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