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La pubblicazione riporta una sintesi dei risultati della ricerca scientifica nazionale (PRIN-2003) su “Metodologie di progettazione e di valutazione della durabilità dei componenti edilizi in processi di produzione sostenibili, finalizzate alla programmazione della manutenzione degli edifici” delle sei unità di ricerca (Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino, Università degli Studi Federico II di Napoli, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Università degli Studi di Catania, Università degli Studi di Brescia). La ricerca è condotta in coerenza con quanto si sta sviluppando a livello internazionale nell’ambito dell’International Council for Research and Innovation in Buiding and Construction (CIB), in particolare nella Commissione CIB W80 Prediction of Service Life of Building Materials and Components, nonché nei correlati lavori dell’ISO TC 59 SC14 per l’elaborazione delle varie parti della norma ISO 15686 “Service life planning”. Il lavoro ha portato nel 2006 alla uscita della prima norma italiana UNI 11156 “Valutazione della durabilità dei componenti edilizi” articolata in tre parti: “Terminologia e definizione dei parametri di valutazione”, ”Metodi per la valutazione della propensione all’affidabilità”, ”Metodi per la valutazione della durata”. I risultati finora acquisiti costituiscono già un significativo riferimento per gli operatori di committenza pubblica e privata in interventi edilizi di nuova costruzione ai fini di organizzare per essi una manutenzione programmata atta ad assicurare nel tempo il mantenimento di un livello di qualità tecnologica adeguato, con benefico effetto di riduzione dei costi di gestione degli edifici. Ciò potrà essere perseguito attraverso la conoscenza della qualità tecnologica utile dei componenti edilizi dei componenti edilizi richiedibile attraverso le specifiche di durabilità direttamente imponibili da parte dei progettisti nei capitolati speciali d’appalto secondo i dettati della sopra citata norma UNI 11156.

The project BIM4EEB aims also to develop digital tools to support the design, procurement, installation, post-renovation operation, user feedback and profiling of building automation systems for HVAC. This helps supporting decision making, interaction with tenants and owners during the design, construction, and post-renovation operation phases. The development of the tools will be underpinned by a sound methodological approach. Work will include considerations of interoperability with Smart City technology of automation systems for HVAC. Specific objectives will be related to the development of the following software tools: A software component supporting the automatic generation of the layout for control systems emphasising on user preferences and including constraint checking of BAC-topologies against selected building codes. Data and information stored in BIM models are used to generate the initial recommendations and constraints and to deliver the final installation instructions. A software component allowing the seamless specification and evaluation of user comfort and systems performance. The underpinning information model will merge data sources from BIM (dimensional data) and BAC (factual data). An energy-refurbishment assessment tool, for bridging the gap between commercial simulators and the BIM management system. A user-profiling component allowing to compare expectations of tenants and owners regarding comfort and systems’ performance against monitored parameters. The results of this software component can be used in the pre- and post-renovation phases to update the content of BIM systems and thus to improve their accuracy and to reduce efforts for data acquisition and verification.

