AGATHÓN

2-7

Authors: Fabrizio Tucci

AGATHÓN issue number 8 is a collection of essays, studies, researches, and projects on the subject ‘Possible and Preferable Scenarios of a Sustainable Future – Towards 2030 and Beyond’. The inves- tigation of the future is a subject of sustained interest for the Academy and the craft and industry worlds. However, to project into the future, to explore the possible evolutionary ways of living, to imagine how life will change boosted by human ingenuity and science is in the human nature. The four visions of the future proposed by Norman Henchey (1978) organized in classes: ‘possible’, ‘plausible’, ‘probable’, ‘preferable’, have been brilliantly described in the ‘Futures Cone’ reinterpreted by Joseph Voros (2003). As we shift from the present, the ‘possible’, open to a wide range of scenar- ios, tends to ‘preferable’, with a lower certainty on the type of technologies and production methods that will be available, on the way of living in future cities, on their typical social structure and on the uses of the users that will prevail, etc. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/802020

20-31

Authors: Lavinia Herzog, Thomas Herzog

The majority of humanity will live in megacities in the future. The world’s major cities recognise the connection between quality of life and green spaces. Green facades affect many parameters of a building, but human ‘biophilia’ is currently rarely a plan- ning goal. While the effects of vegetation on the building climate can be of great importance, the potential sensory impact on the person inside needs to be taken into consideration as a subsystem in the buildings of the future. Architecture deals with the spirit of a place and with artefacts that relate to it. A characteristic of this is thinking in the different levels of the subsystems, cycles and time phases. Considering changes in the use and function of the built space while focusing on sustainable construction and renewable energies creates the chance of a performance-form of a specific archi- tectural quality. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/822020

44-53

Authors: Patrick Thépot

The studies carried out within the Master’s programme Aedification – Grands Territoires – Villes of the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Grenoble for the cities of Ouagadougou and Lomé, each in their own way, question the dynamic processes of the architecture project as vectors of transformations in relation to space and time. To do this, these processes call for ‘‘anticipation’’ to foresee the future of one of the largest informal districts in the city of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and a former wasteland in the city of Lomé in Togo by progressively proposing new spatial qualities to these urban sites, that are often considered only negatively by the institutions. Taking into account their specific environment and starting from a multi-scalar vision in time and space, these two hypotheses of projects are intended to be innovative in their way of considering the future, for which the temporal framework of thought must be of at least fifteen years. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/842020

64-73

Authors: Mario Losasso, Sara Verde

The recent pandemic crisis has highlighted the widespread condition of ‘polycrysis’ in which the impacts of climate change, air pollution, and health risks coincide. This leads to a vulnerability of urban systems that threaten lifestyles, economies, and the survival of individuals. To coexist with such scenarios that will characterize the near future, multiple environmental adaptation actions are necessary to counteract impacts and damage to the urban and building scale. The contribution proposes an analysis of the evolution of possible scenarios and strategies for environmental adaptation as a response to impacts. It prefigures project actions aimed at reducing the damage resulting from the current condition of overlapping risks, identifying in the crisis new opportunities for an ecological transition of urban districts as a long-term goal for sustainable development. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/862020

82-93

Authors: Leonardo Zaffi, Michele d’Ostuni

The constant migratory phenomena and the displacement of part of the world’s population from the countryside to the city are bringing great part of the agricultural workforce in the big cities, changing their work sector from agriculture to industry. In this context, theorists and promoters of urban farming have seen in this industry a powerful tool to find spaces suitable for cultivation within the urban fabric, while promoting a new green development of the city. Resuming the fascination of mega-structures pro-posed in the second half of the twentieth century, in the gap between utopia and dystopia, this essay investigates models and solutions for the integration of agricultural production systems within above-ground architectures, designed to meet the demand for new living spaces in future ultra-populated cities, as a possible response to the soil impoverishment that made it difficult to implement traditional farming systems in and around urban areas. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/882020

