when a small residual loading capacity is still available; open implementation process, aimed to allow further upgrade in a future stage; controlled and monitored construction process; strong reduction in construction time as well as in the environmental impacts of the building site. The paper describes how pre-assembled systems could be adapted to the constraints of existing buildings, while offering the benefits and advantages of an effective management during both the design and construction phase.

Product innovation: lessons learned from some experiences of collaboration between University and SMEs

EU standards and rules concerning energy efficiency in the building sector are pushing to achieve ever-higher performances. This also represents a strong driver for innovative construction techniques, inducing manufacturers to invest professional and financial resources in the development of building components that can meet the highest quality and performance standards. During the last decades, many components have been developed to improve the energy efficiency of the building envelope. This paper summarizes three research activities entrusted by private companies to the Department of Architecture of the University of Bologna from 2009 to 2012, aiming at increasing the energy performances of building components and systems. Several themes had to be addressed: two different dry construction systems and a range of installation configurations for airtightness for high quality windows. Although focused on different and specific issues, some criteria common criteria were applied on all three researches: it allowed to outline an approach suitable to be applied in further contexts.