Three building case studies were chosen with the purpose of demonstrating the BIM4EEB BIM-based toolkit. The selected buildings are both social houses and residential apartments respecting the needs of vulnerable inhabitants. To increase the representativeness of the test case the buildings are located in three different locations with different climatic conditions, specifically Italy, Poland, Finland. For all the case studies analysed, BIM models were created with different levels of detail (LOD), which, thanks to the interaction with the BIMMS, make it possible to create a common environment for the representation and use of the data collected and subsequently shared between the different tools. Among the three demonstration sites, the Italian site is undergoing building envelope renovation interventions such as the realization of the thermal insulation with ETICS technologies and the replacement of external windows. In order to test the different tools, a demonstration procedure has been defined for them, constituted mainly by workshop activities and quantitative and qualitative evaluations. To assess the level of accomplishment with respect to stated objectives and project success a validation methodology based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) was delineated. Precisely, two categories of KPIs have been identified: “mandatory” and “secondary” addressing project objectives and in connection with the literature review and project use cases and tools. To calculate the KPIs standard baselines were estimated, such as are currently in an ongoing process to assess the traditional process that can be compared with the actual value associated with the BIM-based process. The chapter will present the methods and the first intermediate results of a demonstration process that is currently not yet completed and will later see a further application of the tools in dedicated demo sites. Environmental monitoring sensors were installed in selected apartments in Polish and Italian demo site, while were installed in common spaces for the Finnish building. Specific sensors set up have been analysed and chosen to fulfil the different needs related to the specific project outcomes. Inhabitants’ availability, technical condition and flat exposition were criteria followed for the choice of apartments. Sensors allowed to improve the occupancy monitoring and to have a historical record of environmental values such as temperature, humidity and light strictly connected to users’ preferences. The mobile application about renovation activities performed and residents’ indoor home conditions—BIM4Occupants—has been installed by the users and specific workshops with inhabitants were carried out for registration purposes. The BIM Management System is currently collecting sensors’ data stream and data stream between tools such as BIM4Occupants and BIMPlanner. Project monitoring and better communication among users were tested in a different workshop by applying the BIMPlanner tool in the plans and progress site operations. The functionalities of the refurbishment scenario simulation tool—BIMeaser—were tested in qualitative and quantitative design workshops respectively with the construction professionals using the two pilot sites in Italy and in Finland and with the aim of assessing the achieved time savings of using this tool compared to the manual data input process of the scenario simulation.

Digital tools for fast-track renovation operations developed in the project aim to shorten the duration of renovation and disturbance to the occupants with BIM-enabled methods and tools in operations management at site and with prefabrication to speed up the installation tasks. The chapter presents an ensemble of tools, concepts and use cases. First, two tools are described that are used to support construction production management and user communication. Then a concept how product data could be used as part of the tools and further how the product data and the tools could support in achieving the overall BIM4EEB objectives in the use cases of prefabricated exhaust air heat pump and prefabricated thermal insulation. Target of the work was to improve the state-of-the-art planning and monitoring. A new tool was created that combines the BIM model and typical work breakdown structure (WBS) based project scheduling into location breakdown structure (LBS) based user-interface. Continuously updated LBS provide valuable information to stakeholders with web-service and mobile applications. The 24/7 situational awareness of the renovation activities status provides unprecedented transparency of the project progress. Hence, the system allows scheduling the site activities with shorter lead times to shorten the total construction duration while it is possible to immediately take control of possible deviations in implementation. The reliable progress data is available also to the clients and occupants with right timed guidance and safety instructions. The other aim in the work was to utilise BIM for increasing the share of prefabrication in renovation projects. The BIM-based design allows to manage the compatibility and tolerances between design disciplines and adapting those with mapped geometry of the building will enable the prefabrication and preassembling of structural and system components also in renovation. Two best practice examples were developed and described showing how to utilise prefabrication in real renovation scenarios.

The purpose of Linked Data and ontologies is to achieve semantic interoperability across different systems and agents. As a concrete implementation, Digital Construction Ontologies (DiCon) are meant to provide efficient information sharing and utilization between the tools in the BIM4EEB toolkit. This section explains the motivations, design principles, and organization of DiCon ontologies.

When a renovation process takes place, different stakeholders are responsible of several activities and their interaction occurs at different stages of the building process. Therefore, a deep analysis of possible activities for different stakeholders in each different stage of the life cycle helps outlining how to optimize their interaction, thanks to the use of BIM-based tools that can smooth collaboration and data gathering. As it is commonly agreed that information losses, data lacks or redundancies are one of the main causes of time delay and cost increase, a flowchart representing the building process in case of renovation has been developed and then used to design a BIM management system (BIMMS) to allow every stakeholder along the life cycle of a building (and built asset) finding required information and share existing or new datasets in a straightforward and conflict-free manner. A particular attention has been paid in individualising differences between the public and private sectors, to be successfully applied to the renovation process in both the sectors.

