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The paper describes the methodological approach proposed within H2020 ROCK project, on the adaptive reuse of public spaces in the historic city, particularly focussing on accessibility. The methodology is applied in a test-bed site of the historical context with the aim to identify integrated and effective strategies capable of shifting attention from the single building to the urban scale, following a performance-oriented approach. The goal is to contribute, through a light infrastructure, enabling technologies and new services, to the definition of a barrier-free built environment suitable to satisfy the citizen’s environmental well-being in an equitable manner. The integrated approach involved users and key factors such as: disabled associations, sectors of the Municipality, representatives and operators of cultural institutions., TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, TECHNE 19 (2020): The public space

The renewed interest for under used sites of historical city centres is addressing a change in design paradigms on existing buildings involving local communities in the process from the very beginning. The paper reports a recent cooperation, named “Anteprima Lab”, between the Department of Architecture (DA) of University of Bologna, the City of Bologna and Urban Center. The action is intended as an enabler of initiatives aimed at enhancing those places assumed as common goods by local communities. The pilot defined the functional and spatial features of an innovative participated environment that follows the socio-political trends characterizing the modern age of Bologna., TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, TECHNE 14 (2017): Architecture and social innovation

The European historic city centres are currently experiencing innovative approaches for rehabilitation of urban spaces afflicted by social and physical decay. The revitalization challenges are a consequence of the integration of contemporary technologies and solutions to achieve new requirements and of the impacts of socio-economic dynamics. Understanding and boosting the drivers connected to the cultural potential of the historic city centres can play an important role in adaptive re-use. This paper focuses on the synergy between cultural heritage and urban development, cultural heritage preservation and local economic growth, proposing adaptive reuse design practices applied in historic city centre, through the adoption of a multi-criteria methodology for heritage-led regeneration., TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, TECHNE 12 (2016): Architecture Memory Contemporaneity

The world economic crisis has further depressed the Italian production of social housing but it dramatically increased the demand of affordable rental dwellings. A refurbishment and retrofitting campaign of the social housing stock appears to be as a credible and effective strategy, able to be applied in the short term to bring this gap, at least partially. Some results of a research in progress on the topic are presented in this paper. The first one is a classification model of the main typology of retrofitting and densification of social housing projects, issued from an investigation on several European case-studies. On this base, the research established a set of design criteria, able to couple the improvement of energy, functionality and comfort performances with the increasing of the use intensity of the built stock. Finally, an application of this method on a pilot-case is described., TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, TECHNE 4 (2012): Social housing

The progressive worsening of the Italian school stock – in terms of comfort, environmental quality, energy efficiency and functional equipment – is widely documented in several surveys, that indicate severe levels of inadequacy, particularly acute in the regions of Southern Italy. Over the last thirty years, the need to operate an obsolete stock has absorbed a large share of investment in school buildings, which is in drastic decline. Some legislative measures recently adopted aim to correct this situation, with investments in both the renovation of the large stock already in service, and the construction of new schools. In addition to replacing the share of inadequate buildings, the increase in the rate of renewal may allow to fully experience up-to-date design approaches and solutions, oriented not only to satisfy updated functional standards, but also to provide modern educational methods to adequate learning spaces. Called to deal with the social changes, the evolution of educational needs, the organizational and technological innovation, the unconventional scheme of funding, the design of new schools can become reference that also inspires the refurbishment of the existing building stock., TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, TECHNE 9 (2015): Architecture for health and education

EU standards and rules concerning energy efficiency in the building sector are pushing to achieve ever-higher performances. This also represents a strong driver for innovative construction techniques, inducing manufacturers to invest professional and financial resources in the development of building components that can meet the highest quality and performance standards. During the last decades, many components have been developed to improve the energy efficiency of the building envelope. This paper summarizes three research activities entrusted by private companies to the Department of Architecture of the University of Bologna from 2009 to 2012, aiming at increasing the energy performances of building components and systems. Several themes had to be addressed: two different dry construction systems and a range of installation configurations for airtightness for high quality windows. Although focused on different and specific issues, some criteria common criteria were applied on all three researches: it allowed to outline an approach suitable to be applied in further contexts., TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, TECHNE 7 (2014): Architectural technologies research and development

Recent surveys on the condition of the Italian school building stock provide information on its relevant seismic behavior and fire safety levels, however no information is made available on its thermo-hygrometric conditions and energy behaviour, despite the fact that the former has a considerable impact on the use and physical conditions of indoor environments and the latter plays a fundamental role in limiting the buildings operating costs, as literature abundantly shows. This paper reports the results of a study carried out on a sample of Italian school buildings, substantiating their high levels of energy consumption, and describes the application of a specific method of analysis used for identifying the main causes of these, therefore allowing to propose some possible strategies for retrofitting, aimed to improving the building energy efficiency and environmental quality, by way of simulations and validation of their relevant effects and benefits., TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, TECHNE 5 (2013): Environment emergency