Roberto Pagani, Giacomo Chiesa

(edited by)

Urban data
Tools and methods towards the algorithmic city

Ricerche di tecnologia dell’architettura

FRANCOANGELI
 RICERCHE DI TECNOLOGIA DELL’ARCHITETTURA

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 Roberto Pagani, Giacomo Chiesa
(edited by)

Urban data
Tools and methods towards the algorithmic city

Ricerche di tecnologia dell’architettura

FRANCOANGELI
 














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Table of contents

Foreword, di Lorenzo Matteoli pag. 7

Introduction » 9

Part I
City and Future: design issues of the digital era

1. CityFutures facing the shift in the energy para-

digm: beyond sustainability, by Lorenzo Matteoli » 19

2. FutureCities: smart, green, adaptive, by Roberto

Pagani » 34

3. Model, digital technologies and datization.

Toward an explicit design practice, by Giacomo » 48
Chiesa

4. Model, language, stereotype, by Anna Rosa

Candura and Orio De Paoli » 82

5. Raster to vector: towards a live associative

model, by Matthew Claudel, Marco Maria
Pedrazzo, Niccolò Suraci » 106

5
 Part II
Design, product and process: tools and digital practices

6. Combining Pattern theory with Spatial

Multicriteria Analysis for urban planning. The
case of a neighborhood renewal in Turin (Italy),
by Aurelio David and Alessandra Oppio pag. 121

7. Tools and methods for evaluating and design-

ing the perceived landscape. 3D-GIS, viewshed
analysis, big data, by Giacomo Chiesa and Luigi
La Riccia » 159

8. Analysis of extensive information concerning

the real estate market of Turin (Italy) managed
by a Land Information System: relevance for
territorial policies and urban decision-making
procedures, by Rocco Curto and Elena Fregonara » 199

9. District Information Models. The DIMMER

project: BIM tools for the urban scale, by Anna
Osello, Andrea Acquaviva, Matteo Del Giudice,
Edoardo Patti, Niccolò Rapetti » 231

6
Foreword
Lorenzo Matteoli

If the city is a living organism that is born, grows, changes, gets sick and
ages, as is the case for any living organism, the “vision”, “plan”, “design”
and related competent institutions, assisted by political and administrative
responsibilities needed for their implementation, are the governance tools of
urban growth and change; the tools to treat sickness and transform aging
into transition to renovated vital assets.
The whole process induces and manages the transition from the present
to the future of the city in time windows that span from a few weeks or
months, up to 50 years; one or two generations of inhabitants.
No plan, no political institution for its implementation, a wrong plan or a
perverse executive policy will lead to future catastrophes. The right vision,
supported by the people, assisted with consistent tools and policies, will
generally lead to probable and plausible futures; if successful, to preferred
and designed futures.
The future is the development of the present. Dominated by the con-
tingent situation and by the cultural, ideological and political conditions
defined by it. The culture of the city is the prime mover of the development
of the present.
The tools to control the transition to the future are the tools for the
description, analysis and processing of the conditions on which action
is needed and for the simulation of the new proposed asset - the tools of
knowledge.
The city supplies the information needed for the management of the tran-
sition to its future. The very pathologies of the urban system are the source
of such information: congestion, pollution, morbidity, physical decay, social
tensions, criminality, functional and economical inefficiency, cost of servic-

7
es and infrastructures. Change and transition to new vital urban assets are
the consequence of treating emerging pathologies.

The tools available today for the knowledge and management of “urban
transition” are much more sophisticated than the tools available five or ten
years ago.

8
Introduction
Roberto Pagani and Giacomo Chiesa

This book addresses professionals, students and researchers interest-

ed in both theoretical analyses and experiences on new Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT), with respect to methods and tools for
urban and territorial contexts (e.g. by using parametric tools and GIS). The
influence of ICTs on urban design is analysed according to different profiles
and disciplinary experiences, aiming at dialing a complex puzzle of different
knowledge and actors facing the innovative digital instruments and design
methods. Professionals, especially architects and planners, will find in this
work a cognitive tool to address the digital innovation in urban design. This
relies on theoretical components and instrumental analyses accompanied by
case studies at different scales (from vast portions of the territory, to urban
districts).
Urban Data deals with the parametric urbanism and the influence of ICT
in urban design with a variety of profiles and disciplinary experiences in
order to analyse different implications. This book originates, in fact, from
the collaboration of architects, urban planners, urban designers, technology
experts, economists, geographers, ICT engineers, experts in data analysis,
geomatics, and representation, in order to describe engineering, morpho-
logical, technical, theoretical, and instrumental aspects of the urban digital
planning.
The theoretical analysis addresses the environmental emergency on the
urban scale, it elaborates the smart city concept, its implications and the rela-
tionship with big amount of data at the urban level. Datization phenomena
and new digital tools for design and modelling are also tackled, in conjunc-
tion with languages and materialization issues.
The book explores several implications in the use of advanced GIS
tools for geography and urban planning, addressing the issue of complex

9
multi-criteria modelling and interoperability between different systems and
databases.