Recent studies have demonstrated that the use of natural materials represents one of the pathways to achieve energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in buildings. In the framework of Circular Economy policies aimed at reducing the consumption of raw materials, shives, as an agricultural by-product of hemp cultivation, have gained a renovated life in the construction sector. Among all the building products made of hemp, hempcrete blocks are the most innovative, because they represent the solution to the needs of new and traditional buildings, offering a high energy saving, combined with the sustainability of materials and products, while remaining, in terms of shape and size, very close to the culture and the construction systems best known by professionals. In order to assess the potential benefits of hempcrete in the construction sector, its environmental performances were evaluated using the LCA methodology, following the international standard ISO 14044:2006+A1:2018 and in compliance with the European standard EN 15804:2012+A1:2013. To this purpose, four non-loadbearing walls were compared in the “cradle-to-gate” scenario, one made with hempcrete blocks and the others with more “traditional” materials. This research aims to be a basis for the development of future guidelines at national and international level in order to guarantee the maximum diffusion of this type of product also in the Mediterranean area. For this reason, it is important to identify the performance characteristics essential for hempcrete products studying their behavior not only as defined in the UNI EN ISO 12571, 2013 standard, but also in the Mediterranean climate. To achieve these objectives, some tests have been carried out to verify the thermo-hygrometric behavior. A 1 m2 of hempcrete wall was submitted to tests in a climatic chamber which simulated the environmental conditions typical of the south of Italy, in terms of temperature and moisture, in order to evaluate thermo-hygrometric behavior of hempcrete. Sensors and thermo-flowmeters for parameter analysis were applied on the wall. On the same material was carried out hygroscopic sorption tests as defined in the UNI_EN_ISO12571,2013 standard. The behavior detected by the experimental measurements on the masonry was compared with the simulated numerical behavior using WUFI software.

From the Sixties and for many years later the construction of new buildings, both public and residential, has made our cities more and more large, with a great squandering of ground, pollution and reduction of the green areas. A necessary trend reversal has implied a growing interest towards the rehabilitation and requalification of the brownfields. These, both inside the urban fabric and in suburban areas, offer complexes of buildings with great potentiality for a sustainable reuse both from the social point of view and from the environmental one. The large dimensions, the great spans and the materials usually used make these buildings suitable to a recovery which makes possible a rehabilitation in a building scale but also in a territorial scale, through the choice of a social destination which would give nourishment to a degraded area . The proposed paper aims to treat the theme of the requalification of the brownfields through the study of an emblematic case: the Tobacco factory in Palermo, a complex of buildings historically relevant, generated by the aggregation of buildings of different epochs and with different constructive techniques and materials. It also has a significative location near the sea and the urban center and could be a really important economic and social resource for the community. The conceived project for the Factory has the aim of the realization of alternative structures for detained mothers with their children and for ex prisoners who have any job o house, to help them in the rehabilitation in society. Sicily is really inadequate in these fields. This could represent a solution which would permit to use buildings currently abandoned and that are suitable spaces and structures to social aims today without a location.

The use of photocatalytic products for surface coating of buildings ensures the reduction of certain air pollutants and greater duration of color over time, due to the reduced attitude of air particulate to adhere to the treated surfaces. The world market is producing a wide range of coatings, transparent and opaque, high initial performance, but there is a lack of data on their durability. The knowledge of performance over time of these new products is at the basis of the Regulation (EU) no. 305/2011, which repealed Council Directive 89/106/EEC and introduced the seventh requirement regarding the sustainability and particularly durability of construction works. This study focuses on the assessment of the durability of photocatalytic commercial paint, in three hues: white, red and yellow, based on TiO2 dispersion into inorganic resins. The methodology is based on the ISO 15686 and consists in the comparison of the most significant parameters considered, monitored during accelerated aging tests, into saline environment, by means of dry corrosion test cabinet, and natural aging in the atmospheric environment of the city of Palermo, characterized by marine aerosol. The monitored parameters were: surface morphology, by means of SEM and optical microscopy; color by means of spectrophotometer; photocatalytic activity, by means of isopropyl alcohol degradation. Chemical characterization test by means of diffractometer were also performed. The results obtained allow carrying out useful correlations to define the performance limits of photocatalytic paint over time. Monitoring was carried our for six months to the effects of degradation agents of atmospheric environment and for four steps of accelerating aging into dry corrosion test cabinet, according to the standardised natural stone test method of UNI EN ISO 14147:2005, adopted for coatings

