1,104 research outputs found
Material saving and building component efficiency as main eco-design principles for membrane architecture: case - studies of ETFE enclosures
No full textCompared to the traditional materials, textile membrane and foil structural enclosures use minimal quantity of materials to cover spaces or close façades, thanks especially to their tensioning ability, by shaping themselves to the forces ways, with a few additional stiffening components. However the environmental compatibility, due to their actual fossil fuel origin, together with the thermal, optical, and acoustic performances are crucial factors to be verified during the design phase. The need of understanding their potentials and limits in terms of ecoefficiency is on the debate. Starting from these concepts, the aim of the research is to demonstrate the advantages of the Life Cycle Design strategy answering to the environmental sustainability of membrane building components.The authors found out two eco-efficiency principles for the application of membranes and foils, orienting the designers towards a more sustainable whole life spanned lightweight technology’s choice. The main advancement of this research is presented adding new ETFE membranes case studies to the initial analysis (Monticelli, Zanelli, 2016). The aim of this ex-post application of the principles on built examples is the demonstration of their validness for the designer’s need and the intention is to spread their use during the early design stage. The calculation on a wider and different use of membranes allowed to sketch benchmark reference rates. The results of the data analysis show how lightweight technologies offer a high degree of freedom in shaping geometries and forms, while only their optimized application can guarantee a sustainable and LCA effective result
"Globalizzazione e unipolarismo USA nella prospettiva araba"
No full textGlobalisation and US unipolarismo in the Arab perspective
The author begins her analysis with a look at the changes brought about by the end of the cold war" in the Arab world; changes in which the Palestinian question has been a fundamental element. Zanelli looks over the debates and positions inherent to a "Middle-East stance" closely linked to American peace and the "Mediterranean stance". She concludes by describing the unique Arab view of globalisation, which is dominated by Arabs' awareness of their strategic geographical position and the experience of "repeated foreign aggression and occupation". The Arab community feels it has once more been sacrificed to politics and strategies decided by the Western world
Closing the Loops in Textile Architecture: Innovative Strategies and Limits of Introducing Biopolymers in Membrane Structures
No full textEco-design principles for a preliminary eco-efficiency assessment in the design phase: application on membrane envelopes
No full textStating the necessity of increasing the designers’ awareness of both lightweight and flexible materials and their performances, in a life cycle thinking perspective, this contribute is based on the updated identified needs of the membrane sector (Cost Action TU1303, 2017): Life Cycle Assessment, durability aspects, recyclability, social acceptability, thermal, optical, acoustic comforts. Into the frame of the Tensinet association activity, the Textile Architecture Network of Politecnico di Milano is continuing the search of Eco-design strategies and enlarging the mapping of case studies, by the application ex-post of two eco-efficiency principles in order to verify their validness and their efficacy for the designer’s need, during the design process of a membrane system. The main advancement of this work is here presented adding new membranes case studies to the initial analysis. The aim is to verify the applicability of the principles to a wider and different uses of membranes and the identification of reference rates. The results demostrate relations between the rate of the eco- efficiency, the year of construction and the evolution of the technology and the impostance to take into account in the design phases the environmental impact of membrane structures
Towards the Smart Filter
No full textThe chapter aims to introduce the reader and the designer in the field of membrane architecture, presenting its potential and future challenges. In particular, the chapter presents some innovative applications of membranes in facades and roofs, in order to suggest scenarios of further developments of the building skin, such as light and heat filters, active and reactive systems. The chapter continues with an investigation into the potentialities of the various materials available today to filter light into membrane skins and to optimise the overall efficiency of an architecture built with membrane-based tensile structures. Eventually, promising ideas on how to increase the user’s interactivity with a new concept of soft, membranous building envelopes are presented
Designing with lightness
No full textFor ages lightweight architecture has used textiles taking advantage of their main characteristics: the structural behaviour, the performance of forms, the adaptability at different times and contexts. The chapter shows how it also profits by an efficient link between product design and industrial production
Innovative Refugee Shelter Design with Pneumatic Sandwich Structure
No full textAccording to the record of United Nations Refugees Agency UNHCR in July, 2018 there are 68.5 million people around the world have been forced to flee from home. This is a huge number of population and they need a new place to live in.
