Urban regeneration and cultural heritage
Development of strategies and tools for the regeneration of European contexts that take material and immaterial cultural heritage as a driver of circular and inclusive dynamics. The theme is also explored through adaptive reuse practices in historic contexts, developing design solutions that combine conservation, environmental accessibility and enabling technologies.
Urban and cultural Heritage Digital Twins
Conceptualisation, and development of Digital Twin models and methodologies as socio-technical infrastructures for urban regeneration and decarbonisation, at the urban scale (energy modelling, environmental monitoring) and at the scale of the historic building, where the digital twin becomes a tool for the knowledge and reactive management of cultural heritage, supporting indoor microclimate control, preventive conservation and valorisation.
Architectural design and building retrofit
At the building scale, the research investigates how requirements of environmental quality, comfort and efficiency translate into concrete technological and design solutions, particularly in the retrofit and reuse of existing building stock. The theme includes the study of envelope components and technical elements in relation to their performance, and the use of monitoring and sensor technologies to support diagnosis, design and in-use verification, within a process that brings together composition, technology and data.
Climate change, resilience and energy transition
Development of adaptation and mitigation strategies for climate change at the urban and neighbourhood scale, through the construction of circular design tools, performance indicators (KPIs) and energy transition models (Positive Energy Districts, energy communities, addressing energy poverty).
Nature-based solutions and urban comfort
Urban and architectural design of green and nature-based solutions to counter urban fragmentation and the effects of climate change, defining scenarios and design devices for outdoor and indoor microclimatic comfort, applied both to historic contexts and to new regeneration interventions, within a logic of ecological connection between the different parts of the city.
Collaborative processes and urban governance
Development of methodologies for co-design, commoning and citizen engagement in temporary and permanent processes of urban transformation, with attention to the ethical implications of research conducted in the city and with citizens.
