Stefano Benni

Landscape Quality in Farmyard Design: An Approach for Italian Wine Farms

Abstract This study addresses the issue of landscape quality in farmyard design for farm wineries. Tourist and marketing strategies have been increasingly emphasising the relationships between landscape and typical products through the farmyard image. However, ordinary farms often lack accurate design research, due to economic constraints and cultural issues. The study aims at defining the main variables that should be considered in designing outdoor spaces of small and medium-sized wine farms, based on a contemporary interpretation of the hortus topos. It allows us to consider the farmyard as a transition space between architecture (farm buildings) and cultivated land, combining functional and aesthetic values. Landscape, composition and architectural characters of various design solutions, as well as the main requirements and critical issues related to farmyard design have been analysed on a representative sample of farms, with reference to an Italian study area. Moreover, useful design references were obtained from the analyses developed.

A methodology for the analysis of dimensional features of traditional rural buildings to implement the FarmBuiLD model.

The FarmBuiLD (Farm Building Landscape Design) research model aims at defining farm building design criteria that can combine improved architectural and landscape quality with functional efficiency. FarmBuiLD moves from the consideration that historic rural buildings are broadly associated with widespread semiologic and aesthetic values. This work focuses on the phase of quantitative physiognomic characterization of historic rural buildings. Such an approach calls for high-detail, systematic surveys of the main geometric features of buildings, thus often entailing considerable costs, which are also due to the high density of the rural built environment over wide regions in Europe. The general goal of this article is to define and test a repeatable, flexible, and efficient methodology that allows the results of the above-mentioned dimensional analyses to meet the precision standards of the model. With reference to an Italian study area, we define a stratified random sampling method for historic rural buildings. The stratification was based on the typological classification and location of the buildings. GIS implementation allowed us to calibrate the method and define a pilot sample suitable to carry out the analyses through photogrammetric surveys. The average values of length, width, and height of the sample buildings appeared to be differentiated among the classes identified, and certain significant volumetric arrangements were recognized. The analysis method proved suitable for the physiognomic investigations of historic rural buildings as defined within the FarmBuiLD research model.

Numerical study of wind-driven natural ventilation in a greenhouse with screens

Abstract This paper is devoted to the CFD study of wind-driven ventilation in a greenhouse, with particular focus to the effect of screens on the inner airflow distribution. Although the use of shading screens to cover agricultural crops has been constantly increased to reduce high radiation loads, their effect on airflow distribution within the greenhouse is still not fully understood. In this paper, CFD simulations of the ventilation in a greenhouse with and without screens are performed, by means of a finite volume CFD code (Ansys-Fluent 17.2), with a standard k- e turbulence model, together with proper user defined functions (UDF) for the inlet velocity and turbulent profiles. The screens have been modeled as porous surfaces and the porosity and the permeability have been obtained experimentally and set into the model. The code has been validated by a comparison with velocity measurements performed in a greenhouse owned by the University of Bologna. Comparisons between the airflow velocity patterns obtained within the greenhouse with screens and without screens have been obtained for different external airflow velocities. The cases with screens show a more uniform distribution of velocity field inside the greenhouse than the cases without screens, especially near the crops. All the cases show that screens strongly affect the airflow velocity distribution inside the greenhouse and the distribution of volume flow rates through the vents. This work shows how the characteristics of the screens and their positioning near the vents are critical for the ventilation within a greenhouse.

Efficient statistical sample designs in a GIS for monitoring the landscape changes

The process of land planning, addressed to operate the synthesis between development aims and appropriate policies of preservation and management of territorial resources, requires a detailed analysis of the territory carried out by making use of data stored in Geographic Information Systems (GISs). A detailed analysis of changes in the landscape is time consuming, thus it can be carried out only on a sample of the whole territory and an efficient procedure is needed for selecting a sample of area units. In this paper we apply two recently proposed sample selection procedures to a study area for comparing them in terms of efficiency as well as of operational advantages, in order to set up a methodology which enables an efficient estimate of the change in the main landscape features on wide areas.