1,721,009 research outputs found
Stone building envelopes performance qualities: the “Sassi di Matera” (Italy)
No full textAs a constantly important feature of the architecture, in both formal and technical-building aspects, with which
it has established a biunique relation, the stone has always been able to guarantee performance qualities
suitable for living conditions in each single century. In time, the technological process, on one hand, and the
complexity of anthropical activities, on the other, have caused the breaking of this relation, generating a more
and more increasing demand for performances. This necessity, supported by an increasing
complexity/stratification of building envelope and also by the use of materials no more directly available near
the building area, has caused a change of the equilibrium between man and environment, consolidated in time.
The study faces the recovery theme of the historical and monumental building, characterized by an “imposing”
envelope, in which all the performance are entrusted at the same component and/or material (the stone
masonry), pointing out the formal aspects, strongly correlated with static and technological ones. The
complexity of this approach, also referred to restraints imposed by the built heritage, do not allow a wide range
of solutions, and fix the necessity to value the envelope characteristic restoration and implements a possibility to
developed the building performance. This is reversible and compatible choice, fully respectful of environmental
characteristics. The aim of the research is to verify, by means of a series of tests for monitoring the “comfort
indoor”, how it is possible to obtain performance requirements corresponding to quality standards that the
residence requires, even in a particularly important architectural context, as the ancient “Sassi” of Matera
“CHANGES IN USE IN THE TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE: A WAY TO AN APPROPRIATE REHABILITATION. EXPERIENCES IN THE “SASSI” OF MATERA.”
No full textThe ancient and hidden city of Matera offers the visitor a totally unexpected sight. It is a timeless city positioned on a steep hill, where groups of houses branch out starting from the flat and moving downwards in concentric circles thus forming the “Sassi”. Here there is an enormous building and architectonic heritage, abandoned for over 40 years and today the scene of slow and careful interventions to recoup this cultural monument which is under the patronage of UNESCO.
The restoration and recuperation taking place must apply to the most rigid laws of preservation as regards the materials used, the preservation techniques and the traditional colours so as to avoid inappropriate use.
Research focuses its attention on one of the main problems of the restoration of the Sassi of Matera: it is problematic dealing with the unpredictabilities of the structure, the systems and the functional project at the same time and conciliating them with the architectonic language fully respecting the balance between the use of the existing buildings and the new uses of the same buildings.
The purpose of the study is the implementation of a methodological approach capable of guaranteeing the “vital continuity” of the building-historical heritage through an “appropriate use” of that heritage and an intervention of preservation which goes beyond the concept of basic protection in order to become a dynamic building activity of the future. The consistancy of the restoration therefore becomes much more than the moment of choosing when and how to intervene and which means to use but an accurate study of the requirements established by the formal and philological rules of preservation.
The first results, which were also verified through experimental applications, demonstrate that a change in use may often permit the restoration of architecture in an appropriate way – fully respecting the pre-existing architectonic language - preserving the traditional typologies through the definition of new “types” and the integration of technological services
“Knowledge development to improve the performance of the rehabilitated traditional architecture. The case of “Sassi di Matera”
No full textISSN 0356-9403
Quality is the ability of a building structure to meet the functional requirements. It is measured by identifying the level of performance of building components in relation to the requirements which have guided building concept, design and construction. Quality is not measured against an absolute set of criteria but in relation to the project objectives.
Flexibility is one amongst the fundamental criteria for defining quality. It is the intrinsic potential of any product to adapt to technical, technological and functional changes whilst meeting performance requirements. The need for flexibility leads to a different methodological approach in the design of new buildings and the rehabilitation of built heritage. In the case of the built heritage, the objective is “future proofing” through an appropriate re-use that goes beyond the concept of pure conservation towards planning for potential changes of the heritage use or its building services in the future.
This approach has been used in the conservation and re-use of the ancient Sassi neighbourhoods of cave dwellings in Matera, Italy. The criteria for assessing their architectural, technical and technological components which should be safeguarded have been developed, taking into consideration the required performances for new uses. The types of appropriate new uses of Sassi have also been recommended. The compatibility and suitability of the interventions undertaken in Sassi have been established by using the above mentioned criteria.
The methodological approach included the development of criteria for safeguarding the heritage values and planning adaptive re-use. The criteria can be considered as a knowledge base developed with the aim to ensure the usability of Sassi through improved performance. The appropriateness of the criteria has been verified through their experimental application on two Sassi neighbourhoods which have been converted into flexible spaces whilst the typology and the morphological-environmental equilibrium of the historical context have been preserved. This methodological approach enables an integral conservation of the historical built heritage by providing flexibility for technological and functional changes in the future, whilst ensuring the preservation of its cultural, historical and architectural values
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
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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