The research, in a context of a sustainability of the building process, that should consider adequately the problem of building waste disposal, has the objective of determining the performance characteristics of concrete under the effect of fire, in order to evaluate the possibility of reutilization, and in positive case, what could the best uses be, considering the current regulations. The experimentation, carried out on cubic samples with a side of 15 cm (according to UNI EN 12390, using aggregates with Dmax= 30 mm), with Portland cement of mixture 42,5 in two types (one with Pozzolana CEM II/B-P 42.5 and one with limestone CEM II/A-LL 42.5), with class of resistance C25/30, is based on the following parameters: increase of temperature, nature of fire, heating speed, time of exposition. The tests that have been carried out were both destructive (sclerometric, ultrasounds, Sonreb) and non-destructive (crushing and thermogravimetric), and the experimental results obtained also show that: - the concretes present a remaining mechanical resistance that is lower than 50% of the initial one, after they have been subjected to the full cycle of temperature increase; - between 200°C and 600°C, there is a significant decomposition of the binding component (hydrated cement), while that of limestone is predictable for temperatures higher than 700°C; - the phenomenon of the “explosive spalling” – verified on two samples – has far more devastating consequences than the simple decay of the mechanical characteristics as, considered in a structural element, it causes a reduction of the resisting section, with a consequential increase of tensions in the remaining part, and direct exposition of the reinforcement without protection, situations which can cause the structural collapse of the element. Some uses in the field of transport have been hypothesized, also basing on the indications of the current regulations and on the detected statistics of the current uses.

Il presente contributo intende analizzare le ragioni culturali e le caratteristiche tecnologiche dei rivestimenti marmorei delle facciate delle architetture realizzate in massima parte tra le due guerre, ma in alcuni casi anche nell’immediato secondo dopoguerra, al fine di proporre una soluzione innovativa e sostenibile per un loro recupero. Dopo avere brevemente analizzato le tipologie di queste architetture monumentali nel panorama nazionale, destinate nella maggior parte dei casi a funzioni pubbliche rappresentative, che affondano le loro radici culturali nelle ragioni delle architetture di regime, si procederà ad un esame delle differenti modalità di posa in opera dei rivestimenti marmorei delle loro facciate; questi, lo si può anticipare già fin d’ora, sono quasi totalmente caratterizzati da un sistema misto in parte ad umido, che affida la tenuta delle lastra all’uso di malte cementizie, in parte a secco, mediante perni a vista o in parte posti in appositi alloggiamenti realizzati nel marmo. Si tratta di lastre dalle dimensioni abbastanza significative che ad oggi, in moltissimi casi soffrono di fratture e di distacchi parziali o totali legati in termini generali alla mancata coesione dell’adesivo, alla corrosione dei sistemi di ancoraggio, alle dilatazioni termiche. D’altra parte questi edifici trovano nel trattamento del rivestimento delle loro facciate buona parte delle ragioni che li relegano nell’architettura monumentale e ad oggi risulta necessario intervenire nell’ottica di mantenerne le caratteristiche corticali. Sulla base di queste premesse si proporrà, attraverso un caso studio specifico, individuato nel grattacielo INA realizzato a Palermo, una soluzione innovativa che possa consentire di mantenere l’impaginato delle facciate, superando parte delle motivazioni degli attuali degradi e migliorando in maniera significativa le prestazioni termiche degli edifici.

