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The present research Thesis is part of a growing interdisciplinary field of studies concerned with finding strategies to foster ecosystem stewardship of social-ecological systems as complex adaptive systems, such as cities and, in particular, of those that involve the notion of participation and collaborative design, to effectively build resilience in the context of climate change and ecological crisis. Framed within other glocal climate action movements, as part of an increasing number of “urban climate change experiments”, often emerging outside formal contexts of decision-making and led by actors other than municipal government, the object of the present research is the globally growing socio-technological phenomenon of Civic/Green Hackathons, and of Climathon® in particular, an international 24-hour collaborative design event aimed developing solutions to tackle climate change in urban settings. Through the double lenses of social-ecological resilience and of participatory processes, with the objective of helping Urban Institutions in better coordinating, integrating and consolidating bottom-up contributions towards the achievement of pressing global targets of social-ecological resilience and sustainability, the findings of the present research have been used to develop a clear set of Recommendations for improving the ability to expand social-ecological resilience under conditions of uncertainty, and to understand the role and importance of Climathon® and of the other glocal climate action movements, in a new adaptive co-design framework for urban resilience and ecological transition. The proposed new framework is an heuristic model and pragmatic tool, implementable and replicable in other regulatory contexts and decision-making processes, addressed to Urban Institutions that have undertaken a path of resilience planning and ecological transition, to assist them in planning and managing participatory resilience planning processes more adaptively, and to facilitate their recognizing windows of opportunity to address change towards sustainable development and, in prospective, to foster active (Human) ecosystem stewardship through collective action, starting from cities.

Il rapporto tra impianti produttivi e paesaggio è complesso e spesso conflittuale. Considerando l’accezione di paesaggio promossa dalla Convenzione europea del paesaggio, le interferenze con il contesto coinvolgono sia la dimensione ambientale, sia la sfera estetico-percettiva, generando ricadute anche sulla sfera sociale. Quello dell’industria agroalimentare è uno dei settori dove si registrano le interferenze più acute con il paesaggio, per questioni localizzative, funzionali e di coerenza tra l’immagine della fabbrica e i valori aziendali. In particolare, l’analisi è condotta in Emilia-Romagna, dove il comparto svolge un ruolo rilevante in termini economici, sociali e “percettivi”. Dall’indagine della letteratura emerge che gli strumenti disponibili per valutare e migliorare la compatibilità paesaggistica degli impianti produttivi sono ancora limitati, settoriali e focalizzati su singole problematiche. Quindi lo studio tenta di coniugare in un unico strumento la valutazione degli impatti ambientali, estetico-percettivi e sociali delle fabbriche sul paesaggio. Applicabile sia agli impianti esistenti che a quelli di nuova costruzione, la metodica sviluppata: individua gli impatti ricorrenti dei siti industriali sulle diverse componenti del paesaggio; poi, adottando le procedure tipiche dei protocolli di certificazione della sostenibilità degli edifici, determina un sistema di crediti utili a misurare gli impatti nel loro complesso. Parallelamente viene realizzato un repertorio di buone pratiche, selezionando insediamenti produttivi considerati virtuosi per l’applicazione di strategie di mitigazione paesaggistica; questo alimenta una libreria di tattiche generali di mitigazione. Infine, combinando il Sistema di crediti e il Repertorio di buone pratiche, viene sviluppato un protocollo operativo, testato sugli edifici dell’azienda Orogel. Il principale risultato della ricerca è un protocollo per valutare e proporre azioni di miglioramento della compatibilità paesaggistica dei siti produttivi, in grado di assistere le aziende nella definizione di specifiche strategie progettuali in base alle proprie preferenze di immagine, disponibilità economiche ed esigenze funzionali, coerentemente con i valori di cui si fanno portatrici., The relationship between factories and the landscape is complex and often conflicting. Adopting the concept of landscape by the European Landscape Convention, interference with the context involves both the environmental and the aesthetic-perceptive spheres, generating disturbances also in the social sphere. The Agri-food sector records among the most acute interference with the landscape, due to its location, functional issues and consistency between image of the factory and corporate values. In particular, the investigation is undertaken in the Emilia-Romagna region, where the sector plays a key role in economic, social and "perceptive" terms. The literature review reveals that tools for assessing and improving the compatibility of production plants with the landscape are still limited, monodisciplinary and focused on specific problems. Therefore, the