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Chiaia station is one of the art stations of Line 6 of the Naples underground network; it was constructed in a 50-m-deep excavation, a few meters from historic buildings and 4.5 m from the main façade of a sixteenth-century Basilica. The excavation, carried out partially in loose to medium dense sands overlying the soft rock formation of Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT), was supported by a retaining wall made of contiguous bored piles braced with internal struts and prestressed ground anchors. The excavation sequence was quite complex due to archeological findings and to the presence of anthropic cavities used over the centuries to quarry NYT blocks. One of the key goals of the design was to limit movements around the shaft to prevent damage in the historical buildings. Long-term monitoring data obtained during nearly 9 years confirm the success of the overall construction process. A rather complex three-dimensional (3D) finite-element model with constitutive relationships for both the upper sandy layers and the soft rock is presented in the paper; this model was adopted to back-analyze the data from the monitoring and explore the influence of some of the key features of the case study. The role of the building bending and shear stiffness, of the soft rock stiffness, and of further apparently minor issues—such as the seepage and the ground anchors' prestress—were investigated and discussed with the support of the model calculations. Observed settlements at the end of the excavation were in the range 10–15 mm, and in the long term they increased by 20%–50% to as much as 20 mm. The deflection ratios were very small, in the range 0.05‰–0.15‰ , and no visible damages to the buildings were recorded. These values were reproduced by the finite-element model only after the introduction of the relevant building stiffness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even before Covid - 19 although in the very center of the old town and historic center of Naples there were abandoned buildings and complexes, uninhabited and unused for decades. The cause is attributed to multiple reasons such as functional obsolescence, failure to adapt to intervening European standards in terms of hospital construction, technological facilities to standards, etc. The health crisis which strongly affected European societies revealed the fragilities of our healthcare systems. In Italy, a large number of COVID-19 patients congested hospitals while the continuity of essential services was interrupted at the expense of other needs. At the same time, the process of abandonment of historic buildings affects different monumental hospitals, such as the "San Giacomo degli Incurabili" and the "Carlo Forlanini" in Rome, or the "Gesù e Maria" Hospital, "San Gennaro dei Poveri" and the "Santa Maria del Popolo degli Incurabili" in Naples. This paper reports three case studies of Neapolitan historical hospitals regeneration proposals with the goal of strengthening the existing community healthcare system and developing energy efficiency and seismic improvement strategies in the spirit of sustainable development. Leveraging the flexibility of monumental hospitals, the proposed light retrofit interventions restore the historial healthcare functional destination ensuring also the reuse of such an heritage. The current research delineates an approach to the recovery and enhancement for social and cultural purposes of unused and abandoned historical hospitals. This approach can positively affect the quality of life of citizens and the use of health services, while recovering historical cultural heritage buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital survey and parametric-semantic modeling of historical or conventional building artifacts are becoming progressively more oriented toward HBIM (Heritage Building Information Modelling) to XR (Extended Reality) digital fruition projects. This encompasses a wide range of applications, from technical management to historical-scientific popularization of the architectural heritage. In this sense, the research explores the potential of BIM-to-XR virtualization systems concerning the systematization of historiographic documentation and interaction between different types of datasets for managing and disseminating the heritage. In particular, the research presents a prototypal experience conducted on Mostra d'Oltremare in Naples, Italy, a mid-20th-century exhibition center. In particular, the northwest access area had a rationalist layout, while the current configuration strongly differs from the monumental, exedra-shaped one built on a project by Arch. Stefania Filo Speziale, which was largely destroyed by World War II bombing. Thus, to document and facilitate the analysis of the original configurations, the original archival sources have been digitized and cataloged; moreover, reality-based integrated digital survey campaigns have been performed for the acquisition of metric-morphological data of the complex and the segmentation of the characteristic chromatic features of the residual decorative apparatuses. This has enabled the development of a BIM-oriented multi-scale information repository to enrich the real environment with digital content, thus creating an augmented reality experience. The latter has been introduced to create a virtual tool for querying and manipulating BIM databases, using the potential of visual programming languages and traditional scripts to create a two-way flow of data between BIM and AR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates an energy upgrading proposal of a historical building in Naples (Italy): Palazzo Fuga, better known as the Real Albergo dei Poveri which was built in the second half of the XVIII century. The proposal consists of energy efficiency interventions on the building envelope and its plants. As energetic and thermal aspects are concerned, simulations were performed in order to size a photovoltaic system, considering lighting aspects, and to evaluate the improvement of the building energy performance. Furthermore, thermal and lighting measurements were performed with a double aim: to verify the factual state of the building