The function of the Safety Coordinator in Italian construction project is usually seen as a design and control function, but it is believed that really Safety Coordinator performs a more complex safety management function. The relationship between the PMBOK standard practice and the managing activities of the Safety Coordinator is detected, and Project Management processes applied for safety management are highlighted. Safety management of a construction project in Italy have to be performed by a specialized professional, the Safety Coordinator. The Safety Coordinator should design construction safety performance in the design phase, Safety Coordinator of the Design (SCD), and should control safety performance in the execution phase, Safety Coordinator of the Execution (SCE). Safety Coordinator tasks and objectives are strictly defined by Italian legislation but, after almost twenty years of construction safety law implementation, it is felt that few notes and observation should be done. In particular, the focus of the analysis is the management action as defined by the Project Management Guide of the PMI, the PMBOK. The evolution and the current wording of the Italian Legislation on Safety Management in construction is the starting point of the analysis. Main tasks, objectives and tools the Italian law grants Safety Coordinator are described and evaluated, while at the same time the Areas of Knowledge of Project Management that relate to the specific health and safety content are detected. The focus is on Project Management processes performed by Safety Coordinator, and on tools and methods of the PMI Knowledge Areas needed for the coordination function. From the study emerges a new view point of the Safety Coordinator, which is not only a design and control operator, but also a “complete” Production Manager and safety organizer.

In a context of increased demands for sustainability of the built environment, it is essential the maintenance of specific quality levels provided by the building organisms and their parts. The knowledge of the service life of products and building components, imposed by the recent EU Regulation 305/2011, is a requirement that is spreading in the world market, between manufacturers and designers, users and operators. The international reference standard for the evaluation of the durability of materials and building components, is the ISO 15686 defining the Reference Service Life (RSL) and identifying the procedures for the estimation of the Estimated Service Life (ESL), referring to context of use and stress, through the methods: factor, stochastic and engineering methods. The ESL is calculated by correcting the values of the RSL using the factor method, based on multiplicative factors, taking into account the special circumstances and context of use. A useful support to the application of the factor method, in order to reduce the subjectivity inherent the deterministic choice of values to be assigned to the seven multiplication factors, consists of performance grids. The first results of research are here reported on the definition of the performance grid on the sandwich panel. On the basis of experiments carried out according to ISO 15686 and UNI 11156-3, developed in the last decade, the experiences of the manufacture systems and the field applications reported in specific literature, it was possible to define a proposal of performance grid, as a guide, for the calculation of ESL, by the factor method, of this technical component. The tool is useful for the implementation of the database of Reference Service Life, by which the stakeholders can draw interesting data.

The Italian municipalities have taken only the first steps on the road to smart cities. By 2020 thanks to the European Community and the Mayors agreement in 2008, cities aiming to be smart (for energy management,transport, digital technologies, social policy) will focus on sustainable development, by innovations and adequate partners. The general goal of resource saving and use of renewable energy has become a strategic necessity, fully involving architecture, whose environmental load in industrialized countries has become unsustainable. The national regulatory framework is constantly evolving, because the new European Directive 31/2010/CE, repealing the E.D. 91/2002/CE, obliges from January 2021 energy consumption close to zero for all new buildings. Objectives can only be achieved with the contribution of all actors of the building process and the use of effective tools for management and control of environmental quality, associated with the construction activity. Within this framework planning and building tools are essential, whose regulatory strategies are also activated at the regional scale. In Italy, many regions have begun to address the problem, for which there is a wide range of regional regulations and building regulation (R.E.) where sustainability criteria were introduced, assigning volume premiums or economic incentives, aimed at promoting the reduction of energy consumption. The paper presents the first results of the research, aimed to produce guidelines, useful for eco-building regulations, for the Sicilian regional context, such as basic regulation instruments of constructive activity, oriented towards sustainability, with the support of environmental assessment criteria. After a survey on the state of the more virtuous municipal building regulations, the energy and environmental legislation, the good practices such as eco-districts, it was possible to define the framework of parameters characterizing on which elaborating the building intervention, with high energy and environmental significance, the sustainable and interested thematic areas, aims, actions and possible interventions.