study attempts to combine the evaluation of environmental, aesthetic-perceptive and social impacts of factories on the landscape. Addressed both to existing and new manufacturing sites, the method adopted: identifies the recurring impacts generated by industrial plants on the three landscape components; then, referring to the procedures typical of green building rating systems, a system of credits useful for measuring impacts overall is developed. In parallel, a repertoire of good practices is created, by collecting case studies considered virtuous for the application of mitigation strategies towards the landscape, from which a catalogue of general design tactics is extracted. Lastly, the system of credits and the repertoire of good practices are combined into an operational protocol, which is tested on the buildings of the company Orogel. The main result of the research is a protocol to evaluate and propose actions to improve the landscape compatibility of factories, helpful to companies in defining specific design strategies based on their image preferences, economic availability and functional needs, consistent with the corporate values.

The present thesis project revolves around recognition of the critical environmental footprint generated by constructions, from their conception to their disposal. The first part of the research therefore centered on the study of the environmental consequences arising from the construction industry through the analysis of the sustainability assessment protocols or green buildings rating systems (GBRSs), identifying a “set core” of representative categories and indicators of buildings’ sustainability. As a consequence of a number of evidences emerged from the analysis upon the “embodied impacts” (not related to buildings operation) this research centered on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, which emerged as an appropriate tool to measure such impacts. A second analysis of GBRS frameworks was conducted in order to identify the most distinctive aspects, providing a shared buildings LCA framework and underlining several discrepancies in how the method is applied within a wide context and regarding the interpretation of the results. The last part of the thesis, therefore, dealt with the development of a simplified approach capable of overcoming the drawbacks that emerged in order to facilitate the environmental evaluation, from both a methodological and operational point of view, during the early phases of the process which turned out to be particularly significant stages for describing the environmental profiles of buildings. With respect to the complexity of the LCA assessment for non-expert practitioners, implementation of the proposed framework within the Building Information Modelling (BIM) environment was investigated resulting in the development of a customizable and convenient LCA-BIM integration approach. The research concluded with an illustrative application to a case study in order to test the proposed LCA-BIM integration, intending to demonstrate the process and, at the same time, identify and discuss the potential advantages and disadvantages of such a method with a view of future developments., Il progetto di ricerca presentato in questa tesi di dottorato è incentrato sul tema della determinazione e della valutazione del profilo ambientale degli edifici durante il loro ciclo di vita. Inizialmente la ricerca si è concentrata sullo studio degli effetti ambientali ascrivibili agli edifici attraverso i protocolli di valutazione della sostenibilità (Rating Systems) identificando un "nucleo" di categorie e indicatori rappresentativi della sostenibilità degli edifici. A seguito di alcune considerazioni emerse dall’analisi sugli “impatti inglobati” (non ascrivibili alle fasi operative), la ricerca si è orientata sulla metodologia Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), individuata come uno strumento appropriato per la misura di questo tipo di impatti. Una seconda analisi dei protocolli di sostenibilità è stata condotta al fine di individuare gli aspetti più distintivi dell’LCA in riferimento alle applicazioni sull’ambiente costruito, delineando una serie di requisiti condivisi ed evidenziando alcune discrepanze nell’applicazione del metodo in contesti eterogeni e nell'interpretazione dei risultati. L'ultima parte della tesi, quindi, affronta lo sviluppo di un approccio condiviso e semplificato volto a superare i limiti emersi e facilitare le valutazioni ambientali, sia da un punto di vista metodologico che operativo. In particolare, l’approccio è stato ideato per essere applicato durante le prime fasi del processo costruttivo (progettazione), considerate determinanti nella configurazione dei profili ambientali degli edifici. In merito alla complessità dello svolgimento delle analisi per gli utenti meno esperti, è stata studiata l’integrazione del framework proposto con gli strumenti Building Information Modeling (BIM), attraverso lo sviluppo di un flusso di lavoro personalizzabile e conveniente. La ricerca si è conclusa con l'applicazione sperimentale del metodo su un caso studio al fine di testare il flusso di lavoro proposto per l'integrazione tra LCA e BIM, mostrandone il processo operativo, individuandone e discutendone i potenziali vantaggi e svantaggi in vista di successivi approfondimenti e sviluppi.