Urban Data is organized into two parts. The first deals with the relation-
ship between the city and the future by reviewing basic design issues in
the digital age. In the second part instruments and urban digital practices
are scrutinized in order to identify, thanks to examples and applications,
important innovation trends, related to design, product, and process for
the urban design.

Lorenzo Matteoli questions about futures of the city. He remembers

that the city is “the most complex, necessary, diversified, dynamic, varia-
ble, ineffable and disconcerting of all the structures built by humankind”.
Furthermore, the city is “a living organism that responds to the hosted cul-
ture, reacting with an ambiguous time delay”. As “a cultural, political and
financial action decision-centre” the city is able to affect the entire Planet.
“For these reasons the idea to control and manage the development and
organic life of large metropolitan regions has always been a challenge to
political and professional ambitions and a scope for research and technolo-
gy.” At the same time, Matteoli remembers that the city is “the product of the
inhabiting society and its expression too, a political statement and subject to
political conditions, a technological challenge and a place of technological
achievement”. “The real possibility to control the many operational and
development modes of great metropolitan regions through planning and
design has always been whimsical and arguable”. In this sense it can be said
that “urban design and planning play a vital role in the culture of the city”.

Cities in what future is also a main concern for Roberto Pagani. The
future of urban areas is based on a balance between the “sustainable city
and the smart city”, the last having “in the word “datum” its core and in the
economy linked to datum its successful matrix”. The “smart cities” as well
as “the link between the ICT industry and the city’s development programs,
the augmented reality used for developing new urban knowledge” have
strongly influenced the industry and its relationship with the city. As recalled
by Pagani, “for this innovation, the available data networks, chaotic, but
good enough, are disruptive technologies, unthinkable in the past, that can
be used to make decisions, strategies, and lines of action.” This second chap-
ter introduces, in fact, “the basic concepts of smart cities and elaborates the
possible transformations of cities in the direction of an intelligent control”.

10
 To represent the “Smart City” concept, Pagani adopts an interpretative
scheme, already proposed by Carlo Cipolla for other areas of application. It
consists of a diagram that shows the individual advantage in relation with
the collective advantage, based on a Cartesian system representing local
variables.
This diagram identifies four cities, according to the four Cartesian
quadrants. “The quadrant ++ (individual advantage / collective advantage)
symbolizes the smart cities, combining the advantage of the community
to that of the individual citizen. The diagram - + (individual disadvantage
/ collective advantage) indicates the pioneer city. The quadrant + - (indi-
vidual advantage / collective disadvantage) identifies the exploitative city.
The quadrant - (individual disadvantage / collective disadvantage) is the
damaging city”.

The cultural action that outlines the futures of the city and the innova-
tive forces that generate the city of the future need to be connected with
the professional practice of urban planners. In this sense, Giacomo Chiesa
elaborates on the innovation in the urban professional practice induced
by new digital technologies, and shows the relation of new planning process
with a performance-based methodology. Furthermore, in the third chapter
the main impacts of ICTs on human processes are analysed, by adapting
the four axes introduced by The OnLife Initiative on an urban design scale.
These are determinants that can influence the building shapes according to
different temporal and geographical scales. Chiesa remembers that “the act
of design, which is the nodal point of the architect’s work and the goal of
methodological studies of architectural technologists, is characterized by a
high degree of complexity and articulation. Design practice involves, in
fact, several implications at different scales. These implications are related
to the difficulties of integrating into an organic vision the different combined
competences and knowledge that are essential to elaborate a project that
meets quality requirements. (…) The rapid development of new solutions,
tools and techniques, mainly linked to the digital revolution, are drastically
affecting the contemporary architectural and urban planning practice at all
levels”. Facing this change, it is necessarily to innovate the professional
practice, not only in order to incorporate new tools linked with the digitaliza-
tion, but also to avoid the risk of extinction of the architect, as a professional,
in favour of others, as it was highlighted, at least provocatively, by David
Celento in his essay “Innovate or Perish” (2007).

