1,720,966 research outputs found
Active House and user-friendly visualization of sensors’ monitored data: VELUXlab, a real cognitive and smart NZEB prototype
No full textEuropean standards had already set Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) as the current and mandatory goal for the construction market. Thus, several design strategies have been developed, in order to define the best practices towards NZEB targets: high performances of construction components, integrated with high energy-efficiency solutions for building systems. The Active House Vision and evaluative approach on buildings summarize the current protocols, accounting the three principles of Comfort, Energy and Environment to parametrically design and assess buildings until their "as-built" status. However, at that point of the design process, this evaluation relies mainly on design simulations, which do not properly consider the occupants' component, resulting in a gap between forecast and real performances. Since predictive models of users-building interactions are underway, the paper focuses on the building operation stage of existing and validated NZEBuildings, addressing the performance-gap as related to the final users' mismanagement of the building system (envelope and installations). Referring to cognitive buildings as sensors-equipped and smart Active Houses, the method proposes a user-friendly visualization of (big) real-data as a possible solution for the final-user training and awareness. This approach has been applied to the case study of VELUXlab, a real building prototype of Politecnico di Milano, already validated as the first Italian NZEB inside a university campus and "as-built" Active House. The outcomes of the paper enhance the potentials of the current knowledge and design practice to achieve a sustainable and healthier built environment, looking at the future but working today
From Cognitive Buildings to Digital Twin: The Frontier of Digitalization for the Management of the Built Environment
Full text linkThe BIM holistic approach leads the AEC sector to manage all the different disciplines involved in the construction process. Its nDimensions, indeed, concern geometry, structure, systems (3D), work-site management—also in terms of time and costs—(4D, 5D), safety, energy performances (6D), maintenance and building management (7D). Besides the analysis of the state of the art, the n + 1 dome case study has been used to explain the advantages of BIM, sensitization and digital tool application for both product and asset management (PIM, AIM). Finally, the chapter illustrates the potential of Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), moving from Cognitive to Predictive buildings, nowadays conceived as the new perspective of 4.0 construction
Lateral costal artery: accessory thoracic vessel of clinical interest
No full textThe lateral costal artery (LCA), a supernumerary branch of the internal thoracic artery (ITA), occurs in several ethnic groups on one side of the thorax or on both, in 15-30% of cases. It has been considered responsible for the "steal-syndrome" of the coronary blood after coronary artery bypass grafting and it used occasionally for myocardial revascularization. To clarify its functional significance, an interpretation based on our findings and human and comparative anatomy and embryology has been attempted. We report on a case where a right LCA of about 2 mm in caliber, rising from the ITA 2.5 cm below the subclavian, coursed as far as the 4th intercostal space for a distance of 13 cm after the anterior axillary line. Anastomosing with the intercostal arteries, it can act as a blood derivative circuit of the thoracic wall. Embryologically, this artery, like the normal parietal arteries of the trunk, might form a longitudinal channel connecting the intersegmental arteries. In mammals having a thoracic cage transversely restricted (quadrupeds), the ITA is more lateral than in primates having a circular thorax, and gives off a ventral branch toward the sternum. It might be hypothesized that the sternal branch occurring in quadrupeds, undergoing adaptation to the thoracic shape of primates, may become the main trunk of the ITA, whereas the LCA may be the remnant of the ITA of quadrupeds. Because the LCA ran partly along the "milk line" of humans, it might be regarded as a supernumerary mammary artery. (C) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc
Timber-Based Transformations of the Built Environment: A Portfolio of Case Studies
No full textThe case studies collection is based on a literature review on architectural databases and a survey among the enterprises network. Twenty are the individual tabs among + 100 projects, these are selected mainly in the Italian context because of the high-density building stock composition perfectly fittable for this purpose. Finally, European projects choice starts from the Active House catalogue to point out these transformations sustainable approach. Case studies are catalogued according to the BAEIOU taxonomy described in chapter 1 : building Above, bEside, Inside, Outside, Under. Tabs show buildings before and after the intervention, their architectural concept, relation with the existing volume relationship and the timber-based system used for the extension, according to chapter 2 taxonomy
Existing Building Transformation: Current Drivers, Issues, and Possibilities
No full textConstructions account for a huge amount of energy and resources consumptions, affecting our indoor and outdoor living environment with pollutant emissions, for our planet and ourselves. Besides the climate change, the constant development of urban areas leads to an increasing demand for building spaces (most of all, with residential functions), and, therefore, to the urban densification phenomenon. All those different needs require to be addressed by a set of integrated and valuable design strategies for the sustainable transformation—versus demolition—of the built environment, by combining the energy retrofit of existing buildings and the definition of newer and healthier constructions, with the choice of the most proper technologies and materials to interact with existing structures and envelopes. The chapter introduces the concept of additive building transformation and proposes a different taxonomic approach to the construction layering, foreseeing a new possible paradigm of action towards a sustainable “palinsesto”
A Validation Opportunity: Case-Studies Analysis and Outcomes on the Application of the Method on Real Buildings
No full textBy closing the current dissertation, this chapter presents the practical implications of taleah methodology and tools, through the opportunity of testing them on two concrete case studies: 1 + 1 house and n + 1 dome. The first one represents the vertically-up densification phenomenon, small-scaled on the widely spread one-family houses; the second one identifies the same phenomenon at an urban scale; two diversified applications of the Building Above strategy, realized through timber-based construction systems. As per Galileo Galilei’s words, sensata esperienza, necessaria dimostrazione represents the spirit and structure of the research method, and the importance to resort to the demonstration of deducted hypothesis, as based on the observation of real phenomena. Working with real buildings is fundamental, indeed, in order to understand the reliability of the set procedures, as tested on different scenarios
A New Taxonomic Perspective on Wood-Based Technologies for the Transformation of the AEC Sector
Full text linkThe transformation of the built environment requests specific considerations in the definition of construction strategies. Under the technological perspective, the major requirements are lightness and efficiency, intended as the minimization of the impact over the existing building, along with the maximization of the building performances and overall value. To find suitable solutions, this chapter investigates wood as a construction material. At first, it defines the domain of the timber construction industry, by addressing the state of the art on wood innovations, between processes and products, according to the literature review and the outcomes from the interviews with international stakeholders. Afterward, it describes the taxonomic approach as a method to characterize building systems, proposing a revision of the current classification approach and the introduction of a creative taxonomy of timber-based construction systems. Finally, this taxonomy review is used to structure the final case-history survey upon timber construction strategies for building transformation, whose methodology and results are presented accordingly
An Innovative Method for the Management of the Building Process
No full textThrough always more innovative IT applications, the construction industry is moving towards the digitalization of the building process, from digital design to automated manufacturing and smart buildings. Big data are now able to take us into an augmented reality—the virtual sibling of the real one—where buildings become cognitive and predictive, capable to actively interact with people. Towards this direction, the capability to store and organize building information at any level of its lifecycle is essential, especially when the multi-criteria evaluation of buildings’ behavior is required. Within this framework, the chapter introduces the review of the standards and best practices, mainly focusing on BIM as the driven method for the management of the entire building process. Hence, the methodology to develop a new assessment tool is presented, according to the investigation of the current platforms for the evaluation of buildings’ performances, and the pursued methods to define new additional shared parameters, specifically customized for the application to retrofit design solutions with timber-based construction systems
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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