Books in the PoliMI SpringerBriefs series

The book provides an overview of the Slow Onset Disasters (SLOD) in the urban built environment discussing potential strategies to assess and mitigate multiple climate change related risks. Climate change evidence has been reported in the last decades, suggesting that the anthropogenic activities are accelerating these changes towards a warmer and more polluted environment. In this context, SLODs have been linked to climate change related disasters and have been stated to have a higher impact risk within dense built environment (BE). Therefore, the book presents a description of the most relevant SLODs, their significance, and confluence, the way in which scientists and entities are monitoring their progression at different scales, a structured risk assessment strategy and the deconstruction of the BE characteristics that make it more prone to SLODs risk. In addition, it highlights the necessity of adapting the traditional risk assessment methods, to account for different vulnerabilitytypes, including the morphology and materiality of the BE, and the BE users¿ characteristics. In fact, individual features influence users¿ responses and tolerance to environmental stressors, because of age, health, gender, habits, and behaviour, thus impacting the users¿ vulnerability. Exposure can then amplify these issues, since it defines the number of users that can be effectively affected by the SLOD. Starting from this perspective, the book first traces literature-based correlations between individual features, use behaviour, and individual response to the SLOD-altered open spaces. Then, a novel methodology, to quantify the variations of users¿ vulnerability and exposure, is offered, to support designers in quickly defining input scenarios for risk assessment and mitigation. Lastly, it demonstrates, through a case study, the SLOD risk assessment framework proposed and the evaluation of the efficacy of risk mitigation strategies.

The book explores the advanced façade systems according to the productive and constructive contents, in a cognitive and operative form, as a manual text to provide guidelines for researchers, technicians and professionals. It provides operational guidance for the technological design, production planning and site executive coordination for the realization of façade systems. The analysis deals with the main building elements and technical interfaces. The study of the façade systems, after explaining the anchoring structures and their connections to the load-bearing elements, investigates the criteria for the assembly between the framings. In particular, the book examines the technical interfaces of the main advanced envelope systems with respect to the functional, constructive and applicative coordination procedures of the mullions and transoms framing, of the structural sealant glazing façade system, of the unit façade system, of the suspended façade system and of the double skin façade system. The technical and manual character of the book is also expressed through the analysis of the functional and application procedures of the gaskets with respect to the façade systems in order to prevent the transmission of air and water loads: the analysis focuses on the connections between the framing and the enclosure elements of the envelope, in accordance with the compensation of height differences in order to guarantee impermeability, airtightness and insulation. Then, the book describes the assembly and interface conditions between elements of different composition and production within the façade systems: the examination of the technical interfaces involves the development and application of sealants, based on the loads exerted on the jointing devices, in order to fulfill the requirements of sealing and tightness with respect to mechanical, thermal and hygrometric, water, air and wind stresses. Moreover, the study of the envelope systems examines the methodologies directed toward fulfilling the requirements with respect to the actions caused by fire loads, considering the contents related to both components and connections and fixing surfaces.

This book explores the advantages of a linear model of planning in reducing regional inequalities. Linear planning, commonly discussed in the past as a method which plans the development of the city, is completely redefined here in the form of a design approach inspired by projects shaped by linear routes, such as cycle or walking paths. Such concept is applied to the urgent topic of territorial marginality which specifically neglects rural and mountainous areas and recently is coped by European and National policies. The analysis of these policies demonstrates the necessity of alternative strategies equipped to deal with both the internal and external causes that determine the critical conditions in these fragile environments. By implementing the concept of linear planning in these contexts, this book proposes to enlarge the perspective of traditional policies contrasting the regional inequalities that usually determine the design of projects just within the boundaries of the marginal areas. Cycle and walking paths are experimental cases of linear planning as they have not been influenced or formed by political boundaries and therefore are able to equally involve both the central and marginal zones. This book presents a review of current issues such as regional inequalities, with attention to their related policies, as well as an analysis of the concept of linear planning as seen through the study of one of the most famous cases of a walking path¿the Way of St. James in Spain.

This book provides a theoretical framework for design researchers interested in developing their research work about and with prototypes. It describes prototypes' multiple definitions and possible functions in the multifaceted landscape of today's design research. Indeed, while the manufacturing and digital evolutions enable and require new types of advanced prototypes, the design evolution as an academic discipline continuously widens its perspectives, fields, and research methods, among which are the prototypes' applications, features, and purposes. The framework originates from an interpretation of these interrelated phenomena and a collection of case studies. Additionally, it defines those criteria that characterize the relation between the research (context, discipline, and general scope) and the prototype (nature and specific aims) and, altogether, it presents an overview of prototypes' roles in design research.

