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L'attenzione visuospaziale e le sue asimmetrie hanno sempre suscitato un grande interesse scientifico. Molte ricerche si sono concentrate sull’indagine della lateralizzazione dell’attenzione spaziale nel cervello sano, sulle asimmetrie spaziali conseguenti a lesioni cerebrali (es. negligenza spaziale unilaterale o neglect) e sulla possibilità di modulare tali asimmetrie con tecniche di stimolazione cerebrale non invasive, come la stimolazione transcranica a corrente diretta (transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, tDCS). In tal senso, lo studio dei movimenti oculari può fornire prove dirette sul modo in cui orientiamo la nostra attenzione nello spazio circostante (i.e., attenzione esplicita). Il compito di esplorazione visiva libera (Free Visual Exploration, FVE) è un semplice compito che si avvale della registrazione dei movimenti oculari per rilevare, in condizioni ecologiche, asimmetrie visuospaziali sia negli individui sani che nei pazienti con neglect. Tuttavia, rispetto ad altri paradigmi sperimentali, è carente l’indagine dei fattori che modulano la prestazione al FVE, tra cui: l’influenza di variabili individuali (es. l’età) sulle asimmetrie esplorative, l’associazione con altri compiti comportamentali e, soprattutto, se tali asimmetrie possano essere modulate da stimolazioni transcraniche dei circuiti frontoparietali. Gli esperimenti di questa tesi di dottorato affrontano queste lacune attraverso l’analisi dei movimenti oculari e la modulazione delle relative asimmetrie visuospaziali mediante tDCS. Nello specifico, nello Studio 1, ho studiato le dinamiche temporali della FVE in un campione di 60 giovani adulti e anziani, dimostrando che lo pseudoneglect, la tipica asimmetria attentiva verso sinistra che presentano gli individui sani, è significativamente ridotto con l'aumentare dell'età e correla con la performance in un compito di bisezione di linee, un compito standard per misurare le asimmetrie spaziali. Gli esperimenti dello Studio 2 indagano gli effetti della tDCS anodica sulle dinamiche temporali e le asimmetrie esplorative in un compito di FVE, affrontando alcuni aspetti cruciali relativi alla focalità di stimolazione (utilizzando sia la tDCS sia convenzionale che ad alta definizione), gli effetti differenziali della stimolazione parietale e frontale dell'emisfero destro, nonché la “dipendenza” degli effetti tDCS dallo stato individuale, ovvero l’impatto delle prestazione di baseline sugli effetti della stimolazione. Nel complesso, i risultati degli studi forniscono una nuova caratterizzazione comportamentale e neuromodulatoria dell'orientamento attentivo esplicito nel cervello sano, incoraggiando sia applicazioni future dei compiti di FVE in ambito neuropsicologico sperimentale e clinico, sia ulteriori indagini della complessità della tDCS per la modulazione dei processi visuospaziali. Visuospatial attention and its asymmetries have always attracted great interest: plenty of research has focused on lateralized attentional mechanisms in the healthy brain, the asymmetrical spatial biases following brain lesions (e.g., the neglect syndrome), and the possibility of modulating such asymmetries with non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS). In this direction, the study of eye movements can provide direct evidence regarding the way we shift our attention in the surrounding space, i.e., overt attentional processes. The Free Visual Exploration (FVE) task is a simple, ecological, eye-tracking task, shown to reliably detect visuospatial asymmetries both in healthy individuals and patients with neglect. However, compared to other experimental paradigms, the FVE has received little attention as to the factors influencing attentional asymmetries in this task, its relationship with other behavioral paradigms, and, importantly, whether spatial asymmetries during visual field exploration can be modulated by tDCS. The experiments of this doctoral thesis aimed at addressing these issues. Specifically, in Study 1, I investigated the temporal dynamics of FVE in a sample of 60 younger and older adults, showing that pseudoneglect, the typical leftward attentional asymmetry of healthy individuals, in the FVE task is significantly reduced with increasing age and correlates with the performance in a line bisection task, a task most commonly used to assess visuospatial biases. In the experiments of Study 2, I explored the effects of anodal tDCS on the temporal dynamics and exploration asymmetries of FVE, addressing some crucial aspects related to: the stimulation focality (by employing both conventional and High Definition tDCS), differential effects of parietal and frontal stimulations, as well as the state-dependency of the tDCS by considering the impact of baseline performance on tDCS after-effects. Taken together, the results provide a novel behavioral and neuromodulatory characterization of overt attentional orienting in the healthy brain, encouraging future applications of FVE paradigms in clinical and experimental neuropsychological settings, as well as further research into the complexity of tDCS modulation of visuospatial processes.