Smart City (SC) emerged during the end of last century as a reference concept for shaping the city of the future. The literature review shows how SC originates from a debate questioning about the future of cities in a world continuously object of pressures: resource scarcity, economic crisis, lack of social identity, besides continuous input from technologies. The progressive permeating of innovative devices, simplifying people life or enabling them in networking and knowledge, led to relevant modification of the built environment. The word “smart” refers therefore not only to the ICT component of city but it also refers to the need of facing an increasing complexity involving all sectors of cities. The extend of approaches, applications, testing and theories coming along with the SC topic oblige the research to critically and extensively study those elements, broadening the analysis to additional experiences, and going toward the definition of SC for coming to a wider definition of Green City as an integrated, sustainable, resilient and smart urban regeneration approach. The research studies these approaches deepening the relation between Architecture Technology and Urban Planning, with a specific insight into a step-by-step project approach and a KPIs performance assessment. The main original output of the research is the proposition of the Green City Circle: a model for addressing the regeneration of districts into existing urban contexts. The thesis is Climate KIC labelled (European Institute of Technology).

Smart energy city (SEC) development is a component of the urban development initiative smart city, which has been a popular response to the global energy challenge in Europe during the past two decades. SEC development aims to increase the sustainability of urban energy systems and services. Since 2011, SEC development has been supported by the European Commission as part of the Strategic Energy Technology plan (SET-Plan) and through the European Union Programmes for Research and Technological Development (specifically FP7 and Horizon 2020). This, along with the promising vision of SEC development and considerable financial support by the private sector, has encouraged numerous European cities to initiate SEC projects. Successful implementation of these projects at the urban scale is crucial to achievement of urban energy objectives and sustainability of future urban development. The here presented thesis aims to support urban decision-makers towards successful implementation of urban scale smart energy city development in Europe. The study includes three stages. The first stage is dedicated to conceptual analysis. Within this stage, I conceptualized smart city through a keyword analysis of existing literature on the concept. Then, within the context of the smart city concept, I defined SEC development through literature review and expert knowledge elicitation. The second stage is dedicated to empirical investigation. Using the definition of SEC development, I distinguished and investigated 43 previously implemented SEC projects to identify common barriers that hinder successful implementation of SEC development. In addition, I proposed a new multi-dimensional methodology that allows a simultaneous prioritization of barriers against their probability, the level of impact, scale, origin, and relationship with other barriers. The third stage of the thesis is dedicated to learning methodologies that allow efficient transfer of knowledge from the past SEC experiences to the new SEC developments. I introduced the application of two learning methodologies that support decision-makers to predict barriers to the implementation of a new SEC project: case-based learning and decision tree learning. The former predicts barriers based on internal similarities between the new SEC project and the past projects. The latter uses the past projects and creates a predictive model for each barrier based on internal and external project characteristics. These models are later used to predict barriers to a new SEC project. Both methodologies were tested in a new SEC project, named SINFONIA. The conceptual analysis revealed that application of information and communication technologies, the collaboration of multiple stakeholders, integration of multiple urban domains, and sustainability evaluation are the constant characteristics (i.e. principles) of smart city and SEC development. It resulted in, to the best of my knowledge, the first multi-dimensional and comprehensive definition of SEC