Through an approach strongly oriented to socio-health contexts and healthcare facilities, with multidisciplinary contributions on the methodological and technical aspects, or legislative issues, the book provides tools and design strategies to plan and realize therapeutic places and healing gardens for care, rehabilitation, interaction, and social inclusion. It addresses all the technical and medical professionals - like Architects, Urban Planners, Agronomist, Sociologists, Epidemiologists, Public Health experts, Policy Makers, etc. - wishing to explore the link between built environment, well-being, and health, referring in particular to the direct relationship between places and therapy.

This book explores the topic of proximity and its relations in the design of contemporary urban fabrics and public spaces. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and reflections on the future of cities have lately shed light on the concept of proximity, which is intended as the relationship between communities and urban functions and as relations among people, built spaces, and open spaces. The proximity is a historic and fertile field of interest for American and Northern European urban studies; it is a spatial and social program seemingly surpassed by the styles and rhythms of contemporary city life, but today it is back in vogue with different purposes. Meanwhile, the action research developed by the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies at the Politecnico di Milano for the Municipality of Milan reached its conclusion (2018-2020). The research work focused on contextualizing the new M4 Metro line stations under construction, and jointed mobility flows and places, long-range networks and local ones, boosting the idea of metro stations as regenerative urban thresholds and urban platforms for enabling environmental, sustainable settlement, and active mobility systems. In other words, the action research for Milan shows how to achieve the concept of proximity in the urban design practice in a dense, stratified, and complex urban context.

This book explores the potential contribution of cultural heritage in the enhancement of the territories, investigating the possibilities but also the criticalities involved in the process. Based on the knowledge process built on the Monasteries of Haghpat, Sanahin, Geghard and moreover, in the Upper Azat Valley in Armenia, the work suggests the development of an integrated design approach with interdisciplinary focus. The conservation of the Architectural Heritage of these sites is a priority for the identity safeguard but also to start virtuous processes able to ensure a sustainable development for places and communities. The objective of this work is the setting of pilot strategies and guidelines for the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage as an engine for a compatible and sustainable tourism development of the area, with tangible impact on social and economic development of the country. The work would benefit local authorities and communities, as well as researchers involved in these topics.

The book deals with urban reactivation, a particular form of regeneration intervention which in addition to the physical-spatial dimension of the places also-and above all-considers the social and relational dynamics that the intervention is able to activate. In this sense, the concept of activation (or reactivation) emphasizes the act of putting something into or back into operation, whether it concerns the material components of a container (a building or a place) or the immaterial components of a content (a need, or a function), starting from the exploitation of opportunities that the architectural project contributes to revealing, developing and accompanying.

This book explores the application of service design to urban commons. It originates from a project developed by the research group of POLIMI DESIS Lab of Politecnico di Milano, aimed at imagining the future of the Reggio Emilia Ducal Palace and its park - the Reggia di Rivalta. The peculiarity of the project lays in the idea that the design of a (public) space should be informed by the design of its services, because the development of specific activities actually builds a fundamental part of the identity of a place, conceiving both the tangible and intangible dimensions as part of a single creative process. The combination of a participatory process and the integration of spatial and service design led to infrastructuring a multi-stakeholder participatory action research of envisioning the future of a public good. This effort has been thus framed into a working methodology, specific tools and progressive outputs, which are defined as Service Master Planning (the process), and Service Master Plan (the product), allowing service design professionals to expand their knowledge and develop skills for a new field of application connected to urban planning.