Urban development is facing new challenges to allow the evolution of the environment, in accordance to sustainability principles. In this context, decision makers have to answer to three main issues: how to intervene on the existing compact cities? How to combine and develop interventions on different scales? How to move from requalification to regeneration? The SOS_UrbanLab (Engineering Laboratory for Construction and Environmental Sustainability) researches, starting from a multi-scale analysis, propose a set of ecofriendly solutions to support the potential and capability of territories, integrating their benefits to reach a full sustainable approach.

Seismic assessment of existing heritage buildings remains a challenging task. There is a high level of complexity and uncertainty compared with the assessment of standard buildings. Heritage masonry churches are usually prone to partial collapses during earthquake due to local loss of stability, and exhibit particular seismic vulnerabilities. An important step in the seismic analysis of heritage masonry buildings is the detection of local mechanisms. The Italian Building Code provides a simplified approach (LV1-churches) to assess the vulnerability of heritage churches evaluating and comparing 28 potential mechanisms. A general index of vulnerability and hierarchy between mechanisms is thereby provided. Verification of safety against local mechanisms can also be carried out using the kinematic approach. This procedure is based on evaluating the horizontal action needed to activate out-of-plane collapse mechanisms. Based on a full-scale study (Sion Cathedral), this paper evaluates the reliability of the “LV1-church” approach and of the kinematic approach through a comparison with the results obtained with a complex 3D model using the Applied Element Method.

The large-dimension housing complexes in Rome have grown since the late ‘60s as a result of the 1st PEEP planning of 1964. The plan tried to face the large housing emergency caused by the rising urbanization (Albano, 2001). The peripheral areas of the city started to be filled with several neighborhoods in sharp break with the close urban fabric: high-density neighborhoods that for conformation and urban characteristics were placed in contrast to the existing compact city. This discontinuity is highlighted by urban scale designing approach, described by wide spaces for gardens and high speed roads, separating isolated great-size buildings. Approaching the city as an organism in constant evolution in space and time (Piccinato, 1941) and composed of continuous additions and modifications (Rossi, 1966), these neighborhoods resulted immediately as amorphous objects, autonomous from the continuity of the existing city and isolated from the network infrastructure. Nowadays, after about forty years, they still live in strong isolation conditions, becoming the focus to look at for urban regeneration interventions. The proposal article suggests a comparison between the great-size neighborhoods and the conventional compact ones by the analysis of different density data (floor area ratio, population density, cubic meter built on the covered area, green area ratio) in order to stress the morphological differences for the possibilities of transformation. The transformability of some case of studies (CastelGiubileo, VigneNuove, Pineto, PrimaPorta, Torevecchia) are analyzed up to the building scale, through modeling correlating structural and technology performances with the morphological characters.

Sulla base delle criticità rilevate sono stati elaborati i tre differenti scenari che non costituiscono soluzioni progettuali definite, ma che, con modalità e finalità distinte tra loro, tendono a mettere in luce le potenzialità del patrimonio di edilizia residenziale pubblica della città di Roma di proprietà dell’ATER.

Questo scenario fotografa l’inadeguatezza del quadro normativo contemporaneo che impedisce all’ATER di assolvere la propria funzione sociale di fornire alloggi al maggior numero di utenti delle fasce deboli.

