1,720,989 research outputs found
La città immaginata. Dalle esplorazioni puntuali ad una visione collettiva della città portuale
No full textNel corso degli ultimi decenni il Porto di Genova è stato oggetto di diverse riflessioni progettuali, in particolare, a partire dalla metà degli anni ’90 fino ad oggi, si sono succedute molteplici suggestioni ed ipotesi di riqualificazione degli ambiti portuali, posti sul bordo costiero genovese, a confine tra porto e città
Il nuovo Piano Regolatore del Porto di Genova: metodo e processo
No full textThe drafting of the new Port Master Plan (PRP) of Genoa spans across both a comparison with the approach adopted by the PRP in force (2001) and an analysis of trends in the maritime industry that requires planning on a large scale in a bid to meet the future challenges posed by the advent of the new behemoth container ships.
The guidelines of the new PRP (2012) identify five main objectives: integration in the national logistics network, increased competitiveness, productivity growth, environmental sustainability, added-value to the regional and local area.
Within this framework, public discussions chaired by the Port Authority with the port stakeholders has given rise to strategic guidelines, including a wider port turning basin which received broad consensus.
The new PRP will be designed as a “structural plan”, flexible in its implementation phase and promoter of new technologies and best practices in support of the development policies of the port
Authorship and automation in digital design culture
No full textThe nature of the transformations produced by the diffusion of digital technologies within design, production and construction in architecture is radically reconfiguring the architect’s role as “author”. The contribution aims to analyze the cultural implications of this assumption, examining the consequences that both building process management systems, such as Building Information Modeling, and parametric form-finding strategies by algorithm- based technologies are affecting the traditional authorial model in architectural practice. The text compares some significant theoretical positions and design experiences to highlight the epistemological changes in contemporary approaches to design process which, from an eminently intellectual activity that can be traced back to the work of a single defined author, is seemingly shifting to a different authorship that operates in a collaborative environment, thus determining a co-evolutive relationship between man and computer, to which is delegated an increasingly wide range of autonomy
Design for sustainable healthcare. Cutting the impact of medical products through disposable packaging
No full textThe pandemic emergency has highlighted a critical issue in the health sector: the environmental impact caused by the use of disposable products, currently based on the use of plastic polymers, which are difficult to recycle and not compostable. According to the National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, the numbers generated by the Covid-19 emergency would amount to between 150 and 450 thousand tonnes (ISPRA Report, Waste consisting of used PPE, May 2020). Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, estimated the waste of $2.9 million in neurosurgical supplies in one year in one department alone (Allen, 2017). The incompatibility between the health need to use these devices and the environmental need to reduce products with a high polluting potential, poses the Design Discipline with a challenge that research must be able to meet through the development of real and sustainable solutions.
In an attempt to respond to these critical issues, this paper reports on research conducted on single-use surgical products, in particular on the redesign of a single-use procedural kit, with the aim of rethinking design from a systemic sustainability perspective.
The research was conducted through desk research, based on a literature review of reports and documents demonstrating how to achieve sustainable healthcare. At the same time, through field research and the HCD approach, using a number of specific tools in the different phases of the design process, it led to the definition of a product capable of satisfying both the needs of healthcare professionals, doctors and nurses, who are the direct users, and the needs of hospitals and companies responsible for the disposal phase. The result is a framework for identifying the most challenging surgical departments.
The research required a multi-disciplinary approach to develop new sustainable layouts starting with the details, requirements and needs for the design of an adaptable and versatile procedure kit were highlighted.
The design solutions that led to the realisation of the prototype are: design of a biodegradable EPP tray, functional for disposal by incineration; design of a recyclable PETG tray, divided into 3 compartments. The first one contains instruments that need to be ready to use. The second contains instruments at risk of falling/breaking. The third compartment contains instruments that are not always used. The three compartments are fixed on a cardboard layer that replaces the individual compartmentalisation per instrument, making the kit customisable for any type of single-use procedure, as well as being able to make the PETG tray sterile. The project will reduce production costs by using less plastic material to be thermoformed and a single negative for the production of the customisable tray, leading to the creation of a new product/service flow, centred on: returning packages to the manufacturer, placing them in the additional instrument tray, so that they are not necessarily ready for use; reducing the amount of biohazard waste burnt in the incinerator. The use of an organic-based tray minimises pollution; advantageous recycling of trays and procedural tools that were previously discarded in general waste or even biohazard.
