Technology as enabling interface within transition spaces for the smart Heritage
From Firenze University Press Journal: TECHNE
Marta Calzolari, Dipartimento di Architettura, Università degli Studi di Ferrara
Valentina Frighi, Dipartimento di Architettura, Università degli Studi di Ferrara
Valentina Modugno, Dipartimento di Architettura, Università degli Studi di Ferrara
Foreword
The present age has seen a strengthen-ing of the role of science and technology in every sphere of daily life, recognising the ‘dominance’ of technologies in solv-ing problems of any kinds, even capable of overpowering the so-called technical knowledge. However, this often occurs without an appropriate and conscious management of these tools, especially with the construction sector, which has always been reticent — also for its own nature — towards innovation, risking turning into a technocratic drift.On the other hand, the enabling capa-bilities of new technologies offer the concrete possibility of combining the unavoidable critical and heuristic ap-proach of the designer with the scien-tific rigor of these tools, thus enabling new skills.The term “enabling” refers to the concept of Key Enabling Technolo-gies (KETs), even if with an adequate critical-reinterpreting vision. Yet in 2009, KETs were defined by the Euro-pean Commission as new and complex technologies capable of improving and innovating products and processes in every industrial sector, generating ad-vantages in terms of scientific research, industry and employment, improving living conditions as well (COM, 2009).In Italy, also the PNRR focuses on the importance of KETs as an essential tool for knowledge advancement, specify-ing that they must include, among oth-ers: advanced simulation and big data analysis and management; advanced technologies for energy and the envi-ronment; sustainable mobility; applied technologies and cultural heritage; technologies for biodiversity and envi-ronmental sustainability; technologies for the industrial digital transition and Industry 4.0.
Within the construction sector, the adoption of KETs can take place with different purposes and objectives, most easily related to new construc-tions. However, as far as making the most of the built environment, par-ticularly the historical one, is con-cerned, this domain is still scarcely ex-plored, although the strategic plans for the years to come highlight the need to intervene for its conservation and value enhancement also in this view.Italy alone owns 4.7% of the world’s historical building heritage (Gala-tioto et al., 2017), which occupies ap-proximately 46% of the entire country (UNESCO, 2019). In Europe, historical buildings account for 24–35% of total building stock area, and can consume 27–42% from the nation’s final energy consumption (Blumberga et al, 2019). Therefore, the strategic role that her-itage plays in the broader strategy to limit greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the scarcity of energy resources, by guaranteeing standards that meet the expectations of users is evident.So, the challenge for the next years concerns an effective and conscious application of KETs even to the his-torical heritage with the intention of creating smart environments.The research documented here pre-sents some preliminary results for the achievement of this objective: to inves-tigate and recognise a possible role of aid to such technologies, already from the early meta-design phases, acting as an enabling medium to undertake more informed deterministic choices than in the past.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/techne-13718
Read Full Text: https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/techne/article/view/13718