Earthquakes do not kill people, buildings do. Transforming existing cities in earthquake resilient systems should be the main goal for researchers in the field of the seismic analysis of entire towns. Providing means for realistic disaster risk scenario can help decision makers in pre- and post-earthquake management and save lives and goods. Two main challenges regarding seismic resilience at urban scale are linked to determining seismic vulnerability before earthquakes and residual capacity following a seismic event. In this way, ambient-vibration measurement is an interesting and non-destructive data source for the seismic vulnerability assessment of towns. It can help in the detection of the real seismic behavior of structure and in the introduction and definition of new construction types in regions with very limited construction data prior to an earthquake. A second measurement after the shock provide information about the possibility of occupancy of damaged buildings.

In Italy, after the destructions of World War II, due the particular development of economy and the political decision in the field of reconstruction, a government option for building construction industrialization comes up only at the beginning of ‘60s. A wide number of different proposals of building sector industrialization came from technicians, industries and researchers, and the debate interested all the years between the end of the war and the approval of the law number 167 in 1962. First of all the city builders are fascinated by the French Grands Ensembles and the main design tools are based on standard house typologies and infrastructures projecting. This happens before that the national technical laws transpose the seismic and energy design and put them into the professional practice. Thus, the paper focuses on a heritage referred to industrial production for infrastructures, with a high compromising in respecting requested building performances. The case study is the high-rise building typology in the neighborhood of Tor Bella Monaca in Rome, one the biggest of that period in Italy. Here, comparing to the last INA-Casa experience, the quality of apartment’s plan collapses, and new critical issues become usual on the point of view of the envelope (thermal bridges and low insulation). The group of research proposes the analysis of different possible interventions based on an integrated approach between architectural quality of residential units renovation, energy and seismic retrofit. As expected, the cost-effective evaluation of the proposal shows the convenience of the integrated approach in supporting public administration in social housing renovation. The best solutions, according to the parameter of efficiency, resistance, residential units improvement, offer an increasing of residential units (plus 30%), a balanced reduction of energy consumption associated to energy removable production, and a considerable improvement of the seismic behavior of the structure.

Nowadays in Rome public housing suburbs face several critical issues, both physical and social: buildings obsolescence, state of neglect of open spaces, inhabitant’s sense of segregation and lack of social inclusion. These critical issues cause a huge reduction in inhabitant’s quality of life. The regeneration of such areas should become one of the main topics in the transformation of urban neighbourhoods. Effective regeneration actions should look at: physical issues, upgrading energy and structural anti-seismic behaviour of buildings; typological issues, transforming accommodations in relation to the contemporary needs; social issues, promoting interventions of age and profession assortment; economic issues, improving the presence of local shops and restarting local enterprises and employment. University Residences become a useful means to reach the goal of public housing regeneration due to its own redevelopment features: mix of functions such as dorms, teaching and leisure spaces that could fill the gap of the existing buildings lack of services. From the typological point of view, the regeneration achieved by the infill of university residences is characterized by the addition of basic and small “housing cells” integrated on a main access path. These “housing cells” could be easily inserted in public housing complexes, recycling and renovating accommodations that are no longer suitable to guarantee healthy, comfortable and accessible living such as the ones located at raised ground floors or at the top ones. The main goals of such regeneration process are: the reconfiguration of the larger flats, usually empty or under-used; the transformation of ground floors flats; the change of function of unused spaces such as washing rooms; the rehabilitation of open spaces such as courtyards and paths. Last but not least, important goals could be reached in the social field: news users, added to the ancient ones, will be students and researchers so to enlarge current social categories. The regeneration becomes an occasion even to propose a global retrofitting of the buildings, so to achieve important structural and energy upgrading. The article contextualises the topic on public housing complexes of the first half of ‘900, giving a huge description and classification of them, and it presents a regeneration intervention on a building in the suburbs of Rome, known as Stalingrad, today interested by important urban fluxes due to the presence of a new underground station.