This open access volume collects emerging issues in Environmental and Civil Engineering, originating from outstanding doctoral dissertations discussed at Politecnico di Milano in 2021. The advanced innovative insights provided are presented with reference to the relevant sustainable development goals (SDGs), hoping that scientists, technicians and decision makers will find them as a valid support to face future sustainability challenges.Indeed, the fast evolution of our society often falls short in properly taking into consideration its relationship with the environment, which is not only the primary source of any resource and the sink of all the wastes we generate throughout our activities, but also the cause of most of the loading and constraints applied to structures and infrastructures. The lack of a proper consideration of the relationship between the needs of both the society and the environment may lead to strong disequilibria, generating a large amount of threats for arobust, resilient and continuous development. In this perspective, the SDGs set by the United Nations represent the criteria to revise our development model, towards the ability to conjugate different needs to build a safe relation between anthropic activities and the environment. Civil and Environmental Engineering plays a relevant role in providing methods, approaches, risk and impact assessments, as well as technologies, to fulfil the SDGs. Research in these fields may in fact provide technical knowledge and tools to support decision makers and technicians in: (i) planning mitigation and adaptation actions to climate change, extreme weather, earthquakes, drought, flooding and other natural disasters; (ii) designing efficient and sustainable strategies for resources exploitation, minimizing the impact and the unequal distributions; (iii) increasing the safety of structures and infrastructures under exceptional loadings and against the deterioration due to their lifecycle; (iv) adopting a holistic risk management approach and appropriate technologies to reduce pollution and environment deterioration, which increase vulnerability; (v) providing a safe drinking water and sanitation system to protect human health.

This open access book presents thirteen outstanding doctoral dissertations in Information Technology from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

This open access book summarizes research being pursued within the FENIX project, funded by the EU community under the H2020 programme, the goal of which is to design a new product service paradigm able to promote innovative business models, to open added value to the vessels and to create new market segments.

This open access book represents one of the key milestones of PoliVisu, an H2020 research and innovation project funded by the European Commission under the call ¿Policy-development in the age of big data: data-driven policy-making, policy-modelling and policy-implementation¿.It investigates the operative and organizational implications related to the use of the growing amount of available data on policy making processes, highlighting the experimental dimension of policy making that, thanks to data, proves to be more and more exploitable towards more effective and sustainable decisions. The first section of the book introduces the key questions highlighted by the PoliVisu project, which still represent operational and strategic challenges in the exploitation of data potentials in urban policy making. The second section explores how data and data visualisations can assume different roles in the different stages of a policy cycle and profoundly transform policymaking.

This book proposes strategies for FM services optimization and innovation, based on innovative models of IoT application and big data management within FM processes, able to support FM stakeholders in: orienting and managing big data flows and their sources (sensor, RFID, etc.);

This open access book presents thirteen outstanding doctoral dissertations in Information Technology from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

The book provides an understanding of how service design and design thinking could address the needs of organisations in tackling processes of transformations which include changes in the way people behave, interact and grow.

This book presents and discusses methodological approaches and operational tools aimed at increasing the awareness and skills necessary to face the social, economic and environmental challenges usually encountered in spatial planning.

This book reports on an architectural conservation and reuse project in Anipemza, an Armenian Soviet-era village on the Turkish border, just a few steps away from the important Yererouyk archaeological site.

This book argues that we are living in an era of deep mutation, and the anthropocentric model no longer fits our way of living and behaving on Earth. Climate change is upsetting our relationship with nature and the environment, while artificial intelligence scenarios undermine the foundations of human life. As the pressure to re-align based on new modes of living and consuming increases, the first priority should be to address the way we imagine, design, produce and construct our built environment.The highly original book explores how the relation between design technology and material cultures can underpin and drive this change. It discusses the need for a new ¿material balance¿ to develop our design practice, not only from an energy and environmental perspective, but also from a physiological, cultural and semantic one, in order to re-balance the impact of material design on society.This publication is an excellent guide to understanding in detail the theoreticalframing of several crucial topics in material balance design, from computational knitting to material agency, and from new acoustic ecology to future façade technologies, bio-based design and ultimately non-anthropocentric habitats, offering insights into preferable future scenarios.

The main target audience of the book includes scholars and graduate students in urban studies, spatial planning, urban and regional economics, logistics, geography and transport geography with an interest in studying port geography and the port-city interface, port infrastructure development and port hinterland dynamics;

The book examines an integrated approach for addressing decisions about the location of healthcare facilities.

This book explores the current challenges with regard to uncertainty and risk in water management, as well as the interlinkages between drought and water management.

This book examines the problem of relevant query answering over the Web and provides a comprehensive overview of relevant query answering over streaming and distributed data.

This volume presents both methodologies and numerical applications for the design of non-conventional unit operations in chemical processes and plants, which are rarely studied in depth at an academic level but have wide applications in the industrial sector.

This open access book presents nine outstanding doctoral dissertations in Information Technology from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

This book investigates how established transport planning tools can evolve to understand and plan for the ever-changing contemporary mobilities that influence the opportunities available to individuals.