Marcello Balzani’s research while affiliated with University of Ferrara and other places

El museo-archivo de la Fundación Casa de Vidro de Lina Bo y P.M. Bardi, una residencia diseñada y construida entre 1950 y 1951, fue objeto de una campaña de documentación digital que permitió comprobar la viabilidad de una valoración global del edificio con miras a su restauración y a la posible introducción de nuevas estructuras en su jardín. Además de los descubrimientos importantes, los análisis y estudios que resultaron del tratamiento de la base de datos de nubes de puntos, es decir, del levantamiento en 3D de la Casa de Vidrio, el levantamiento fue de gran provecho para poner a prueba una serie de iniciativas de sensibilización en colaboración con los actores regionales. Es así que, para completar la documentación digital de la casa, patrocinada por la iniciativa ‘Keeping it Modern’ de la Fundación Getty de Los Ángeles, California, se llevó a cabo un completo e integrado levantamiento en 3D junto a su análisis diagnóstico.

Beach sand may act as a reservoir for potential human pathogens, posing a public health risk. Despite this, the microbiological monitoring of sand microbiome is rarely performed to determine beach quality. In this study, the sand microbial population of a Northern Adriatic Sea beach sand was profiled by microbiological (CFU counts) and molecular methods (WGS, microarray), showing significant presence of potential human pathogens including drug-resistant strains. Consistent with these results, the potential of quicklime as a restoring method was tested in vitro and on-field. Collected data showed that adding 1–3% quicklime (w/w) to sand provided an up to −99% of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, in a dose- and time-dependent manner, till 45 days post-treatment. In conclusion, data suggest that accurate monitoring of sand microbiome may be essential, besides water, to assess beach quality and safety. Moreover, first evidences of quicklime potential for sand decontamination are provided, suggesting its usage as a possible way to restore the microbiological quality of sand in highly contaminated areas.

By promoting awareness at several levels in collaboration with Italian organizations like the Circolo Italiano and the General Consulate of Italy in São Paulo as well as local partners (USP university and SP Municipality), this project seeks to value the local identity of a significant place for Brazil in terms of culture and distinctiveness. The collaboration's results included the dissemination of historical research and the digital documentation of buildings (carried out through the Scan-to-BIM process), which were intended to be pivotal events in the site's cultural rehabilitation. In order to prevent significant portions of a nation's history from being forgotten by the populace, historical recollections were thus encouraged. The purpose of this contribution is to use digital technologies to highlight the history of the most important area for the Brazil's Independence, which is situated in São Paulo on the banks of the Ipiranga stream, in the location where Dom Pedro I would have declared Brazil's independence from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves on September 7, 1822.The primary tasks established by the project's partners were the dissemination activities. They attempted to value the cultural characteristics of the location, dealing with both the preservation of memories and long-term preservation of the monuments while always staying within the bounds of reliable science. The information gathered was subsequently put together in an online platform (in Portuguese language) that could explain the major outcomes and next steps to a larger audience (local population).

Applying integrated digital technologies for the management and maintenance of the existing built heritage appears to be one of the main current challenges for the definition and application of digitisation protocols for the construction supply chain. Key enabling technologies, collaborative platforms, Big Data management and information integration in a BIM environment are areas of increasing experimentation. In the field of intervention on the built heritage, it is the boundaries and opportunities offered by the integration of many different information sources that constitutes the main challenge. Furthermore, the study of the accessibility and usability of data and information from sources such as the three-dimensional terrestrial survey, existing databases, sensor networks, and satellite technologies make it possible to investigate both different ways of data modelling, even with a view to the development of predictive algorithms, and of visualisation and information management. The study illustrates part of the results of the InSPiRE project, an industrial research project financed with European structural funds and carried out in a public-private partnership by four universities and public research bodies, an innovation centre and six companies, SMEs, large enterprises, and start-ups. Specifically, the project highlights the growing importance of BIM-based modelling as a tool to lead users, both experts and non-experts, through the multiple information paths resulting from the relation between data and metadata.

This contribution is based on a joint research project developed by the University of Ferrara, Department of Architecture (Italy) and the Escola Politecnica USP of São Paulo (Brazil) by the which it was possible to scan the interior and exterior surfaces of the ancient blast furnaces of São João do Ipanema, an extraordinary example of industry of cast iron production of the XIX century.The research was aimed at investigating the evolution of the blast furnace technique exploring a surprisingly rich Brazilian technical literature, with description records and drawings dated between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beside historical documentation it was also implemented on site a 3D survey campaign of the furnaces to understand how the profiles were modified along the time.The first outputs of the project were thus focused on the evaluation of the transformation of the equipment in terms of more efficient shapes able to enhance the relationship between blast furnace profile fuel consumption and productivity.The use of accurate digital technology, the following CAD elaboration of the chimney, the 3d model and the comparison with XIX century technical drawings confirmed that European directors of the plant were familiar with the most advance technical and scientific procedures and brought to the site a great technological improvement by an innovative know-how.

