1,721,033 research outputs found

    La modellazione e gestione informativa a supporto del cantiere di restauro

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    Nel contributo gli autori trattano la tematica della modellazione infromativa applicata alla gestione dei cantieri di restauro dell'art

    Re‐shaping the construction industry

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    Re-shaping the Construction Industry: an International Consensus seems to be convergent in order to trigger some impressive game changers. Namely, the Digitization appears as the most disruptive agent, together with the Circularity. It sounds a little bit paradoxical to imagine a radical innovation as far as a reluctant industry is concerned. A transformational narrative makes the transformation so easy to be achieved: nevertheless, such a storytelling encounters a fierce and silent opposition. This is the reason why the Digital Transition plays a crucial role, more relevant than the final destination, indeed. The XXI Century's early decades have been featured by Building Information Modelling (BIM) which arose and surged as the gate key entrance to the digital brave new world. It does mean that, once entered within the digital environment, any stakeholder needs to behave and act according to a computational way. It is clear that the stakeholders must be persuaded to enter the digital ecosystem by means of promising them to become more effective and finally to recover the lost productivity rates. To be viable, this expectaction has to be nurtured by arguing that the traditional players won't be menaced, in spite of the uberised ambiance of the disintermediation. Nonetheless, could they really avoid any fear or concern about the digitization's transformational power? Digitization has been correctly assessed as unavoidable, but the industry's analogical attitude remains quite deeply rooted. ISTeA, as a scientifical society, retains an institutional duty to foster the ultimate questions dealing with the digitization of the strategic supply chain. Apart from having been the societal chairman over the last six years, I have been involved into the international standardization works (at ISO and CEN level), the European institutional body (EU Task Group), some national initiatives (in Italy, France, Switzerland, and elsewhere), an academic joint research programme (between Italy and Germany), and I got a first hand understanding of the UK BIM Saga. The European digital journey is just starting, in spite of its origins dating back to the UK BIM Mandate issued in 2011 or to the US BIM Implementation: nevertheless, it is really astonishing to acknowledge how long it did progress since then. Likewise, the stated targets look as quite far to be reached, because of the intimate nature of the industry. I was learned to adopt a humble mood, my feeling became more and more cautious, because the items are quite sensitive and the stakes extremely valuable. The challenge lies between a couple of different poles: the whole digitization of the lowest tiered practictioners or trade contractors and the unforeseeable dimensions stemming and sourcing from Smart Cities and 4.0 Paradigms. How long the former intent will last? How deep the latter ambition will be? It is unthinkable to seek at answering such final questions: however, they undoubtedly conceal or disclose (?) the promise or menace of changing, re-inveinting, the usual identities. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are stimulating notions which entail new and unprecedented soft skills, although they recall a lot of expertises' replacement and erasement. A critical thought obviously avoids to accept any (re)evolutionary vision and prediction as forced and unescapable: meanwhile, the change drivers are so powerful and threathening. They cannot be neglected nor ignored. How our vision is differing from the actual on going outcomes? How our transformational efforts will be fanciful and whimsical, anything but a wishful thinking? ISTeA is currently accomplishing the six-year term I chaired: we were accepting an analogical legacy. At this time, our seminal scholars did retire and provided us with some interesting outcomes, which left forcefully unsolved the untrivial assumptions of the «industrial» era, to be faced again over our own term of office. I am not able to evaluate how successfully we performed: anyway, we tried to cope with the unknown phenomena searching at realizing any pros and cons. Eventually, the pioneering stages of the digital evolution are ending: our achievements might be judged as unstable. However, nowadays, ISTeA has the tremendous chance to freeze the ingrained issues pertaining to the Circular and Digital Economy and Society. Provided that, as the incumbent chairman, I might succeed in conveying to the successors the correct questions, as a trend-setter, the Scientifical Society's perspectives deal with problem-solving. Unfortunately, the strong temptation of explaining the radical and stochastic innovations in terms of incremental and mechanistic agents might seriously compromise any attempt, because a consulatory and selfish attitude can be adopted. My suggestions are focused upon the digital transition: it would be a hard task to renounce to a two-speeded route: the more the most advanced early adopters will progress, the more the laggards will suffer a gap. An intertwined approach, far away from chasms, has to be envisaged

    Constructability and safety: a safety management approach for critical construction phases