The COVID-19 pandemic has outlined the need to strengthen the resilience of healthcare systems. It has cost millions of human lives and has had indirect health impacts too. Hospital buildings have undergone extensive modifications and adaptations to ensure infection control and prevention measures, and, as it is happened following past epidemics, the COVID-19 experience might change the design of hospital buildings in the future. This paper aims to capitalise on the knowledge developed by the stakeholders directly involved with the hospital response during the pandemic to generate new evidence that will enhance resilience of hospital buildings to pandemics. The research adopted qualitative research methods, namely literature review and interviews with Italian experts including doctors and facility managers to collect data which were analysed through a thematic analysis. The findings include the identification of new needs for hospital buildings and the related actions to be taken or already performed at hospital building and service level which are viable for long term implementation and are aimed at improving hospital resilience to pandemics. The results specify how to improve resilience by means of structural modifications (e.g. placing filter zones among different wards, ensuring the presence of airborne infection isolation rooms at least in the emergency departments), technological changes (e.g. oversizing capacity such as medical gases, information technology improvement for delivering healthcare services remotely), and operational measures (e.g. assessing the risk of infection before admission, dividing acute-care from low-care assets). The needs discussed in this paper substantiate the urge to renovate the Italian healthcare infrastructures and they can be considered useful elements of knowledge for enhancing hospital resilience to pandemics in the extended and in the post-COVID-19 era.

The reduced drainage capacity of the soils, common to various European realities, is also evident in Mediterranean urbanized contexts, such as the city of Naples, where the central areas suffer from scarce permeable green surfaces. The focus of this work is on the large monumental hospitals in the center which, due to their size, go beyond the building scale to take the form of large urban blocks. The particular conformation of these factories, organized around large courtyards and cloisters, and their size allow large-scale actions aimed at increasing permeable surfaces with consequences on surface temperatures. These interventions to adapt to climate change are part of a broader objective of reopening the internal spaces of monumental hospitals to city flows and compensating for the shortcomings of green public spaces. After a careful selection of some case studies present in the Neapolitan territory, the methodological approach starts from the evaluation of the building consistency, the incidence of the covered and uncovered surfaces and the relative permeability, using tools such as the Impact Reduction index. Building assessed before and after the intervention proposals.

Nowadays, energy retrofit interventions on the existing building stock are of paramount importance towards energy consumption and emissions reductions in the construction sector. Such interventions are also crucial in the view of increasing cities resilience with respect to the intensification of frequent extreme weather events, such as cold spells and heatwaves. Indeed, a wide portion of our cities is dated and lacking with respect to performances. These are the motivations behind the proposed sustainable approach, which deals with the environmental perspective, but also with social and economic ones, by proposing the retrofit of the Public Residential Building stock (Edilizia Residenziale Pubblica, ERP). The objective is to improve the energy performance of ERP stock by means of construction materials coming from local km0 agricultural waste and by-products. The research was conducted by means of in field and numerical analyses of the energy performances of a relevant case study building. Different layers of bio-based, recycled construction materials for the envelope were tested with respect to their efficacy in improving the energy performance of a case study building. The results demonstrate that the most performing envelope solutions and their combination are able to reduce up to 36% of the yearly energy consumption for heating.

The propensity for sustainability represents one of the most difficult challenges globally in recent decades. The programs of 2030 Agenda define some objectives related to construction including the increase in housing, the promotion of social inclusion and the upgrading of healthcare structures. The main objective of the research is the definition of an instrument to support the administrations to identify buildings suitable for transformation in social housing and healthcare constructions, with reference to public asset with a cultural value, disused or "badly used". Through multi-criteria evaluations based on the analysis of parametric indicators, the methodology intends to define a protocol useful for the purposes already mentioned and for meta-project guidelines that guarantee a sustainable approach to the transformation and regeneration of the real estate in question. The initial objectives and methodological aspects are presented in this paper.