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Papers by Francesca Guidolin

The preservation of historical Italian heritage, at the urban and architectural scale, has to con... more The preservation of historical Italian heritage, at the urban and architectural scale, has to consider restrictions and requirements connected with conservation issues and usability needs, which are often at odds with historical heritage preservation. Recent decades have been marked by the search for increased accessibility not only of public and private buildings, but to the whole historical city, also for people with disability. Moreover, in the last years the concepts of Smart City and Healthy City seek to improve accessibility both in terms of mobility (independent or assisted) and fruition of goods and services, also for historical cities. The principles of Inclusive Design have introduced new criteria for the improvement of public urban space, between current regulations and best practices. Moreover, they have contributed to transforming “special needs” in an opportunity of social innovation. These considerations find a field of research and analysis in the historical city of Venice, which is at the same time a site of UNESCO world heritage, a mass tourism destination bringing in visitors from all over the world and a city inhabited by an aging population. Due to its conformation, Venetian urban fabric is only partially accessible: about four thousands bridges divide thousands of islands, making it almost impossible to move independently. These urban characteristics and difficulties were the base, in the last 20 years, for several researches, experimentations and solutions with the aim of eliminating architectural barriers, in particular for the usability of bridges. The Venetian Municipality with the EBA Office and some external consultants realized several devices (e.g. the “stepped ramp” and the new accessible ramps for the Venice Marathon) that should determine an innovation for the city, passing from the use of mechanical replicable devices to specific architectural projects in order to guarantee autonomy in use. This paper intends to present the state of the art of bridges accessibility, through an analysis based on Inclusive Design principles and on the current national and regional regulation. The purpose is to evaluate some possible strategies that could improve performances, between limits and possibilities of interventions. The aim of the research is to lay the foundations for the development of a strategic program for the City of Venice that could successfully bring together both conservation and improvement requirements.

The involvement of the inhabitants in the interventions of urban requalification is nowadays incr... more The involvement of the inhabitants in the interventions of urban requalification is nowadays increasingly relevant. The participatory processes give an active role to the inhabitant, from the first analysis phases (e.g. the mapping of needs), to the project development, and in some cases, in the construction site management. The urban areas today involved in renewal processes show a common issue: the complexity of demographic context and the lack of investment interests. The analysis of cost/benefit ratio reveals the disadvantages of an intervention when purely addressed to the energy performance upgrade. An integrated requalification approach is needed. Indeed, some studies reveal that the physical condition of a place, a residential area or building influences the social context: architectural and social aspects are deeply connected. Today, some experimentations are conducted in the field of requalification: they imply the involvement of the inhabitants also in the participatory management of the construction site. Those interventions, allowed by the use of an " Exoskeleton System " are usually performed in the Social Housing upgrade; totally external from the buildings, the Exoskeleton System is an independent structure as a functional double skin envelope, for the functional upgrade as a volumetric addition. This technological device, as an external structure, allows the integrated requalification of the building. Moreover, it helps the construction site management when financial costs and logistic problems with inhabitants increase the difficulties: with this refurbishment device, in fact, the inhabitants are not relocated, thus reducing the transfer costs. For this reason, this can be recognized as a " socio-technical system " , able to couple the technological issues related to the construction technology with the social issues related to the personalization and adaptations to users' needs. The aim is the satisfaction of the contemporary complex requirements related to the upgrade process. The paper, starting from the etymological analysis and definition of a " socio-technical system " and the introduction of the participatory processes in the history, intends to study in deep the application of this concept in the field of the participatory requalification systems for the upgrade of non-listed buildings, among whom the " exoskeleton system " can be recognized, focusing on the contemporary housing requirements. In particular, some examples will be analysed in order to recognize a common strategy. Francesca Guidolin 2

The construction of skybridges has become more frequent in the last twenty years in high rise ver... more The construction of skybridges has become more frequent in the last
twenty years in high rise vertical cities.
This structure represents not only an aerial connection model between high buildings but an actual urban infrastructure that is able to connect several buildings and areas of the city. Aerial bridges have an additional important role in the security egress programs of skyscrapers, allowing
for the possibility of a horizontal egress procedure and for an alternative to vertical egress. This essay offers an examination of these structures, with the aim of understanding hoe they function, the architectural and urban potentialities they offer for the contemporary city and possible evolutions for the city of the future.

A healthy city is one that is continually creating and improving those physical and social enviro... more A healthy city is one that is continually creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources which enable people to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and developing to their maximum potential.

Books by Francesca Guidolin

Sustainable and resilient building design _ approaches, methods and tools, 2018

The complexity of the contemporary city is determined by socio-economic and demographic changes a... more The complexity of the contemporary city is determined by socio-economic and demographic changes and by new energy standards that bring us to consider the rehabilitation of the building stock as a crucial and complex issue. The concept of sustainability requires an adaptive “integrated rehabilitation”, in order to upgrade buildings not only from a structural, energetic, and architectural point of view, but also from a functional and social one. The research considers one of the most outdated sectors: residential multifamily buildings of the post-war years, which are today at the centre of a debate on their functional, security, and typological obsolescence. The need for urgent refurbishment, while avoiding demolition, brings us to consider the importance of additive strategies for regeneration, which include social, management, and financial feasibility. Some of those strategies are recognisable as “socio-technical devices”: artefacts in which technical issues are strictly related to social ones, for the efficiency of the whole system. Socio-technical devices in building technologies for refurbishment allow us to manage the complexity of a construction site au milieu habité, facing the problems related to residential functions in the rehabilitation of multi-storey buildings. Starting from the definition of this concept, the research investigates, through the analysis of European case studies, new scenarios for renewal processes to prevent the breaking point of the city as a system, for a more resilient, adaptive, and bottom-up intervention strategy.

The accessibility of the historical context, at the urban or architectural scale, has to couple t... more The accessibility of the historical context, at the urban or architectural scale, has to couple the issues of conservation and functionality in order to ensure the same fruition possibilities for the most of the users.
The actuation of this aim encounters many difficulties in Venice, in consideration of the unique urban morphology that needs specific interventions, able to preserve heritage while taking into account the principles of Inclusive Design.
This text tries to illustrate the results of a first survey, done by the research group, focusing on the strategies adopted in the historical Venetian context, where in the last ten years a considerable effort has been done to transform a large part of the islands, as well as museums or public and private buildings into accessible places. The interventions actualized experimentations and innovations to improve the usability of bridges, elements that constitute the principal physical barrier for the citizens’ and tourists’ autonomy.
Several reasons decelerate this process, transforming each new intervention in a matter of emergency, linked to exceptional circumstances and to the number of the people involved, forgetting that an inclusive city should improve everyone’s quality of life and that this objective can be reached only by a unitary project, shared by citizens, public administrations and designers.

L'innovazione tecnologica nelle esperienze del dottorato di ricerca in Tecnologia dell'Architettu... more L'innovazione tecnologica nelle esperienze del dottorato di ricerca in Tecnologia dell'Architettura.
Tra le linee di sviluppo dell'innovazione tecnologica, anche la progettazione alla scala del micron assume un rilevante ruolo per materiali e tecniche dell'architettura contemporanea.

Sustainable and resilient building design _ approaches, methods and tools, 2018