Building Technology

"The remains in Montefeltro of the material structures of the medieval mendicant orders still constitute a fresh archive of data useful for casting light on the formal and technological transformations that took place in the first two centuries of its history. The book looks for the first time into the type of settlements of the Franciscan and Augustinian orders through the historical, archaeological, historico-artistic and petrographic analysis of the elevations of six convents dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Quanto è rimasto nel Montefeltro delle strutture materiali dell'esperienza mendicante medievale costituisce a tutt'oggi un inedito archivio di dati utili a fare luce sulle trasformazioni formali e tecnologiche occorse nei primi due secoli della sua storia. Il libro indaga per la prima volta la tipologia degli insediamenti degli ordini Francescano e Agostiniano attraverso l'analisi storica, archeologica, storico-artistica e petrografica degli elevati di sei conventi risalenti ai secoli XIII e XIV."

""Global economic and financial crisis afflict the construction sector and induce a fall in investment and a decline in value estimates of property, especially of existing buildings. This decrease was detected not only in Italy but generally speaking, throughout Europe and in many other countries. Against this government facilities and research organizations work to identify prospects and construct pathways needed to overcome the crisis.
In this paper are taken into account, in particular, two documents:
• Sectorial Innovation Watch, Construction Sector (Europe Innova), drawn up by the UE
• Global Agenda for Revaluing Construction, draw up by the International Council for
Research in Building and Construction (CIB) The analysis of these documents guides to the identification of those can be considered as new "invisible technologies" useful to guide the construction sector out of crisis. The tools to do this may be the methods of indicators, methods for assessing the sustainability of the built environment. The scenarios of the European Union, the proposals of the CIB and methods for indicators are tools to operate in the rehabilitation and upgrading of existing buildings, but these tools define also a design methodology that is complex and new as the higher the number of stakeholders and information to manage. This methodology, however, has a historical reference in the studies that preceded and, in part, accompanied the post-conflict reconstruction in Italy, the reconstruction has built a large part of the building which now needs new policies for the redevelopment. Economic capital and social capital related to buildings to be redeveloped may increase the economic value of the construction industry and lead the market towards the exit from the crisis, this can only happen through dialogue and shared management of information.""

""""Based on “Architecture: the Making of Metaphors” (Fez-Barringten, B.), the sovereign built metaphor focuses on the process, result and analysis of the metaphor in architecture. The key to understanding it comes from the knowledge that it is distinct from its creator, programs, process and exists as something in its own right. The essence of the creative process and its product is that it encapsulates not only its own inherent qualities but those which have their origins elsewhere (other lives, contexts, metaphors, symbolism plus distant and near-source contexts). Indeed, while each constructed element has a metaphor between it and its referent, this particular metaphor ignores this relationship and is only concerned with how selected elements work with others where such orphans or isolates are in the mix of the extant metaphor.
It is self-potentiating and independent. However in its external context, it is but one referent of a contextual metaphor composing a rural, sub-urban or urban context, which with its companions, operates analogously as a metaphor.
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"The evolution of the urban layout is of great importance in the seismic behaviour of buildings in urban areas. The chronological construction process frequently results in characteristic heterogeneity of masonry wall fabric and connection quality. In addition, buildings do not constitute independent units given that they share the mid-walls with adjacent buildings and the façade walls are aligned. Thus, as post-seismic observations proved,
buildings do not have an independent structural behaviour, but they interact amongst themselves, mainly for horizontal actions and so the structural performance should be evaluated at the level of the aggregate and not
only for each isolated building. In most cases, for masonry structures there is no need for sophisticated dynamic analyses to assess seismic vulnerability taking to account all the inherent uncertainty of such analysis. This is
even more relevant when an assessment at the level of a city centre is pursued. In this paper, attention will be focused on the exposure of the simplified method based on the concept of the evaluation of building parameters that compose an aggregate, such as geometrical irregularities, building typology differences and interaction issues. This method was applied to an old city centre and results are treated and shown resourcing to a GIS application.
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"The use of smart materials in buildings is investigated. In particular, a new category of smart materials, called dielectric electroactive polymers (DEAPs), is discussed. DEAPs are materials whose shape and stiffness can be changed by electric stimulus. These properties led the author to investigate the potential application of DEAPs in buildings. DEAPs are produced by covering a soft polymer with dielectrics on both sides. The properties of DEAPs are described to illustrate the differences between these and other smart materials. A description of the electric behaviour of the material is also presented. Applications of DEAPs in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, to control air or water motion, are additionally considered. Applications in large flexible structures such as building envelopes are described. As DEAPs can be laminated easily and they have great power density, they can be used in the management systems of facades, to control transparency or ventilation of the building envelopes. Finally, vibration isolation possibilities and building monitoring purposes are discussed. The state-of-the-art of DEAP science is reviewed and possible applications in buildings are described.