development, revealing its principles, objectives, domains of intervention, stakeholders, time and spatial dimensions. Furthermore, a list of smart energy solutions in each SEC domain of intervention was provided. The empirical investigation of the past SEC projects resulted in the identification of 35 common barriers to the implementation of SEC development, categorized in policy, administrative, legal, financial, market, environmental, technical, social, and information and awareness dimensions. The barrier prioritization showed that barriers related to collaborative planning, external funding of the project, providing skilled personnel, and fragmented ownership should be the key action priorities for SEC project coordinators. Application of case-based learning methodology resulted in identifying five past SEC projects that were the most similar to the SINFONIA project in terms of project internal characteristics. Investigating the barriers to the similar projects revealed that fragmented ownership is the most probable barrier to implementation of SINFONIA project. Application of the decision trees methodology resulted in generation of 20 barrier models, four of which showed a very good performance in prediction of barriers: lack of values and interest in energy optimization measures, time-consuming requirements by European Commission concerning reporting and accountancy, economic crisis, and local unfavorable regulations for innovative technologies. None of these four barriers were predicted to occur in the SINFONIA project. The application of this method in the SINFONIA showed a higher predicting power when a barrier was absent. The findings of the here presented thesis contribute to successful implementation of SEC development by supporting decision-makers in different phases of SEC projects. The results of the conceptual analysis contribute to a common understanding and foster the dialogue on the concept among various SEC stakeholders, particularly decision-makers and urban planners. The results of the empirical investigation lead to a better comprehension and evaluation of the barriers to the implementation of SEC projects in order to efficiently allocate resources to mitigate barriers. The proposed learning methodologies proved to be promising in helping decision-makers to identify similar projects to a new SEC development and to predict barriers to the implementation of new SEC projects. The thesis concludes that SEC is an outstanding urban development that can make a valuable contribution to the sustainability of urban energy systems. The specific characteristics of SEC development pose new challenges to the future smart and sustainable urban planning. Nevertheless, SEC development brings about unprecedented opportunities for integration and application of advanced quantitative techniques with current urban planning methods. This allows efficient knowledge transfer in not only intra-urban but also inter-urban levels in order to provide a collaborative, integrated and constructive movement towards successful implementation of SEC projects and sustainability of future urban development.

In the perspective of “nearly zero energy buildings” as foreseen in the EPBD 2010/31/EU, herein a prototype of a wooden prefabricated BiPV wall is conceived, designed, built and tested. The prototype key concepts, identified according to the recommendations of the IEA Task 41 research project, are: multi-functionality, prefabrication, sustainability and integration. The prototype design is the result of a theoretical study which takes into account both architectural integration aspects and energy performance issues. The latter in particular, is based on the evaluation and improvement of both PV and building-related aspects, through the investigation and implementation of low-cost passive strategies to improve the overall BiPV performance. A modular specimen of the prototype was built thanks to an industrial collaboration and tested through an experimental approach, based on the combination of several phases performed in two test facilities (i.e. INTENT lab and SoLaRE-PV lab) by means of original experimental set-up. The effectiveness of the proposed BiPV prototype configuration is proven by comparing the results of the experiments with monitored data of two BiPV systems (a roof and a façade system) located in South Tyrol (North of Italy). The experimental results are then generalized, providing significant data and experimental expressions for a deeper understanding of BiPV systems energy performance.

