Adaptive Exoskeleton Systems: Remodelage …
367
3 Objectives and Aims of the Research and Sourcing
Process
The Departmental Study, financed by Aler
5 Bergamo, Lecco, Sondrio and entitled
“Preliminary guidelines for seismic resilience and urban regeneration, through an
adaptive exoskeleton, of the settlement of public social housing on Piazzale Ermes
Visconti”, aims to explore the possible technical solutions to improve the housing,
quality and technological performance of the buildings in Bergamo, without resorting
to total demolition and subsequent reconstruction from scratch.
6
The Aler’s need is above all to identify constructive guidelines to be used on
buildings without having to relocate the tenants residing in their own homes.
In this context, after a series of studies and analyses of the buildings, a multifaceted
approach was proposed to Aler. The aim of the work is to investigate the solutions
and systems to rehabilitate Aler real estate and to verify how it could be implemented
by adopting an innovative strategy: a sort of prosthesis, an adaptive exoskeleton to
be applied to the social housing buildings.
Aler wanted to use a paradigmatic solution that was adaptable to its decaying
buildings. A solution that can easily be modified over time to integrate new social,
economic and urban conditions. An open system that helps buildings respond to
environmental, economic, functional and social challenges. Not a solution that crystallizes the building’s image and prepares it for its future obsolescence but a “radical
solution”. A design process and method that increases the settlement density of the
urban block, without consuming new ground. The guidelines proposed to use an
adaptive exoskeleton: an independent but collaborative anti-seismic structure.
7
The first step is to improve the quality of the buildings and to facilitate the new
functional and typological layouts required over time by the local users. This system
is designed to extend the building’s life cycle through a gradual adaptation that
reduces the effects of environmental stress on the building and spreads it out over a
longer time span. This system is a structure of metal scaffolding that can be applied
and connected to the buildings that require rehabilitation. It is important to emphasize
how this technology relies on “dry assembly” and reversible technological solutions
that allow for cost reduction and recycling of building materials and provide a viable
alternative to the building replacement and its high environmental impact.
5 ALER (Agenzia Lombarda Edilizia Residenziale) is an Agency that promote and manage social
housing in the Lombardy Region.
6 The urban block covers an area of about 5,500 m 2 and occupies a strategic position at “Villaggio
degli Sposi”. It has a regular shape and a good supply of vegetation. The urban block is entirely
occupied by social housing which are not well maintained nor well preserved. The buildings are
arranged in an L shape and are composed of 24 (16 + 8) houses with stairs and no elevators. The
buildings were built with a masonry structure made of blocks of load-bearing bricks in the early
‘50s and they are critical from an energetic, structural and technologic point of view.
7 Norme tecniche per le costruzioni, NTC, 2008. D.M. January 14, 2008.
367
3 Objectives and Aims of the Research and Sourcing
Process
The Departmental Study, financed by Aler
5 Bergamo, Lecco, Sondrio and entitled
“Preliminary guidelines for seismic resilience and urban regeneration, through an
adaptive exoskeleton, of the settlement of public social housing on Piazzale Ermes
Visconti”, aims to explore the possible technical solutions to improve the housing,
quality and technological performance of the buildings in Bergamo, without resorting
to total demolition and subsequent reconstruction from scratch.
6
The Aler’s need is above all to identify constructive guidelines to be used on
buildings without having to relocate the tenants residing in their own homes.
In this context, after a series of studies and analyses of the buildings, a multifaceted
approach was proposed to Aler. The aim of the work is to investigate the solutions
and systems to rehabilitate Aler real estate and to verify how it could be implemented
by adopting an innovative strategy: a sort of prosthesis, an adaptive exoskeleton to
be applied to the social housing buildings.
Aler wanted to use a paradigmatic solution that was adaptable to its decaying
buildings. A solution that can easily be modified over time to integrate new social,
economic and urban conditions. An open system that helps buildings respond to
environmental, economic, functional and social challenges. Not a solution that crystallizes the building’s image and prepares it for its future obsolescence but a “radical
solution”. A design process and method that increases the settlement density of the
urban block, without consuming new ground. The guidelines proposed to use an
adaptive exoskeleton: an independent but collaborative anti-seismic structure.
7
The first step is to improve the quality of the buildings and to facilitate the new
functional and typological layouts required over time by the local users. This system
is designed to extend the building’s life cycle through a gradual adaptation that
reduces the effects of environmental stress on the building and spreads it out over a
longer time span. This system is a structure of metal scaffolding that can be applied
and connected to the buildings that require rehabilitation. It is important to emphasize
how this technology relies on “dry assembly” and reversible technological solutions
that allow for cost reduction and recycling of building materials and provide a viable
alternative to the building replacement and its high environmental impact.
5 ALER (Agenzia Lombarda Edilizia Residenziale) is an Agency that promote and manage social
housing in the Lombardy Region.
6 The urban block covers an area of about 5,500 m 2 and occupies a strategic position at “Villaggio
degli Sposi”. It has a regular shape and a good supply of vegetation. The urban block is entirely
occupied by social housing which are not well maintained nor well preserved. The buildings are
arranged in an L shape and are composed of 24 (16 + 8) houses with stairs and no elevators. The
buildings were built with a masonry structure made of blocks of load-bearing bricks in the early
‘50s and they are critical from an energetic, structural and technologic point of view.
7 Norme tecniche per le costruzioni, NTC, 2008. D.M. January 14, 2008.