In the present work, a proposal design of refugee shelter that made by “pneumatic sandwich” structure is demonstrated. The main concept of this design is using the pneumatic material to create a pre-fabricated structure. It is a shaped “airbag” that can be folded into very small size for storing and transporting, when it’s needed it can be set up by pumping air inside. The compression of the air and the tension of the envelope can support the structure itself. Lightweight timber panels were added to both sides to strengthen it. The main goal of this design is easy transporting and quick assembling. This project aiming to provide a shelter that can be assembled in few minutes, without requiring for any technical skills
«For the ages and for right now»: un’analisi dell’Antigone (2019) 229 di Merlynn Tong, con un’intervista all’autrice
No full textAbstract
«For the ages and for right now»: an analysis of Antigone (2019) by Merlynn Tong, with an interview with the author
The article analyzes one of the most recent adaptations of Sophocles’ Antigone, written in 2019 by the young Australian author and actress, Merlynn Tong. After providing a first synthetic evaluation of the reasons for continuity and innovation of the work (among which, the adoption of a Creon woman), the essay explores the drama, scene by scene, studying the operation carried out on the hypotext through a precise comparison with it. The conclusions are then subsequently summarized, with particular attention on the one hand to the actualizing solutions regarding the story of the external space (the city), but above all showing how – while depicting Antigone as an activist (according to a very common redefinition in the rewritings of recent years) – the focus of the drama is the picture of the human bonds between the characters and their suffering: an emotional approach to the tragedy, distant from the eminently political rewritings that the myth of Antigone has developed since the twentieth century. In the Appendix to the article, a short interview with the author is given
Design for Re-manufacturing (DfRem) of short chains from design-to-construction: the case of textile-based tertiary architecture
No full textThis chapter focuses on the peculiarities of the typical design-toconstruction
process of textile building systems, that today have been
mainly used in tertiary architecture.
The so-called textile architecture or membrane architecture is a niche
of construction where durable materials are mostly applied for temporary
uses.
The time-span of textile architecture may widely vary wether the
textile artefacts are designed for interiors or for outdoor installations.
On one hand, textile-based architectural products shall include ceilings,
movable partitions, curtains and even more innovative self-standing
detachable and modular walling systems. Their application in tertiary
architecture sees very short cycle of installation and renewal. Typically, the
first service life of textile products in interior architecture is ranging from
one to five years.
The latter open-air application shows even wider time-span, from few
days (ephemeral uses), or few months (seasonal purposes) up to 10 years
(long temporary functions). The main uses are ephemeral mobile pavilions,
seasonal sport halls, as well as tensile membrane structures for public
events and coverings for exhibitions or fairs.
The Design for Re-manufacturing (DfRem) approach is always intrinsically
inherent to the textile-based building artefacts. Independently by the
functionality, textile architecture foresees dry and reversible installation
methods, that are the basic approach for any further transformability of
building artefacts.
Copyright © 2022 by FrancoAngeli s.r.l., Milano, Italy. ISBN 9788835142232
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Despite of the shortage of their use, the durability of membrane products
(fabrics and foils) is ranging from 25 to 30 years. Considering the
typical long-lasting, petrol-based, composite nature of current architectural
membranes, it’s worth to promote their reuse, renewal and re-manufacture
in further installations, after their first temporary service.
Short-time architectural functionality and long-time durability of materials
are added values for the re-manufacturing of tertiary architecture.
Textile-based products have a widespread use in tertiary architecture,
thanks to their lightweight, easy handling in the installation phase and a
general design-to disassembly potential. Nevertheless, their DfRem attitude
and their real re-manufacturing practice need to become more effective
and wide-spread, after the first service life
Life Cycle Design for Lightweight Skin
No full textThe typical membranes for building are polymer-based and have origin from fossil fuel but become very lightweight building components, compared with other typical ones. Structural elements stiffen them (bio-based or not) and, due to the lightness, involve fewer structural materials than other components. Through a multidisciplinary experimental design path—focused on the weight factor at the level of the constructive system and the efficiency factor at the level of primary material—it is possible to enhance the efficiency and the aesthetic of lightweight skins and distill the eco-design concepts which can be transferable to the whole construction sector. In other words, the author tries to demonstrate the impacts of reducing weight firstly in textile skins and also other lightweight and hybrid architectures. Coming from this significant weight awareness through experimental knowledge, the author discusses the opportunity to apply multidisciplinary design approaches to reduce energy consumption and environmental loads during the life cycle. This chapter aims to elaborate on those concepts and systematize the obtained results demonstrating the advantages of the Life Cycle Design strategy in the environmental sustainability of novel lightweight skins
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