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    In the following paper an approach based on the analysis of construction process is proposed. Such approach provides new tools for a preliminary Constructability analysis during critical site phases. Even if the safety management is widely considered as a secondary and complementary aspect to the building process, it is one of the most important elements which is able to influence the entire process-management if it’s not merely considered as a compliance with legislations. In the article it has been first investigate relationships between design and safety in European and Italian laws, we then clarify the relationships among Constructability, design and safety and at the end we individuate links between graphical representation and safety. This analysis path leads to introduce the BDS method, proposed and tested to perform a simulation process of design Constructability. A further step is the proposal to insert BDS method in a wider processual and operative framework, in order to make BDS free from the theoretical, episodic and unrealistic aspect that could have been attributed to it. To reach this goal it is defined an approach that, making use of the construction management tools, lead to individuate the safety critical activities in construction process and is able to mitigate the critical activities applying BDS method. In other words, the proposal is to implement a site-simulation process through the lens of the sustainability in terms of workers’ safety. Results till now reached are mainly related with the test of BDS method in a lot of case studies; then it has been improved and optimised graphical representation of construction site issues and it has been developed a Decision Support System, trying to guide the initial design choices to obtain the better Constructability in the development of construction site. The analysis, the assessment and the management of Safety by using BDS seems to push future developments in the direction of Building Information Modeling (BIM)

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

    Nearly zero energy multifunctional modules for public use

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    The present work is based on the elaboration of flexible multi-functional modules for public use assigned for waiting rooms, box-offices, hygienic services, kiosk and coffee-bars, employed for example to support the transport of intermodal services located in public areas. Usually realized after calamitous events to respond to emergency situations, such modules’ typologies are thought and planned to be used in the long term. On the base of the exposed criteria, prebuilt in the factory, the module (both in sections or completely) is decomposable and entirely re-employable on other sites, it is realized with a dry stratified technology and it is at high energy performance. The module is planned to realize a building at nearly zero energy consumption; for such end, simulations for the determination of the energy performance finalized to the choice of materials and/or functional layers are devised. On the base of the principles affirmed in the Document “Energy Roadmap 2050" (European Commission Communication 15.12.2011), section 3.1) not only should the realization of buildings to nearly zero energy consumption must concern residential or tertiary buildings, but also any type of building, even if temporary, detachable and/or movable. The use of such criterion must become of routine in the planning and realization of any type of building for any destination of use; besides, the building does not have to be an energy consumer but it must become a producer of it. Although the planning uses products and materials already present in the production process, it appears to be innovative because it uses renewable energy systems opportunely integrated

    Variations on the Author

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    “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

    Towards adaptive building automation systems, simulating occupant behaviors by means of an agent based approach

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    The recent international directives have introduced the "Nearly Zero Energy Building" standard in response to the high impact of buildings on energy consumptions and greenhouse gas emissions. Most of the innovative strategies and technology solutions for reducing energy consumption in buildings are focused on energy efficiency of building-HVAC system. The interaction between occupants and the building-HVAC system is completely neglected, especially regarding the operating modes by occupants. In most cases, it causes a significant difference between the expected energy consumptions and the real ones during the exercise phase. Especially in buildings with high levels of thermal insulation and airtightness, occupant behavior may have a significant influence on energy consumption and on indoor comfort. In this context, the aim of this research work is to evaluate the occupants' behavior impact on energy consumption and thermal comfort, in order to design building automation systems adaptable to occupants behaviors. In particular, unlike the common deterministic approach to simulate occupant behavior in buildings, this work presents a more realistic approach to simulate occupant behavior by means of a stochastic and agent-based model (ABM). The case study regards the residential building context, where behavioral logic of occupants relating to the opening/closing of the windows and shading and to the activation of the cooling system in summer are implemented by TRNSYS software. The comparison between models where occupants are simulated in deterministic way and by means of ABM allows to evaluate the significant impacts of occupants on building performanc

    Common Data Environment (CDE). An efficient and effective use in Italian standard UNI 11337:2017

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    The article seeks to define the rules for building and managing data sharing environments, such as structured connection sites of information atoms, in order for them to be fully correlated (Pavan, 2017a). With the diffusion of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the information systems of the construction industry, it was necessary to create a specific digital data sharing environment. This environment was introduced by the British standard BS 1192-1: 2007 (BSI, 2007), under the name of Common Data Environment (CDE). In the first time, it was regarding the information collaboration rules in the AEC (Architectures, Engineering and Construction). Only in second time, in the PAS 1192-2: 2013 (BSI, 2013), it was extended its horizon, to information management during development phases of constructions processes, using BIM. Some interpretative difficulties contained in the above technical specification (PAS 1192-2) and the lack of knowledge of the instrument (CDE) by the public and private clients are now creating operational confusion which is likely to limit, if not in some cases, to erase, part of the innovation introduced by BIM systems in this sector. Starting with the simple confusion of the BIM-CDE with a traditional file hosting environment (and not data management environment), until the impossibility of statistical data processing or data relational verification and validation (Pavan, 2017b). This research defines the criticalities found in the non-rigorous application of the BIM-CDE and identifies possible prospects for system improvement. Future developments are aimed at creating specific analysis and processing applications for single data to increase the performance of chain-management
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