Keywords: building technologies; electroactive polymers; smart materials"

"“Thinking technology” and innovation.
Current and controversial means of communication of thought

Abstract:
Every innovation process is closely tied to the context, so it is for technology innovation. The present scenario is full of variables and interactions and leads to identify new strategies to make innovation. In this context, the technology has an increasingly important role in making the interpreter and the connection between the various stakeholders. The design based on the development of scenarios is "fantastic" and not based on "uniform politics": the use of new forms of information sharing is an essential tool for making innovation."

"האבולוציה של חומרי הבנייה היא תהליך גחמני של קפיצה בלתי סדירה בין חומרים "מתקדמים" לחומרים "פרימיטיביים" ולא תהליך ישר מסלול שבו חומרים חדשים מחליפים בהתמדה חומרים ישנים, נחותים מהם בתכונותיהם האובייקטיביות. בחירה בחומרי בנייה מסוימים היא תמיד החלטה אידיאולוגית, העדפה הנובעת מהתדמית של החומר לא פחות ¬– ופעמים רבות אף יותר – מאשר תכונותיו הטכנולוגיות הטהורות. שדה הבנייה יכול להיתפס כזירה המשנה את פניה כתוצאה מ"פוליטיקה של חומרים" – מאבק שתכליתו שליטה על שוק הבנייה ושמבוסס בראש ובראשונה על המשמעות התרבותית שהחומרים סופחים אליהם, לא על מפרטם הטכני. חשיפת הדימוי של החומר, המוניטין שלו בחברה נתונה, חיונית משום כך להבנת האופן שבו משתמשים בו בהקשר מסוים.
הקמת אחוזת בית ב־1909 - עד לאותם ימים, פעילות הבנייה המרוכזת והמסיבית ביותר ביפו שמקורה ביוזמה פרטית מאורגנת - היא מקרה מבחן מצוין שבו נחשף שימוש בחומרי בנייה ובמוצרי בנייה להשגת מטרות ויעדים שמחוץ לתחום הצר של השכלול הטכנולוגי. בניית השכונה (שתהפוך לימים לעיר תל אביב) באה במקביל לחדירה של חומרים ומוצרי בנייה חדשים מאירופה ולהופעת ניצני תעשיית בנייה מקומית. החידושים הטכנולוגיים ופעילות הבנייה הקדחתנית היו הנשק העיקרי בידי חלק מבוני השכונה במאבק על "כיבוש העבודה" מידי הבנאים הערבים. צירוף נסיבות זה גרם לכך שבתל אביב, בפעם הראשונה בהיסטוריה המודרנית של הארכיטקטורה בארץ ישראל, נעשתה בחירה מודעת ואידאולוגית בחומרי בנייה מסוימים כדי לחולל מהפכה תרבותית, כחלק מהמאמץ המשותף לכונן תרבות עברית חדשה. בחירה זו היא שהובילה להטבלת המלט (כחומר) והלבנה (כמוצר תעשייתי) כאבני הבניין של הבנאות העברית בארץ ישראל.