La tesi di dottorato “Il genius loci e l’architettura sostenibile. L’ambiente naturale e costruito della Val di Gresta” attiene alla definizione di una metodologia di studio efficace a descrivere i caratteri ricorrenti in un ambito territoriale omogeneo, analizzando il territorio nelle diverse scale da quella dell’insediamento a quella dell’edificio, a quella della tecnologia. Lo studio non doveva solo comprendere il paesaggio in tutte le sue componenti ma si è voluto definire i principi concettuali di trasformazione passati, attuali e futuri, e soprattutto questi ultimi al fine di riattivare un processo congruente e compatibile con al naturalità del territorio, con l’economia e la cultura del luogo. Nel corso del lavoro è stato analizzato il paesaggio della valle di Gresta, ove si è registrato un forte declino della diversità del paesaggio, con conseguente semplificazione del mosaico paesistico e la riduzione delle caratteristiche identitarie strutturali e culturali. E’ stata rilevata infatti la scomparsa di elementi strutturali caratterizzanti, come i terrazzamenti, la modificazione nella dimensione degli insediamenti e l’alterazione formale e tecnologica degli edifici. Le diverse sollecitazioni esterne che inducono le evoluzioni in un territorio sono continue, quindi è evidente che anche il processo di trasformazione deve proseguire, ma in rapporto simbiotico con l’esistente, come un tempo, dove le varie modificazioni si stratificavano nell’architettura e nel paesaggio. L’ analisi del paesaggio naturale e costruito e delle architetture della valle è quindi servita per comprendere l’evoluzione e la trasformazione nel corso dei secoli del rapporto di equilibrio stabilitosi tra artificio e contesto, analizzando le modificazioni avvenute alle diverse scale. La conservazione e valorizzazione del paesaggio sono il fine del processo di conoscenza intrapreso ma anche l’inizio di una sensibilizzazione alle politiche ambientali e di trasformazioni del costruito in cui assieme alle permanenze più o meno integre del sistema storico che ha caratterizzato i luoghi nel corso del tempo si attuano delle modificazioni congruenti legate ad attribuzioni di significato che contribuiscono a mantenere e ri-definire l’identità culturale del territorio.

This research deals with the architectural integration of mobile external shielding devices with the building’s façade. In most cases these elements act as solar shading. For this reason, within the research, they are called by that name. The research mainly develops around the theme of environmental quality, strictly limited to the architectural integration of these mobile devices with the building’s façade. It concerns mainly the quality of open spaces but also of those internal. When we talk about environmental quality often it means an interest in microclimatic comfort. Recently the research tends to focus only on the energy aspects. These issues are left aside here, since the researches about energy-saving and microclimatic comfort sadly neglect some strategical aspects: in most cases the solar shading systems do not fall within an architectural design and also they may affect the appearance of places, from single side to the urban front, to the entire city. This research deals with all the main aspects of this area: history of architecture, manufacturing of solar shading systems, legislation, bibliography, software, technological and environmental design. The main goal of this research was to identify technological and architectural parameters for the choice of external dynamic shielding devices. These parameters must allow the integration of shielding devices with the building’s façade in connection with the culture and the traditions of the places. The ultimate goal of this research was to produce guidelines for architectural design and a user-friendly software. These instruments are addressed to the world of architectural design, manufacturing and sales of solar shading systems, but also to local authorities for the improvement of building regulations. Among the identified parameters the main are: color, type and dimension of the shading elements related to the buildings and their relationship with the context. On these basis, over one hundred case studies of contemporary international architecture have been analyzed. The data emerged from the analysis were developed in graphs and were compared across, producing scientific results under the form of stochastic analysis of the sample studied. The research has produced a system of guidelines dealing with the use of different façade types and different solar shading systems with specific color combinations and a software to quickly view these possible configurations.

CHANCES has been an international conference that was aimed to explore, from a multidisciplinary perspective, the fragile but continuous urban transformation through the effective contribution of culture, nature and technology. The aim of this conference was to provide a deeper understanding of urban transformations’ research and practices, focusing on the use, re-use, design, renovation and innovative governance and management of public spaces, urban commons and buildings. We believe that these thoughts will largely contribute to shape and increase sustainable design, construction and planning in constant cities’ transformation. Contributions could build on reflections and studies concerning current or historical approaches that are changing or drastically changed the cities we lived in.