Adaptive Exoskeleton Systems: Remodelage …
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project intervention can have value (Zambelli 2004; Grecchi 2008; Malinghetti 2011;
Ascione 2012; Perriccioli 2015; Paris and Bianchi 2018).
The priority intervention concerns the structural system of the building. In a
country with a high seismic risk like Italy, it is essential to approach constructions
by facing this criticality, in which many situations present itself as a priority that
could undo all the other retrofit actions of the building, starting from economic
ones. An adaptive exoskeleton can be used to improve this aspect, promoting these
actions and improving the situation. It is a device inspired by the external structure of
certain invertebrates, similar to medical prosthetic support, which intervenes in the
deteriorated parts, restoring and implementing its characteristics and performance.
Applied to buildings, it defines an independent volumetric expansion, thanks a
structure of autonomous foundations, to be juxtaposed to the façades, where it creates
new spaces and volume. It can act as a support to a new rooftop architecture, additional
shaped boxes or new floor surfaces to rethink dwellings.
The adaptive exoskeleton can help interventions on a variety of levels: structural,
as a system for static and seismic strengthening; energetic, as a device used to reduce
consumption and the environmental impact and to increase living comfort; typological, in terms of an opportunity to reorganize and redesign dwelling-sizes; functional,
as an opportunity for the inclusion of new horizontal and vertical connections and
architectural, for the technological rethinking of the interface between the inside and
outside of the building.
4
In order to use the exoskeleton system, we must carry out an accurate analysis
with regards to feasibility analysis and convenience of the intervention, not only
for economic reasons but also for an ecological opportunity, in order to take into
account, the environmental “costs” resulting from any demolition or reconstruction
(Boeri and Longo 2012). In terms of energy eco-efficiency, adaptive exoskeletons
are to be preferred to a “radical construction solution”—which demolishes in order
to reconstruct—since they minimize, from the initial stages of the design, the use of
raw materials and reduce yard waste debris.
Today, the main techniques for seismic reinforcement are referable within a
local approach, which consists in the consolidation of the structure with a punctual
strengthening of the frame nodes, beams and pillars and in the global approach, in
which the building is retrofitted using the addition of earthquake-resistant elements.
While punctual reinforcement interventions are very expensive, invasive and
destructive, the adaptive exoskeleton is applied from the outside of the building
and can be economically more convenient if integrated with other retrofitting interventions. The exoskeleton structure can be added to buildings working from the
outside in the form of a double skin. This can be designed in two alternative ways:
(a) integrating additional bracing walls within the exoskeleton (walls solution); (b)
designing the exoskeleton itself as an earthquake-resistant box-shaped system (shell
4 This constructive solution is very similar to the design research and the works of the French
architects Lacaton and Vassal.
365
project intervention can have value (Zambelli 2004; Grecchi 2008; Malinghetti 2011;
Ascione 2012; Perriccioli 2015; Paris and Bianchi 2018).
The priority intervention concerns the structural system of the building. In a
country with a high seismic risk like Italy, it is essential to approach constructions
by facing this criticality, in which many situations present itself as a priority that
could undo all the other retrofit actions of the building, starting from economic
ones. An adaptive exoskeleton can be used to improve this aspect, promoting these
actions and improving the situation. It is a device inspired by the external structure of
certain invertebrates, similar to medical prosthetic support, which intervenes in the
deteriorated parts, restoring and implementing its characteristics and performance.
Applied to buildings, it defines an independent volumetric expansion, thanks a
structure of autonomous foundations, to be juxtaposed to the façades, where it creates
new spaces and volume. It can act as a support to a new rooftop architecture, additional
shaped boxes or new floor surfaces to rethink dwellings.
The adaptive exoskeleton can help interventions on a variety of levels: structural,
as a system for static and seismic strengthening; energetic, as a device used to reduce
consumption and the environmental impact and to increase living comfort; typological, in terms of an opportunity to reorganize and redesign dwelling-sizes; functional,
as an opportunity for the inclusion of new horizontal and vertical connections and
architectural, for the technological rethinking of the interface between the inside and
outside of the building.
4
In order to use the exoskeleton system, we must carry out an accurate analysis
with regards to feasibility analysis and convenience of the intervention, not only
for economic reasons but also for an ecological opportunity, in order to take into
account, the environmental “costs” resulting from any demolition or reconstruction
(Boeri and Longo 2012). In terms of energy eco-efficiency, adaptive exoskeletons
are to be preferred to a “radical construction solution”—which demolishes in order
to reconstruct—since they minimize, from the initial stages of the design, the use of
raw materials and reduce yard waste debris.
Today, the main techniques for seismic reinforcement are referable within a
local approach, which consists in the consolidation of the structure with a punctual
strengthening of the frame nodes, beams and pillars and in the global approach, in
which the building is retrofitted using the addition of earthquake-resistant elements.
While punctual reinforcement interventions are very expensive, invasive and
destructive, the adaptive exoskeleton is applied from the outside of the building
and can be economically more convenient if integrated with other retrofitting interventions. The exoskeleton structure can be added to buildings working from the
outside in the form of a double skin. This can be designed in two alternative ways:
(a) integrating additional bracing walls within the exoskeleton (walls solution); (b)
designing the exoskeleton itself as an earthquake-resistant box-shaped system (shell
4 This constructive solution is very similar to the design research and the works of the French
architects Lacaton and Vassal.