106-117

Authors: Cesare Sposito, Francesca Scalisi

In the context of environmental emergency of which the construction sector is one of the main causes – since it consumes 40% of the (embodied and operational) energy and produces about a third of the total waste – and due to the ambitious objectives set by the international community and by many countries to reduce the environmental im- pact of buildings during their whole life cycle, this paper wants to make a contribution to the understanding of the state of the art on cycle-based research activities, sustainable experiments and good practices that the building industry and the academy have im- implemented in recent years. In particular, it refers to cycle-based theoretical and experimental actions involving process and product innovations at different scales (macro, meso and micro) of the built environment. They are capable of overcoming the traditional linear approach to use an approach aiming, on the one hand, to extend the service life cycle, and on the other, to evaluate new bio-based materials, easily renewable and with a low embodied energy. In the end, the paper highlights the problems that currently hinder its dissemination and identifies possible research actions that can favour, with the contribution of Building Technology, the transition to this new paradigm. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/8102020

128-137

Authors: Anna Mangiatordi

In the context of an Ageing Society, the technological innovation produced by Digital Age discovers new frontiers and research areas on the topic of living and urban spaces for the elderly. The opportunities offered by the integration of ICTs in the built environment prefigure new settlement scenarios based on the introduction of innovative digital services. Starting from the study of ‘smart homes’ prototype models, the contribution proposes a critical reflection on processes, products and services that could be implemented in future housing for the elderly, facilitating new forms of well-being, security and social inclusion. Compared to ongoing experimental researches, new possible dynamics of innovation in processes and products are delineated, hypothesizing the application of smart systems to real living environments for the elderly. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/8122020

148-159

Authors: Maria Luisa Germanà, Francesca Anania

Contemporary unfinished buildings, which represent a widespread sort of abandoned built environment around the globe, have only recently shaken off the taboo to which they have been relegated by their inescapable condition as symbols of failure. The theoretical connotations attributed to them often fluctuate between the mystifying poles of exaltation and demonization; without discussing these, and looking at trends that can be identified in certain works over the last decades, the article aims to contribute to defining an analytical and design-based approach. This procedure is geared towards the multidimensional goals of sustainability, and to responding in concrete fashion to the demands of stakeholders and the community. The paper aims to demonstrate that, for the sustainable future of unfinished buildings, a new point of departure is needed, in which the design project should focus on actual differences with regard to the cultural premises of the original, interrupted building process. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/8142020

168-179

Authors: Francesco Alberti, Stefania Cupillari, Eleonora Giannini, Sara Naldoni, Lorenzo Nofroni

The pandemic of Covid-19 represents a chance to rethink the equilibrium of our terri- tories and cities. The sudden revision of rules of social coexistence, the temporary suspension of activities, the modification of everyday gestures, physical public spaces replaced by digital spaces, are only some of the phenomena which happened simulta- neously in 2020 due to the pandemic. From the will to reflect in a collective way on the implications of the health emergency on our ways of living, and from the project will to use the crisis as an experimentation field of new practices of sharing and elaboration of future urban scenarios, the campaign #MyCityofTomorrow of the spin-off Urban LIFE (University of Florence) was designed as an online platform of open dialogue on the topics which inform urban design and planning, in its broader sense, a discussion table to orient the restarts towards a more sustainable future. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/8162020

188-199

Authors: Paola Marrone, Claudio Piferi, Antonello Monsu Scolaro, Elisa Belardi, Manuela Demurtas, Maria Grazia Giardinelli, Federico Orsini, Valentina Santi, Andrea Sichi

Evolutionary dynamics and the current environmental, social and economic emergencies envisage new urban visions requiring designers to shift the reference time’s horizon towards long-period scenarios. The contribution refers to this context with the aim to investigate future inhabiting presenting the results of a design experience of urban regeneration led in Milan for RELIVE 2019 competition. The project draws inspiration from last century’s utopian cities visions and is developed based on an Amplified Requirements Framework projected towards long-term scenarios. The design proposal integrates traditional tools and technologies with the new possibilities offered by Key Enabling Technologies prefiguring a replicable model for a resilient, inclusive and low-environmental impact city. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/8182020