This essay wants to contribute to the international discussion related to the conservation of the XX century modernist architectures, highlighting the crucial role of the preservation of the master’s legacy. It is a matter of memory conservation that can be achieved by means of technology integration and analyses methodology able to greatly improve the knowledge on these projects. The contribution describes an ongoing research path that, along the past five years, has been already able to digitally document dozens of modernist buildings in many regions within the Brazilian territory. Thus, the text explores the possible integration of several techniques such as digital elaborations, 3D modelling and 3D surveying, in order to identify the right tools and all the information to improve the knowledge of, not only the buildings, but also the design process applied by the XX century’s masters. Above All, three famous modernist houses are here analyzed by the proposed methodology: Casa de Vidro (by Lina Bo Bardi, 1949), Casa Olivo Gomes (by Rino Levi, 1951) and Casa das Canoas (by Oscar Niemeyer, 1953). These three projects are the most suitable case studies to explore the design methods of the great masters that along the 50s and the 60s significantly influenced the meaning of “modern house” in Brazil. Designed by the three of the most important architects and built in 3 different regions between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the houses are considered among the most significant examples of modern architecture in Brazil.

Even in the context of increasing digitisation, the construction sector continues to be characterised by redundancy, multiplication and, at the same time, a lack of transparency and disaggregation of data and information, leading to ineffective management of the time, costs and quality of the project life cycle. This paper shows the results of the development of an ICT application, TRL 4-5, based on the integration of Building Information Modeling and blockchain technologies and designed to foster digitisation processes in the supply chain, in the direction of greater transparency of information flows, knowledge-based organisations and decision-making processes based on unambiguous ordered data. Starting from a broader industrial research collaboration, the project involves a university spin-off, companies operating as system integrators and leaders in the customisation of BIM solutions for the Italian construction market. The project, launched as part of a network of public and private stakeholders established in 2019 and developed between September 2020 and March 2021, is part of a territorial development strategy financed by European Structural Funds. As a result, the research output is a prototype of ICT tool, which implements the Common Data Environment, CDE, making the life cycle management unambiguous, certified and clear. In this regard, the results of the project are meant to respond to the supply chain's need to encourage the digitisation and automation of processes, as well as to encourage the acquisition of unambiguous data, according to a big data approach.

Este artigo aborda métodos integrados de diagnóstico de bens arquitetônicos e tem por objetivo evidenciar as características e potencialidades do escaneamento a laser em três dimensões, a partir da experiência de cooperação científica entre a Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo (FAU USP) e o laboratório de pesquisa da Università degli Studi di Ferrara (Unife) – Development of Integrated Automatic Procedures for Restoration of Monuments (DIAPReM). A análise é centrada nas experiências conjuntas entre as instituições, voltadas ao Edifício Vilanova Artigas, sede da FAU USP, e ao Museu do Ipiranga da USP. Para estruturar as questões, são inicialmente apresentadas as características da colaboração entre as instituições para, depois, analisar as características dos trabalhos feitos no Edifício Vilanova Artigas e no Museu do Ipiranga. Em seguida, são examinadas as particularidades do método e a discussão sobre suas potencialidades durante os ciclos de formação de estudantes da FAU USP; depois, são apresentadas considerações sobre o escaneamento a laser e seu papel no diagnóstico integrado. O texto é encerrado com reflexões sobre o método e suas potencialidades, evidenciando a necessidade de uma abordagem crítica.

The present paper illustrates the survey and documentation activities for the 3D city modelling and visualisation carried out since 2016 on complex monumental buildings of the city of São Paulo in Brazil by the DIAPReM research centre and the TekneHub Laboratory of the University of Ferrara in collaboration with FAU-USP Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo of Universidade de São San Paolo and funded by the Fundação de Apoio à Universidade de São Paulo - FUSP for the definition of interdisciplinary collaboration protocols and the development of integrated digital databases of Brazilian cultural heritage. Starting from a wider joint international research collaboration dated more than five years ago, the project aims to define interdisciplinary protocols for the digital documentation of built heritage in order to support the knowledge, restoration, maintenance, management and enhancement of Museu do Ipiranga - USP involving both academic and research competencies, as well as professional and technical skills. The definition of the first integrated digital database of the Museu do Ipiranga took into account the documentation needs of complex architecture for restoration and the project for new accessibility and the extension of the Museum itself and a wider digitisation project for urban planning as well as new Smart Cultural Heritage accessibility.