11
 The professional practices and the opportunity to develop visions for
the future of the city, are based on tools for representation and modelling.
Starting from this statement Anna Rosa Candura, geographer, and Orio De
Paoli, technologist, investigate the representation modalities of geography
and the relationship between models and reality. As stated by Candura and
De Paoli, “ The history of taxonomies speaks of the need to identify (geog-
raphers would use the term “regionalise”) an object in order to describe
and analyse it. However, this results in a series of crystallisations that have
changed or are changing, sometimes into stereotypes and sometimes into
prejudices. It would seem, therefore, essential to take a regular look at
these changes (because it isn’t just a lexical matter), in order to prevent
the simple operation of creating order in the study field from turning into a
series of unchangeable (and apparently incontrovertible due to some divine
order) constrictions/chains”. Authors remember that “The geographic map
is not just a representation but our perception of reality, and when we look
at it we can identify much more than the neutral information relating to the
geomorphological structure of the planet and the reciprocal positions of the
countries; we read things from our own point of view, using our own style
of reading and applying a mental hierarchy of the territories. Size doesn’t
matter, if one thinks that a territory like the Antarctic continent, while pos-
sessing a fascinating geopolitical condition and imposing size (approximate-
ly 14 million square kilometres), is the territory least known by most people
(educated and otherwise)”. For this reason, authors foresee two things to do:

1 “learn about the historical link between the representative model and the
reality (taking into account the geographic method of investigation that
envisages constant reference to the primitive relationship between man-
kind and the territory, considering all reciprocal influences);
2 identify the variable parts of the model and those that can be adapted to
the new reality (as happens with architectural models that can be broken
down)”.

Recalling similar aspects, Matthew Claudel, researcher at MIT, Marco

Maria Pedrazzo and Niccolò Suraci investigate methods for representing
information. They assert that “ the practice of architecture is defined by
tools for representation”. Furthermore, they remember in this fifth chapter
that “every project is a sequence of aggregating information, synthesizing
insights and representing a product. The deliverable is one step abstracted
from concrete: architects do not deliver buildings, but produce a set of

12
drawings that describe the design proposal”. Argumenting on innovation in
the design practice they state that “it can be understood as a language for
communicating spatial ideas, and the process hinges on the representational
tool”. As was evoked by Christopher Alexander, a mathematician, linguist,
and architect, “the building profession should focus explicitly on the organ-
ization of information and the relationships between stakeholders. Through
projects such as ‘Pattern Language,’ Alexander contended that the primary
task of the architect is to circulate information, and that his purview should
encompass the means of transfer as much as the information itself”. For
authors, the radical innovation in practice, as well as the development of
platforms for the integration of a wider range of stakeholders in the design
process, “need new representational tools – ones that democratize input and
dynamically manage a complex matrix of contingencies, akin to Alexander’s
‘semi-lattice’ concept”. They define this digital platform as a live associative
model assuming a radical reconfiguration of the “architect’s relationship to
information, stakeholders, and builders, ultimately transforming the process
and products of architectural design”.

While the first part of the book focuses on the issues related to the con-
cepts of future, vision, and digital innovation linked with the construction
and design practice, culture and perception of the city, the second part of
Urban Data addresses specific variations upcoming from the implementa-
tion of these radical changes.

Aurelio David and Alessandra Oppio introduce some project instruc-

tions to transform the city. Starting from the research of Christopher
Alexander, authors recall that in contemporary urban practice it is increas-
ingly hard to successfully plan a city or an area. This increasing difficulty
is linked with the process of globalization and some of its main dynamics
“intensifying changes on the economic and social structures taking place in
cities”. The chapter considers cities “as complex, open multidimensional
systems which growth and transformations are difficult to manage”. For
David and Oppio, “ this situation results in the unreliability of traditional
rational-comprehensive approaches to support spatial transformation, and
calls forth innovative methodologies to cope with such dilemmas by provid-
ing a solid rationale for decision makers, especially in the intelligence phase
of planning processes”. This need for innovation, both in tools and practice,
which was strongly highlighted in the first part of the volume, it is also

13
treated in this sixth chapter by introducing “the use of an open source soft-
ware based on graph theory to bring together Spatial Multicriteria Analysis
and the Pattern Language design methodology. The Spatial Multicriteria
Analysis allows a solid support for territorial analysis, goal definition and
scenario simulations by integrating Geographic Information Systems tools
with Multicriteria techniques”. The need for explicit methodology in the
design practice, described in the third chapter, is here combined with the
design tools and methods described by David and Oppio. They consider, in
fact, as “Pattern Language theory provides an explicit and intelligible set of
spatial instructions embedding multiple levels of knowledge to inform all
the players involved in the decisional processes on how to plan the city”.
The Multicriteria Analysis and Language Patterns are “two theories [that]
can be coupled together because of the specific structure of Patterns, which
allows design specifications to be constantly edited and subjected to quan-
titative analyses”.