210-219

Authors: Massimo Lauria, Maria Azzalin

The paper introduces an ongoing research activity named BIMaid – Bim-based for - covid19 Protocols. It is part of R&D program developed by BIG Srl – Academic spin-off of ‘Mediterranea’ of Reggio Calabria – aimed at innovative governance of real estate assets, that welcomes the challenge of managing buildings in an emergency and post-emergency regime from Covid-19. It proposes, through Smart BIM-based Protocols, methodological and process solutions to plan and manage the ‘new normal’, to guarantee social distancing, environmental sanitation, and adaptation of spaces. In general terms, it supports the ongoing transition towards a management policy that uses the tools of digital culture and interoperability to keep the main variables under control already in the decision-making phase. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/8202020

230-243

Authors: Giancarlo Dall’Ara, Teresa Villani

This paper addresses the global and unprecedented crisis that has hit the tourism industry and the great thrust towards regeneration and rebirth of hamlets, considered today as places for future living. The paper intends to provide a different reading of the accommodation model Albergo Diffuso, to highlight its potential in regeneration of hamlets, social inclusion, and repurposing of the built environment, favouring reuse and zero soil occupation. Starting from the specific features of facilities and the new ‘demand’, we present the results of a fact-finding survey aimed at developing meta-design tools, assessing impact in terms of regeneration of hamlets, and identifying strategies and actions to define best practices of operation on the built environment, with a responsible and sustainable perspective. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/8222020

254-261

Authors: Andrea Di Salvo, Andrea Arcoraci

The research in design today is looking for solutions that repair the problems that design itself has created, however, focusing only on reactive attitude is no longer sufficient for the current complexity of the system. Design needs, in fact, to push itself to-wards a proactive way, it must be able to anticipate, imagine and offer possible and preferable futures by encouraging social innovation. The article, therefore, aims to illustrate a research approach based on the intersection between interaction design, design fiction and speculative design. The objective of the experimentation, which adopts the research through design methodology, is to raise new perspectives on human behaviour through interaction with artefacts and cities, facilitating discussion about the infinite ways of thinking about the future. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/8242020

3-7

Authors: Giuseppe De Giovanni, Cesare Sposito

AGATHÓN issue number 7 is a collection of essays, studies, research and projects on the subject entitled ‘From Mega to Nano: the Complexity of a Multiscalar Project’, inextricably linked to the ever-increasing request of trans and multidisciplinarity of the project. The ability of ‘change of scales’, work on more different scales – multiscalarity – create new ones or change the meaning of the scales commonly accepted, it is common practice in the approach to the project and has always concerned architects, engineers, designers and artists for the multiple symbolic and real meanings of the size of a territory, a city, an architecture and an object. The concepts of scale and size are fundamental to link, in a systemic point of view, the detail with the big picture, the detail with the group, to interpret and represent, to discretize and recompose elements and parts that stand in a hierarchy or interconnection relation, to investigate the physical and social, to outline critical issues and potential, but especially to establish the importance of relational aspects between the group and its component as a way to understand their identity, their nature and organization, their regulation rules and the role played in different contexts, namely the fundamental elements to identify the form and structure of a territory, a city, an architecture and an object. The concept of scale in Architecture regulates the size of the anthropic space, always keeping human dimension as reference. The choice of the scale inevitably becomes a conceptual selection of what the project actually wants to represent. When using multiscalar representation, we try to show the complexity of reality, by using as many regulation criteria and specific evaluations as we can, not only by describing its size and geometric aspects but most of all by significantly highlighting its qualitative aspects and those related to identity, culture and history. This means that there is not just one scale to represent a territory, a city, architecture, an object or a detail; however, in terms of a necessary multiscalarity, the project chooses the most fitting scale to develop practices, on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, logically the scale influences the project: thanks to the progress of technology in the field of design at all levels, it is probably the component of the project on which the designer works the most, simultaneously coordinating real and virtual relations; these relations do not end when the form is created, but continue over time and modify the management of the object’s complexity. The essays and research published show that if measuring, using the scale as a tool, means understanding the things in the world by establishing some differences, therefore ‘off-size’ can be the basis for new theoretical assumptions in which both the infinitely large (mega) and the infinitely small (nano) contribute to defining crucial topics, such as environmental, social and economic sustainability, resilience, territory government, the idea of space, aesthetics, use, development of new products, services and materials, etc. Therefore, the multiscalar approach can be considered as an important design working tool that, in a systemic point of view, can foster the proposal of adequate strategies for action and planning of sustainable actions, developing new methods, working techniques and shared measurements, through well-considered hierarchies of priorities necessary to optimize the choices of the project and to determine the reliable cost/benefit balances (especially of environmental nature). https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/702020