Il presente articolo propone una rassegna sulle sperimentazioni che potenzialmente rappresentano un campo di ricerca molto interessante per ISTEA e per le quali le prospettive sono ampie. Un aspetto cruciale delle attività sperimentali nel campo delle costruzioni è la valutazione ex-ante della durabilità. In questo senso, così come per molti altri aspetti, la conoscenza raggiunta ed i risultati delle sperimentazioni sembrano essere abbastanza dispersi, in modo che si è portati a pensare che abbia senso abbinare le attività sperimentali con il tema del riutilizzo della conoscenza. In questo tema, la comunità tecnologica organizza il circuito delle conoscenze per renderle comuni, trasferibili nello spazio e conservate nel tempo. ISTEA potrebbe contribuire a far crescere una Rete, rivolta a promuovere questa circolazione, come servizio al settore delle costruzioni.

The research carried out by the Unit of Palermo, “Planning and experimental evaluation methodologies of discontinuous roofing class durability”, becomes part in the more general picture of evaluation and control of the technological quality of complex products for the building and in particular of durability, fundamental to reach the quality in building (ISO 8402, UNI 10838), cause it regards maintenance over time of the performances owned at the moment of the entrance in exercise and the modalities in which them decay during time. For the research result fundamentals the normative contributions, in international field of CIB W80/RILEM 175 (Service Life Methodologies) and ISO TC59-Buildings Construction, with the ISO 15686 Building and Constructed Assets Service Life Planning, and in national field UNI11156 - 2006, “Evaluation of durability in buildings components” approved recently.

As part of the national research project on durability, the Naples research unit addressed roofing subsystems. Roofing is one of the most complex (insofar as normally comprised of numerous materials) components of the external coverings of buildings. Probably the area which has traditionally presented the main maintenance problems, it’s also the one which presents most variety across, and within, its different contexts of application. Another – but certainly not the last – problem which needs to be addressed is “quality of execution”, a particularly sensitive issue in the roofing sector, which in fact remains one of the few remaining building trades still generally entrusted to specialized firms, without whose expertise the results in terms of performance often leave much to be desired. In the course of our analysis of the state of the art in the durability of continuous roofing – which included both scientific literature and an examination of Italian and international standards for laboratory testing – it became apparent that - as with so many other building components - while indications on individual products are in plentiful supply (e.g. membrane), there is something of a black hole when it comes to the built-up roof itself – and in fact it’s the latter which is particularly interesting, as it’s in the variety of materials which comprise them, and the diversity of the ways in which they’re combined, that lie the reasons for the problems which can often lead to sudden performance decay and anticipated death. The fact is, here as in other parts of building, we have to acknowledge that the physical changes undergone by roofing materials during and after their application are decisive for their performance evaluation: returning to the example of prefabricated bituminous membrane (a good example after all, since in a sense it’s a crucial component in the appraisal of the performance of the roofing assembly as a whole), this is a material which as prescribed in the standards is tested in such a way as to ignore the changes it undergoes subsequent to its application at temperature using propane gas; likewise ignored are the differences which manifest themselves over time in accordance with the different protection systems currently in vogue in the country: nowadays acrylic paint instead of slate granules. Then there are other important factors: the articulation of the different layers of the built-up roofing, the presence or absence of an insulating layer, the nature of this layer: these are all of major significance in the evaluation of roofing life cycles. We felt, therefore, that it would be useful to go a little beyond the strictures of standard prescriptions. Although standards are an obligatory point of reference for a whole range of conditions, they were of little use when it came to designing the samples to be subjected to accelerated ageing if the ultimate goal of laboratory testing is re-scaling to real conditions. In other words: in agreement with the other offices, a research approach driven by accelerated ageing testing on the different materials ultimately leads to re-scaling due to externally-sourced sampling. All very well, but if this was to have any bearing on real buildings, i.e. the behaviour of the elements undergoing testing as part of a complex as well as individually, all the more reason to design samples capable of reproducing as faithfully as possible the situations and conditions of the same materials in real buildings.