Description of the research topics PNRR funded for the 38th cycle (2022-2025)
Here is a short description of the proposed research topics. Applicants will be asked to select one or more topics during the oral colloquium.
Topic 15 (ARCH): Sistemi di armatura tipo-morfologica e funzionale all’interno delle periferie di bordo della città compatta: il Centro di Quartiere (Dottorato di ricerca finanziato dal PNRR)
Contact: Enrico Prandi, Carlo Quintelli
Caratteristica della ricerca: riferita al SSD ICAR / 14 Progettazione architettonica e urbana investe sia la dimensione urbana che architettonica della progettazione con particolare riferimento all’ambito delle attrezzature pubbliche.
Parole chiave: città, tipologia architettonica, quartiere urbano, limite urbano, pubblici servizi, sanità pubblica, rigenerazione urbana.
Gli ultimi cinquant’anni di sviluppo estensivo della città hanno determinato una periferia ancora oggi, nei suoi più recenti esiti realizzati, priva di polarità contraddistinte dall’identità oltre che dall’uso pubblico di spazi aperti ed edifici a servizio della collettività. Quasi che la critica a quelle parti della città definite “dormitorio” e a scarso tasso di vivibilità dalla critica dei fenomeni urbani vedesse oggi solo rimedi legati alla disponibilità surrogativa dei centri commerciali, corroborata da spazi verdi attrezzati e a uno standard rispettato di strutture scolastico educative.
L’epidemia di SARS-CoV-2, ha stressato in modo significativo il grado di vivibilità e di accesso a un quadro dotazionale di servizi pubblici oltre che privati con risultati in gran parte deludenti e capaci di far emergere con maggior chiarezza l’esigenza di una nuova e diversa strutturazione degli spazi e dei servizi pubblici quali centralità capaci di strutturare il tessuto insediativo periferico sotto il profilo formale, paesaggistico e funzionale. Si tratta di individuare tipologie innovative in un logica di sistema basate sulla sinergia prestazionale di funzioni pubbliche (a partire da quelle sanitarie integrate a quelle socio-lavorative, della formazione, della cultura ecc.) oggi spesso isolate e sottodimensionate all’interno del tessuto urbano.
La ricerca ha l’obiettivo di prefigurare sul piano della concezione ma anche della fattibilità tecnica un modello architettonico avanzato di Centro di Quartiere, punto cospicuo e ad alto grado di riconoscibilità e rappresentatività all’interno del quartiere urbano quale punto di forza nella caratterizzazione dei processi di rigenerazione alla scala urbana e territoriale.
La sperimentazione dei prototipi tipologici, sia per gli spazi aperti che per i volumi costruiti, aldilà di alcune costanti di sistema, dovrà cogliere le caratteristiche identitarie degli ambiti urbani interessati e le esigenze comportamentali di una compagine sociale complessa e definita all’interno della specificità dei contesti. Il campo di applicazione sperimentale del progetto sarà quello in particolare della città medio-piccola all’interno del sistema regionale dell’Emilia Romagna generalizzabile ad altre realtà urbane in ambito italiano ed europeo.
New architectural typologies of public service in the social-health sector in the definition of peripheral urban centralities (PNRR funded)
Contact: Enrico Prandi, Carlo Quintelli
Research feature: referred to SSD ICAR / 14 Architectural and urban design involves both the urban and architectural dimension of the design with particular reference to the field of public equipment.
Keywords: city, architectural typology, urban district, urban limit, public services, urban regeneration.
The last fifty years of extensive development of the city have resulted in a suburb still today, in its most recent results, without polarity marked by identity as well as by the public use of open spaces and buildings at the service of the community. Almost as if the criticism of those parts of the city defined as "dormitories" and with a poor livability rate by the criticism of urban phenomena today saw only remedies linked to the subrogative availability of shopping centers, corroborated by equipped green spaces and a respected standard of educational school structures.
The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has significantly stressed the degree of livability and access to an endowment of public as well as private services with largely disappointing results and capable of bringing out more clearly the need for a new and different structuring of public spaces and services as centralities (starting from health care integrated with socio-work, training, culture, etc.) capable of structuring the peripheral settlement fabric from a formal, landscape and functional point of view. It is a question of identifying innovative typologies in a system logic based on the performance synergy of public functions, today often isolated and undersized within the urban fabric.
The research aims to prefigure an advanced architectural model of Centro di Quartiere (district center) in terms of conception but also of technical feasibility, a conspicuous point with a high degree of recognisability and representativeness within the urban district as a strength in the characterization of processes of regeneration on an urban and territorial scale.
The experimentation of typological prototypes, both for open spaces and for built volumes, beyond some system constants, will have to grasp the identity characteristics of the urban areas concerned and the behavioral needs of a complex social structure defined within the specificity of the contexts. The experimental field of application of the project will be that of the medium-small city in particular within the regional system of Emilia Romagna, generalizable to other urban realities in Italy and Europe.
Topic 16:Performance-based planning of pedestrian and bicycle networks to improve spatial and urban accessibility (PNRR funded)
Contact: Silvia Rossetti
Today's urban challenges, including the inevitable mitigation of the effects of climate change, imply the enhancement of active mobility. This can only be achieved by improving the performance levels of pedestrian and bicycle mobility infrastructure on the one hand, and by improving the accessibility system through careful land-use planning on the other.