16-25

Authors: Francesca Fatta

In the construction of a model, architectural drawing is not so much ‘representative drawing’ as ‘constructive drawing’. Scale and measure are fundamental criteria for interpreting and representing the parts of a unicum linked together in a hierarchical or interconnected relationship. This gives rise to the entire asset of a project, where various disciplines, or spheres of knowledge, integrate to generate models that make it possible to simulate its construction and predict its impact. For digital design, the computer screen is like a window opening onto the model’s virtual space that allows us to observe and interact with it while moving and modifying it. Virtual reality, immersive and mixed, creates new dimensions that animate the model, and from these dimensions, the complexity of the multiscalar project unfolds as the result of multidimensional thinking, for a creative, multidirectional, anti-dogmatic model. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/722020

34-43

Authors: Stefano Francesco Musso

The terms ‘mega’ and ‘nano’ proposed by Agathón issue number 7 are linked, primarily, to the scientific field and in particular to metrology, but are often found also in common, figurative or metaphorical language. However, they seem in any way linked to the complex world of Cultural Heritage and their protection, conservation, preservation, restoration, enhancement and management. Actually, this is not the case. In many cases these terms are directly relevant to that field and, in particular, to the Built Cultural Heritage, that is architecture at different scales. In other cases, they can still be used in a metaphorical or evocative sense, to express concepts relevant to this area of thought, study and action. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/742020

54-63

Authors: Luigi Mandraccio

The multiscalar issue is interpreted here as an essential principle of the mechanics of the project. Each scale, even if taken individually, must be considered within a reference system that is coherent not only based on a series of quantitative and conventional starting principles but even more than a general logic composed of the totality of the scales involved. The contribution – focused on the structures of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin – aims to investigate the issue of ‘scales’ by looking at the multiscalar project as a creator of a ‘difficult unit’, composed through a ‘structure’ «[… ] as to how things become intelligible» (Forty, 2012, p. 283). CERN, an extraordinary inescapable machine, represents a paradigmatic case on the issue of the multiscalar project. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/762020

72-81

Authors: Piera Pellegrino

In the last few years, the interest in the relationship between urban planning and the topic of citizens’ health has spread supported by the action of the World Health Organization which has focused attention on the ‘determinants’ of health, understood as socio-economic, cultural and environmental conditions, as well as life and work. Starting from the assumption that urban planning plays a decisive role in promoting healthy lifestyles, this contribution examines the case of the City of Westminster, to highlight the integration of the health topic in urban planning tools. To be effective, policies for improving health and wellbeing require a multi-scalar approach, among strategies, including sectorial ones, plans and projects, and a multidisciplinary interaction between the actors, to allow the definition of shared actions of development. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/782020

92-101

Authors: Elena Mucelli

This contribution is part of a study dedicated to the architectural model as a tool able to reveal the formal generative process of the project. This text develops the topic of the relationship between space and form, further analysing the relationship between the scale of the model and the meaning it takes on in a three-dimensional representation of hollow space. In particular, the examination stems from the hypothesis that the more research is oriented towards the study of the relationship between emptiness and the human figure, the more the scale of the model chosen to experiment with spatial qualities approaches real life, a 1:1 scale, and employs an interdisciplinary approach to identify possible points of contact between research conducted in architecture, sculpture and photography. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/7102020