In the seventh chapter, Giacomo Chiesa and Luigi La Riccia introduce a

methodology for studying urban landscape data. In this chapter innovative
tools are presented. Authors emphasise that “the “discrete” approach, like
the one generally used in traditional urban planning strategies, has often
demonstrated discrepancies between the expected results and the achieved
issues. (…) Nevertheless, innovative tools, such as those related to big data
and parametric urban issues, can support an innovative “active” approach,
oriented to the use of computerized systems and continuously implemented
scenarios that are able to deal with the fluidity of the contemporary urban
context”. Referring, at least indirectly, to the geographical thought presented
in the fourth chapter and to the importance of the representation introduced
in the fifth one, Chiesa and La Riccia start from the aesthetic-perceptive par-
adigm, outlined as “a different way of looking at the landscape, enhancing
the evasive character of contemporary society, which is hardly reducible to
conventions or codes”. Authors point out that “Geo-referred information,
resulting from social networks, contains, at least theoretically, a series of
data, generally unstructured, which can be used for the construction of spe-
cific mental maps and / or for the identification of points of view, landmarks
and other relevant points, “as perceived by people”. These data can be elab-
orated for use in viewshed analyses and for the identification of safeguard
zones”. This chapter applies some analytical techniques based on 3D-GIS
software and a tool for the datization of information from social networks.
These methodologies can be used, as mentioned by authors, “to identify

14
the most suitable areas, from the landscape preservation point of view, or
to localize elements or visible network infrastructures for the production of
renewable energy (wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, etc.). Moreover, they
can also be used to define the most suitable typologies and classes of inva-
siveness for the local energy retrofitting of building stocks”.

A different disciplinary approach, but closely related to the observation

of urban real estate matrices is the one proposed by Rocco Curto and
Elena Fregonara. Their chapter shows the case of the “Turin Real Estate
Market Observatory (OICT), “an example of a permanent structure for
monitoring and analysing the real estate market, on the basis of the expe-
rience of identifying a methodology for describing cadastral Microzones
in the city of Turin – approved by the City’s Municipal Council in 1999 –
and following boundary identification, in accordance with the Presidential
Decree 138/1998 and the Regulation issued by the Ministry of Finance”.
As the authors underline, “a database containing temporal and geograph-
ical referenced data can help public administrations and private investors
– that constantly refer to regulatory and economic measures – in structuring
decision-making procedures, based on the market’s conditions. As a matter
of fact, a managed knowledge of the market can help operators or private
citizens in their real estate investment choices, as well as public/private
subjects in their planning and programming interventions”. The example
described by Curto and Fregonara considers that the “use of alphanumeric/
cartographic databases and the possibility of georeferring market’s observa-
tions enables to overcome the applications of descriptive statistics, enabling
to experiment advanced statistical models even with multi-varied and spatial
characteristics”. This contribution allows to relate the use of data and param-
eters to the market at urban scale, representing a consolidated example on
the extensive application of visions and tools offered in previous chapters.

In the ninth chapter, Anna Osello, Andrea Acquaviva, Matteo Del

Giudice, Edoardo Patti and Niccolò Rapetti elaborate on the visu-
alized information of the city. As reported by authors “Information
Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming a key factor to enhance
energy optimization in cities”. In fact, “thanks to ICT it is possible to access
real-time information about building environmental characteristics and ener-
gy consumption (at building scale) as well as about district heating/cooling
and electricity grid (at district/city scale)”. The issues related to the real-time
data collection and the management at the urban scale of the implementation

15
processes are here exemplified referring to energy flows at the district scale.
Osello et al. describe the experience of the DIMMER project (District infor-
mation Modeling and Management for Energy Reduction) that “represents
an E-volution of the use of BIM, extending its use from buildings (building
scale) to districts (urban scale)”. The key aim of this project is, as noted
by the authors, “to create a web-oriented interface able to collect data and
information on single buildings and the district as a whole, including data
and information on their energy requirements”. The reported experience is
connected to the importance of the representation of the collected data for
their use, as was already highlighted in the first part of Urban Data. In the
DIMMER project “different tools are considered to visualize data about
public and private buildings (such as schools, university campuses or munic-
ipal buildings as well as residential) in different ways for different users/
stakeholders using Virtual and Augmented Reality (V&AR)”. Such rep-
resentation methodologies suggest the opportunity to develop, as mentioned
in the chapter, “dashboard and a benchmarking tool”.