As part of the ECOSISTER project (Ecosystem of Innovation), the PhD research aims at implementing planning scenarios to improve urban and territorial accessibility, through a careful analysis, evaluation and planning of infrastructures dedicated to pedestrian and bicycle mobility.
To achieve this goal, an innovative analytical-assessment protocol, based on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology, will be developed to assess the practicability and safety of pedestrian and bicycle networks and the level of accessibility to services and facilities guaranteed. The protocol will consist of a GIS model and relative data collection/management processes (based primarily on field inspections and collaborative data collection systems), to map pedestrian and bicycle networks, and identify their strengths, weaknesses, and possible planning interventions.
The doctorate candidate will, therefore, define pedestrian and cycle paths performance indicators, identify potentialities and criticalities, and then set performance-based targets. Finally, he/she will develop an easily applicable management model to prioritise possible interventions aimed at enhancing the quality of active mobility according to the principles of safety, urban accessibility, enjoyment, universal design, and congruency with the road function. The GIS model will therefore be designed, through accurate data modelling (conceptual, logical, physical), in such a way as to: 1) be able to automate the calculation of performance indicators as much as possible; 2) function as a management model to identify intervention priorities; 3) make it adaptive to possible updates over time.
Topic 16 (ARCH): Performance-based planning of pedestrian and bicycle networks to improve spatial and urban accessibility (PNRR funded)
Contact: Silvia Rossetti
Today's urban challenges, including the inevitable mitigation of the effects of climate change, imply the enhancement of active mobility. This can only be achieved by improving the performance levels of pedestrian and bicycle mobility infrastructure on the one hand, and by improving the accessibility system through careful land-use planning on the other.
As part of the ECOSISTER project (Ecosystem of Innovation), the PhD research aims at implementing planning scenarios to improve urban and territorial accessibility, through a careful analysis, evaluation and planning of infrastructures dedicated to pedestrian and bicycle mobility.
To achieve this goal, an innovative analytical-assessment protocol, based on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology, will be developed to assess the practicability and safety of pedestrian and bicycle networks and the level of accessibility to services and facilities guaranteed. The protocol will consist of a GIS model and relative data collection/management processes (based primarily on field inspections and collaborative data collection systems), to map pedestrian and bicycle networks, and identify their strengths, weaknesses, and possible planning interventions.
The doctorate candidate will, therefore, define pedestrian and cycle paths performance indicators, identify potentialities and criticalities, and then set performance-based targets. Finally, he/she will develop an easily applicable management model to prioritise possible interventions aimed at enhancing the quality of active mobility according to the principles of safety, urban accessibility, enjoyment, universal design, and congruency with the road function. The GIS model will therefore be designed, through accurate data modelling (conceptual, logical, physical), in such a way as to: 1) be able to automate the calculation of performance indicators as much as possible; 2) function as a management model to identify intervention priorities; 3) make it adaptive to possible updates over time.
Topic 17 (ARCH): Planning Cities of Proximity: urban retrofit planning scenarios for accessible and inclusive public spaces (PNRR funded)
Contact: Barbara Caselli, Michele Zazzi
Sustainable mobility, social and post pandemic responses to the current urban challenges inevitably imply an integration between urban design and urban and mobility planning to boost active mobility modes and the liveability of public spaces.
Within the framework of the Centro Nazionale Mobilità Sostenibile (funded within the PNRR – National Recovery and Resilience Plan), the doctorate research aims at investigating possible criteria, policies, and planning actions for the implementation of a retrofitted urban environment, based on the spatial and temporal proximity dimension (i.e. according to the 15-minute city model) and a more shared, safe, liveable and inclusive use of public space. The PhD student will, therefore, experiment different planning scenarios for enhancing pedestrian and cycle accessibility to proximity services, reducing the use of private vehicles, and regenerating the public space accordingly, making it adaptive and responsive to local community’s needs.
Planning scenario development will be subject to:
- an in-depth investigation of the state of the art of the neighbourhood unit / 15-minute city model and of the diverse forms (durable or temporary) of urban space regeneration,
- the construction of an analytical model for studying pedestrian and cycle accessibility to neighbourhood-scale services and facilities.
- the identification of a number of application cases, i.e. urban sectors in medium-sized cities, in order to test the analytical model and provide possible simulations and guidelines for the regeneration of the public space and urban spaces reclaiming for community purposes.
- the identification of replicability criteria and conditions.
On the application cases the PhD student may also develop a scenario analysis of implementation processes for the elimination of private cars in specific urban enclaves, investigating possible policies, planning criteria and urban retrofitting actions to reclaim urban spaces previously occupied by cars.
Topic 18 (INFR): Railway Infrastructure (PNRR funded)
Contact: Felice Giuliani
Definition of data-driven and model-based methods for monitoring, diagnosis, and predictive maintenance of rail infrastructure, with a focus on subballast-ballast-rail systems and related joints. Sustainable solutions and decision support for civil infrastructure analysis and management.
Infrastrutture ferroviarie (Dottorato di ricerca finanziato dal PNRR)
Contact: Felice Giuliani
Definizione di metodi, basati su dati e modelli, per il monitoraggio, la diagnosi e la manutenzione predittiva delle infrastrutture ferroviarie, con particolare attenzione ai sistemi subballast-ballast-rotaia e relativi giunti. Soluzioni sostenibili e supporto alle decisioni per l'analisi e la gestione delle infrastrutture civili.