114-123

Authors: André Santos, Anna Kazimirko, Leonardo Barros

The conception of the contemporary scholar space requires a whole set of aspects that confront opposite scales, by increasing the complexity of achieving systemic, balanced and, most important, clear results. To both fulfil the most recent pedagogical ideals, the functional needs, the social aspirations, and the incorporation of the (new) legal demands, bearing in mind the public investment restraining policy, it becomes a challenge even bigger, from which the political responsibility cannot stand apart. So, through the intervention developed by Parque Escolar on the grounds of rehabilitation of the scholar buildings in Portugal, it’s important to comprehend the dialogue between different scales from distinct environments (programmatic, educational, social and infrastructural), defending this operation as a paradigmatic response to the multi-scale complexity. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/7122020

132-143

Authors: Federica Visconti, Renato Capozzi

The paper aims to describe a project developed under the scientific cooperation agreement between the Department for the Urban Planning and Territorial Management (UNESCO Site of the Municipality of Naples) and DiARC (Department of Architecture) of the ‘Federico II’ University of Naples. The project concerns a huge Convent Complex with an open courtyard typology, placed on the slope of the Sant’Elmo hill in Naples that is, today, abandoned. The aim is of re-introducing the Complex in the living dynamic of the city, through a careful work not only on the artefact in itself but also on its relationship with the city and landscape. Moreover, the project is the occasion to affirm a convinced choice of field about the theme of the intervention on the heritage, in favour of the culture of project and against an obstinate, as myopic, logic of conservation. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/7142020

154-163

Authors: Fabio Conato, Valentina Frighi

In the current situation, it is necessary to propose an integrated, multiscale and multidisciplinary approach to manage the complexity of the architectural project, identifying decision support tools to perform multicriteria assessments between technical performance and different environmental criteria. This contribution presents the results of research activities undertaken in the framework of a PRRIITT within the Department of Architecture of the University of Ferrara, with the collaboration of the Larco Laboratory – High Technology Network of the Emilia Romagna Region and various companies, for the development of a method able to evaluate in a provisional way and during the design phase the different environmental quality components generated by the technological system, overcoming today simplification intrinsic in current assessment and certification models. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/7162020

174-179

Authors: Antonella Violano, Salvatore Del Prete

Reconsidering the role of the matter in the design process, with all its morphological ecosystemic and functional quality, is the starting point for the experimentation on innovative bioplastics conducted in industrial partnership by ZEBtwdZEEB Research Group of ‘L. Vanvitelli’ University of Campania with Service Biotech Srl. The use of the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) allowed evaluating the biological evolutionary dynamics at micro-level that are at the base of the experimentation, fully in line with the approach of the regenerative Design and the Ecotechnological Design. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/7182020

190-201

Authors: Caterina Tiazzoldi

In a complex structured city, where the interactions between parts intensify, the number of decision-makers and cultural scenarios overlap, interconnect (and sometimes collide), where local and global as well as physical and virtual dimensions coexist, it is necessary to identify a set of design tools which could adapt to different scales of the intervention of the modern city. The essay proposes a multiscalar and time-sensitive Weighted Networks Design methodology. Originally developed by the author as director of the Research Lab Non-Linear Solutions Unit at Columbia University, the WDN methodology has been implemented by the author herself in a series of multiscale case studies in the professional and academic environment along over the last 20 years. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/7202020

210-219

Authors: Debora Puglia, Benedetta Terenzi

The presented research aims to spread the knowledge of regional excellence through the design of a series of jewels that highlight its Made in Umbria origin, enhancing in an unprecedented way the tangible and intangible riches of the territory. The work shows the possibilities of innovation that arise from the overall strategy of a Territorial Design project by working, on the one hand, on the definition of the peculiarities of the natural and man-made environment, in terms of creativity and aesthetic expression, on the other hand, on the use of nanotechnology to facilitate a conscious use of resources (local waste materials and biopolymers) in combination with the possibilities offered by additive manufacturing. https://doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/7222020