and to calibrate the calculation tools to the particular situation. In this paper obtained results concerning the feasibility of interventions will be presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many acoustic studies have been conducted in the San Carlo Theatre of Naples over the centuries. The discovery of valuable acoustic measurements from 1998 led the authors to photograph the architectural and acoustic conditions of the Theatre prior to restoration works in 2008. As the first opera house built in Europe, the San Carlo Theatre has always offered a rich artistic programme, making this historic building synonymous with classical music in Naples. From the great variety of operas, three specific sceneries have been selected to analyse the acoustic response based on different geometries and materials located on stage. Acoustic simulations have been performed based on site measurements, starting from a digital model that reproduces the geometry and absorbing coefficients of the materials existing in the Theatre. Using the recorded impulse response, the monoaural and binaural acoustic parameters have been obtained from the acoustic simulations and thereafter compared among the Elektra, Traviata, and La clemenza di Tito sceneries. The results in terms of reverberation highlight that La clemenza di Tito absorbs the high frequencies better than the other two sceneries. Under a clarity perspective, all the sceneries have values above the optimal range limit set for opera houses, although it is typical of other opera theatres built in the same period. A detailed historical background on the architectural changes of the San Carlo Theatre over the centuries is also given to understand the digital reconstruction that modelled the acoustic behaviour of this prominent cultural heritage building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new standards on energy saving for new and existing buildings have animated both researchers and technicians in recent years, aiming at reducing the dependence on fossil fuels, improving indoor comfort, and systems efficiency. In this scenario, special attention must be paid to historical buildings that need to preserve their key testimonial heritage within the society. This paper describes the design and realization stages of a pilot system based on a ground-coupled heat pump, operating both in heating and cooling modes, installed in the monumental site of Saints Marcellino and Festo (SM&F), in Naples, Southern Italy. This study aims to demonstrate that low-enthalpy geothermal systems can be employed as energy retrofit applications in buildings of historical, artistic, and cultural interest and, at the same time, to prove that the use of this technology allows achieving the objectives, set at global level by the current regulations, and requiring a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions (tCO2) of 53% compared to technology using fossil fuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Seismic performance of an ancient Neapolitan Masseria has been evaluated. • Three analysis types based on the three evaluation levels foreseen by the Italian Guidelines on Cultural Heritage have been applied to the case study building. • The analysis results, compared to each other, have shown the problems and the high vulnerability degree of the building. • The simplest evaluation level (EL1), compared to the most detailed one (EL3), has provided unconservative results in predicting the building seismic vulnerability. • Consolidation interventions have been designed and applied to the structural parts of the Masseria to improve its seismic behaviour. In this paper, the seismic vulnerability appraisement, together with repairing and consolidation operations, of a masonry building with cultural and artistic value located in a small city near Naples are reported and discussed. After a brief digression about the condition of historical and cultural Italian heritage damaged by seismic events and usually in poor condition due to a lack of maintenance, the case study is presented and described, providing not only historical news but also information about as-built status, spaces, functions and structural issues. Once the principal failure modes affecting the building are identified, the estimation of seismic vulnerability is performed through three different evaluation levels given by the Italian Guidelines on Cultural Heritage. The analysis results, compared to each other, have shown the problems and the high vulnerability degree of the building. Finally, according to the Italian Guidelines, the consolidation and upgrading interventions are proposed and described to ensure a safety use of the Masseria under seismic actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Building Information Modeling is today one of the most advanced data cataloging and processing systems aimed to the digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of an object. These prerogatives make possible to create a model containing not only the geometric-architectural data of the building, but also the properties of the materials and technical elements that compose it, the construction phases, as well as maintenance operations, locating and programming them over time. Such an approach implies, therefore, not only a change of instruments for the representation of Architecture, but above all a change of "mentality", in which the building is seen as a "unitary" organism with a synchronous vision between architectural form, structural elements, construction techniques, materials and installations. The experimentation here presented concerns the case of the university complex of Federico II of Naples along the axis of Via Mezzocannone. The urban palimpsest housing the monumental front of the building, designed by Eng. Pierpaolo Quaglia and Guglielmo Melisurgo at the end of the Nineteenth century, and incorporating ancient religious complexes built in the Fifteenth century, as the monasteries of Donnaromita and the Old Jesus; heterogeneous elements that allowed to explore on the field limits and the possibilities of interoperability of BIM in which still have ample possibilities for experimentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]