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According to the most recent climate projections, urban settings and historic centres will be affected by considerable increases in temperature extremes and heat waves as a result of climate change. For this reason, the issue of energy efficiency and indoor comfort in historic buildings has become a topic of major interest for the significant number of buildings in the national and European territories. The performance redevelopment of architectural heritage, particularly religious buildings, requires accurate design, through a careful assessment of the occupants' needs and the historic building's characteristics, to guarantee adequate levels of thermal comfort and ensure an indoor climate suitable for safeguarding the cultural asset. In this regard, the study investigates, through a data-driven approach and building performance analysis, the indoor comfort level of a religious building in the historical centre of Rome that presents phenomena of excessive indoor overheating. The objective is to identify passive cooling strategies, through the optimization of natural ventilation levels and reduction of surface temperatures of the envelope exposed to solar radiation, in order to propose different design scenarios. The results show how a data-driven process in a digital environment can significantly contribute to the identification of optimal and integrated design strategies and solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variety of hazards with a potential impact on cultural heritage requires a multidisciplinary approach and a preliminary overview of the existing methods for risk assessment in order to define a comprehensive hazard taxonomy. The starting point of the research thus aims to build a multidisciplinary framework to support the risk assessment process according to the classification of cultural heritage based on the harmonization of European vocabularies' definitions and protocols. To collect the necessary information, such as hazard classification, indicators, indices and thresholds, a series of methodologies was adopted: analysis of the main international protocols and the EU Research projects related to risk assessment in cultural heritage, expert-based knowledge and a systematic literature review. The research aims to fill a gap in the field of quantitative and indicator-based risk assessment that does not present a unique and all-encompassing framework capable of collecting the main natural and anthropic risks along with the related taxonomy in a single repository. The framework has been set up to be consulted by researchers, professionals and public administrations to support the evaluation process of potential risks on tangible outdoor heritage enabling users to incrementally add exposure and vulnerability data for each specific risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution presents the results of an applied research aimed at developing an operative methodology and its corresponding data-driven and user-friendly computational workflow for the design of climate-resilient building façade (CRBF) able to adapt to the variation of the environmental conditions through morphology configuration. The research consists of an expansion of an already defined computational workflow proposed to design performance-based architectures and applicable in the early stage of the design process. As far as the façade design is concerned, the contribution foresees to obtain a series of intermediate objectives that contribute to the achievement of optimized design solutions for unitized multifunctional façades which presents different benchmark parameters in relation to the specific design phase and the climate zones in which the façade can be located. The research proposes a case study located in Abu Dhabi (sub-tropical, arid climate) to explore the relationship described above. The research was carried out in two consequential phases, early-stage and mid-stage, involving various benchmarks and different optimization processes that all together describe the complexity of building façade. The design of modular and parametrically façade demonstrates the reliability of the proposed methodology in ensuring benchmarks achieving and optimizing performative aspects, defined according to site's climate analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims at developing an innovative methodology and the related computational workflow to design energy efficient buildings equipped with climate responsive building skins able to respond dynamically to environmental conditions changing over the time. This methodology, called Adaptive Building and Skin (AB&S), is applicable in different climate zones and consists of a computational form-finding method, which supports architects and engineers in the buildings' design process resulting in buildings with optimized energy performance and a high level of indoor and outdoor comfort under changing environmental conditions. The innovativeness of AB&S lies in the fact that it includes the entire design process and considers several internal and external inputs to find the best solutions at all scales of a project: starting from the micro urban-scale with the design of the site and of the building shape, down to the building-scale and finally the skin-scale. Applicability and functionality of AB&S has been tested and improved in the design of office buildings located in specific cities located in different climate zones (cold, temperate, tropical and subtropical). Results of the application in Berlin, Germany, are presented in detail in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution proposes a reflection on the role of typological and technological innovation in the design and implementation of vertical architectures through the analysis of technological scenarios of 2050. In the Anthropocene era, where the effects of human action shape the terrestrial environment, it is necessary to ask ourselves how we can implement the design and constructive processes to give life to architectural performative models that can positively influence the technosphere. Hence the need to study innovative methods through which to define new design paradigms. About that, the focus of the research is placed on the relationship that exists between computation, digital fabrication and the implementation of existing vertical models of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper shows the results of an applied research aimed at developing an operative methodology and its corresponding computational workflow for the design of resilient architectures able to responsively react to the variation of the environmental conditions. The proposed methodology consists in a form-searching process built-up by a series of consequential and interrelated phases aimed at reducing the energy needs of the building and improving indoor and outdoor comfort conditions. The analysis of the processes, above defining the limits and potentials of the chosen design approach, opens the debate on parametric tools that allow to systematically explore the space o design possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prototypes, made in collaboration with industrial partners, represent the results of transdisciplinary experiments in which environmental, structural and material performances inform the computational process and the robotics manufacturing. Fusta Robotica, is the result of a tectonic exploration deriving from the use of non-engineered material, Digital Urban Orchard is the formal expression of a complex functional program arising from the relationship amongst form (shape), function and context. The analysis of processes, in addition to the definition of the limits and potentialities of the design approach, opens the debate on the role of technological experimentation in the post-digital era, characterized by the process information that includes digital computation, materials and fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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