MATTER, IDENTITY, HARMONY, PERCEPTION. NEW SOLUTIONS FOR ECO-ORIENTED BUILDING

The presence of environmental factors that affect the life of the planet and of mankind – from climate change to biodiversity, from environmental health to waste – these elements all represent a constant concern both for the growing demand for a better quality of life and for the improvement of strategies that allow a better use of natural and renewable resources. In fact, many countries are posing questions about the safety of the usage of fossil energy resources, also considering the current growth rates of populations in third and developing world countries, aware of the possibility of an acceleration of the depletion of energy resources – non-renewable – and, above all, of an overproduction of greenhouse gases that compromises, day after day, the bioclimatic balance of the Earth.
In this scenario, designers are called upon to identify new functional, technological and aesthetic solutions, both realistic and identifiable, through the continuous contribution of innovations in the fields of technology, design and industrial production. An important contribution to the optimization of energy consumption and in the systemic and conscientious use of materials, is given by the solutions concerning building envelope, as a fundamental element in the determination and control of indoor microclimatic parameters such as, the thermal solar load, the indoor air temperature, the lighting levels of the rooms, acquiring, in some cases, additional functions oriented to the production of energy from renewable sources.
The contributor wants to investigate the transformation of the envelope in eco-oriented building, taking into consideration some innovative solutions in terms of (i) multifunctional “skin”, (ii) optimization of natural resources, (iii) and energy saving, with particular interest for the Euro-Mediterranean area, identifying some intelligent, adaptive and high-performance components (for example: natural stone, steel and / or wood parts), starting from the concept of materials and its transformation / application to the building and urban scale, from the ability to interpret nature and to return and / or maintain a harmonious identity that belongs to its environment, stimulating the positive perception of the user, through the different technological solutions.