The evolution of construction materials is a whimsical phenomenon, where "advanced" and "primitive" substances and products are used alternately and in parallel, not a linear course in which newer materials continuously replace older ones, inferior in their technical performance. The preference of one construction material over another is always based on an ideological stance that takes into account the material's cultural reputation, no less (and even more) than its pure performance properties. The field of construction can be seen as an arena shaped by a "politics of materials" – a struggle for dominance over the construction market that is based primarily on the cultural significance that materials absorb, not on their specification list. Unveiling the image of the material, its earned reputation within a given society, is therefore essential for understanding the way it is used under a certain context.
The founding of Ahuzat Bait in 1909 – to that date, the most intense and massive construction enterprise in Jaffa that resulted from a premeditated private initiative – is an excellent test case in which construction materials and products were intentionally used for realization of aims and goals far beyond the narrow scope of technological improvement. Building the neighborhood (which later became Tel Aviv) coincided with a continuing infiltration of new construction materials and products from Europe and the rise of a local construction industry. The technological innovations and the fervent construction activity were the main weapons used by some of the neighborhood builders in their struggle to secure labor for Hebrew workers and to refrain from employing Arab builders. The special circumstances made Tel Aviv – for the first time in the modern history of architecture in Palestine – a place where specific building materials were chosen deliberately and ideologically to generate a cultural revolution, which was part of a combined effort to establish a newborn Hebrew culture. It was this choice that made cement (as a material) and brick (as a product) the cornerstones of the Hebrew field of construction in Eretz Israel. 
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"Daylight was the main source of lighting in vernacular architecture, and building design accordingly responded to its strategic limitations. Needs for new types of buildings in conjunction with the great development of electric lamp led to the ascendancy of electric lighting. However, a return to the interest in natural lighting emerged with the energy crises in the 1970s. In order to meet the new requirements, new optical materials and technologies have been combined to produce innovative daylighting systems able to deliver daylight long distances into buildings. There is a need to maximize the utilization of daylight, to optimize the integration between daylighting and electric lighting systems so as to increase the potential application of daylighting system. The development of the hybrid lighting systems (HLS) aims to satisfy these desires. 
HLS seek to maximize the utilization of daylight by tracking sunrays, and in most cases they are concentrated to minimize the light guidance size, which eases the installation and in turn increases the potential application of HLS. Prior to delivery of daylight, electric lighting source is added to instantly top up any possible shortage of daylight. A control system works to regulate this process to minimize the energy consumption. The one output device for both sources used in the HLS made it possible to no longer need for two distinct lighting systems to be installed in one space.
Investigations in this work have measured HLS performance in terms of light delivery, light quality, energy saving and economic performance. Potential applications of HLS in different buildings types and across a wide geographical region have been investigated. An overall evaluation of HLS has been carried out. Furthermore, methods to estimate illuminance data, where measured data is unavailable, have been developed to help investigating systems performance over different geographical locations. Illuminance data produced using the developed methods showed superiority over that produced using other available methods, with the additional advantages of simplicity and universal application.
HLS performance and potential application are influenced by many variables including system characteristics, building types, and location features. The research showed that the most important variable is the concentration ratio of the light collector. This determines HLS ability to collect daylight, and thus its applicability in different geographical locations. It also stipulates light collector and guidance size, and thus HLS applicability in different building type, influences the delivered light quality, and thus occupants’ perception of daylight, and influences HLS initial and running costs. Delivered light by HLS may not be perceived as daylight due to the absence of the outside view, the likely change in daylight colour because of the mixing with electric light, the fade awareness of the seasonal and diurnal changes in daylight colour and intensity because of the instant and continuous top up. The challenges of cost, light quality and integration in building design are the most serious barriers confronting HLS ability to penetrate the market and to be used widely. This work makes suggestions to overcome these problems.
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"During the reign of Rusa II in the first half of 7th century BC, Lake Van Basin underwent a remarkable process of urbanization and reconfiguration of its political landscapes through the construction of new cities. The urban spaces that were eventually created were demarcated with a particularly powerful and innovative
architectonic culture: finely carved stone masonry. I argue in this article that monumental building activity, as a historically conspicuous event, creates a medium of exchange of artisanal knowledge and technological innovation. The dramatic
urban landscape of the Iron age city at Ayanis (ancient Rusahinili-Eiduru-kai) in Eastern Turkey on the Eastern shore of Lake Van, features an impressive fabric of such architectonic culture, not only a product of long-term building technologies
in the region, but also that of a series of innovations associated with the reign of its founder Rusa II. This paper specifically focuses on the complex set of stone masonry techniques in the monumental structures at Ayanis, and attempts to reflect
on the multi-faceted aspects of symbolic technologies of production in the context of the foundation of the city. It argues that the highly refined stone masonry in Urartu was a symbolically charged architectural technology that effectively operated as royal insignia in the public sphere, but it also derived from the local corpus of building knowledge in the Lake Van basin."