From an environmental point of view, there are benefits to be gained from reducing incineration by reducing unused waste. A biodegradable tray to handle infectious supplies and disposal in an incinerator can minimise air pollution. Other time-saving benefits come from the individual packaging of additional customisable instruments. This solution has reduced the possibility of having to open a second kit to obtain a duplicate instrument
Materials Designers. Boosting Talent towards Circular Economies
No full textMaterials designers is an emergent professional profile that has its roots in the maker movement and whose role can have a positive impact on the development of the circular economy. As preliminary research for the development of the MaDe (MaterialsbDesigners) European project, a qualitative analysis was performed in order to identify the specific needs, opportunities and skill gaps for materials designers training and exposure, as well as for the requirements for enhancing social and industrial awareness towards circular economy issues. Based on the collected data from existing materials-related design projects, educational programs and existing initiatives, a series of recommended key actions have been developed to define a European project that boosts creative talent towards circular economies
Paving the way to post-digital smart materials. Experiments on human perceptions of a bio-inspired cellulose-based responsive interface
No full textThe paper aims to frame the emerging scenario of hybrid interactive systems and pave the way for post-digital interactive materials, proposing organic material interactive interfaces as a potential alternative to digital and electronic-based ones. Supported by the theoretical background and related works, a case study developed by one of the authors has presented: a cellulose-based interactive interface where the material itself works as a sensor and an actuator. This new generation of smart materials enables and implies novel experiential patterns to observe and discuss. An exploratory workshop on this novel typology
of material interface carried out by one of the authors is then described addressing the critical issues of users’ perception and appreciation. The methodology of the activity is based on quantitative and qualitative data collection through a questionnaire made of scale questions and open-ended questions, plus direct observation and discussions with the participants. The activity integrates the lens of Materials Experience, in order to overcome the missing understanding of the experiences enabled and implied by this interface. Prominent findings unfold the relationship between temporal and static expressions. Finally, biomimicry arises as an approach to transfer the feeling of nature and to create more intuitive interaction
Sign of the artisan city
No full textIn 2017 the City of Florence started to sketch out the application for UNESCO Creative City for the Craftsmanship, opening in 2019. The application was not selected by the Italian National Commission UNESCO.
However, the challenge made it possible to put at the center the physical city and citizens. Contrary to what we thought in the past, the digitization of cities has increasingly turned out to be a not entirely democratic tool because it is often out of the control of its inhabitants. With the advent of the digital dimension, cities are constantly "measured" with different parameters to enter the rankings capable of expressing their qualities (technological equipment, quality of life...). Even this long path, in different aspects, began with a competitive spirit, gradually revealing elements of an extremely complex structure that led those who followed the candidacy to cross real data with the internal and external perception of the city. Often they did not correspond to the numbers of the smart city.
The project involved a large number of stakeholders who related in different ways than usual, managing to define the elements on which the projects were developed.
The experience, although not having had the desired result, was nevertheless able to highlight how consolidated but not clearly perceived values can be made to re-emerge and help design a new development model
The interplay between ethics and aesthetics in intelligent systems-users interaction
Full text linkIn this paper, I address the interplay between ethics and aesthetics, in the context
of everyday interaction with smart systems. This study is the result of a year’s time
development of my PhD research, whose general aim is to understand how people’s beliefs
and behaviours come to be shaped by the aesthetic experience with smart things. The
expected outcome is a set of design strategies to integrate moral reasoning in the framework
of design for behaviour change, relying on aesthetics in interaction. Preliminary results are
presented, based on a literature review in the area of aesthetics of interaction. Although basic,
these findings are helpful for they suggest that ethics and aesthetics in users-smart systems
interaction are interdependent. This insight holds promise for the development of an
aesthetics of moral reasoning, in the context of users-smart systems interaction. A researchthrough-
design approach will be adopted in the remaining two years, with the aim of testing
assumptions by means of working prototypes
- …