Finally, it is essential to point out that innovations in the construction

of the city of the future relies on the definition of possible futures. These
futures can be interpreted as a cultural, political, decision-making and eco-
nomic expressions. These futures need strong improvements in the design
practice, especially facing the new digital technologies, in order to domi-
nate the instruments and methods in a background characterized by a great
abundance of data and information. The different approaches, the various
case studies and visions included in this book aim at suggesting that it is
fundamental to acquire cultural and technological skills and a set of values
to properly design on the urban scale in the horizon of the digital age.

16
 PART I
City and Future:
design issues of the digital era
1. CityFutures facing the shift in the energy paradigm:
beyond sustainability
Lorenzo Matteoli

1.1. The City - the Highest Expression of our Culture

The city is:

• the most complex, necessary, diversified, dynamic, variable, ineffable

and disconcerting of all the structures built by human kind;
• a living organism that responds to the hosted culture, reacting with an
ambiguous time delay;
• the product of the inhabiting society and its expression too, a political
statement and subject to political conditions, a technological chal-
lenge and a place of technological achievement;
• an object of constant design and planning, without any certainty of
results;
• a cultural, political and financial action decision-centre that rules the
Planet.

The real possibility to control the many operational and development

modes of great metropolitan regions through planning and design has
always been whimsical and arguable. Long decision-making processes and
even longer implementation times, operational uncertainties, the number of
executive competences and countless interactions defy any attempt of man-
agement and control procedures.

The concepts of planning and design referred to the city must deal with
the peculiar conditions implied by the size and implementation time of the
“urban item”. The “endogenous” evolution dynamics of cities have always

19
won and sometimes overridden any bureaucratic tool devised for their
design and planning.
For these reasons the idea to control and manage the development and
organic life of large metropolitan regions has always been a challenge to
political and professional ambitions and a scope for research and technology.
Nevertheless, urban design and planning play a vital role in the culture
of the city.

1.2. New tools

The assumptions, vision, plan and its design today are assisted by analyt-
ical and solution tools much more powerful than those available only five
or six years ago, not to mention what was available ten or twenty years ago.

Fig. 1 − Representation of the Gordon Moore’s Law. CPU transistor counts against intro-
dution date. The image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike
3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) Wikipedia, author:
Wgsimon

20
Assuming computer processor efficiency was 10 in 1986, in 2006 it was ten
thousand times greater.
According to Gordon Moore’s Law: overall processing power of comput-
ers will double every two years.

Between 1978 and 1986 the speed of commercial processors increased

by 25% every year, mainly as a consequence of technology innovations.
The increment averaged 52% every year between 1986 and 2002 on account
of changes of the conceptual architecture of processors, while from 2002 to
2008 power limits and increased memory latency contained the speed incre-
ment to 20% every year.
In 1985 commercial processors allowed 2 million instructions per second
(MIPS) (Hitachi HD 63705). Today the number is 10 billion instructions per
second (10GIPS) (Fujitsu K).
Even the physical aspects of hardware have changed in a stunning way: a
64 GB memory key today weighs approximately 10 grams whereas in 1970
the same memory volume required approximately 6 tons of hardware.

Fig. 2 − 1964 IBM/System 360 Model 30: 64 Kbytes 64.000 bytes 12 tons. The image is licensed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licen-
ses/by/2.0/) Wikipedia, Flickr, author: Dave Ross

21
 Today a commercial laptop (16 Gbytes, 1600 Mhz DD3) is more powerful
than the computing tools NASA had in 1970 to manage space exploration.
This unbelievable growth of computational and electronic simulation
power was not matched by a consistent evolution of conceptual town plan-
ning vision and urban design sophistication.
This gap could be interesting to explore, true for all practical and design
disciplines, with the exception of astronomy and space engineering, both
very close to “computer science”. This field of knowledge and related tech-
nology exploded in the last 50 years due mainly to the investments support-
ed by strong market demand and to the fast technology innovation in the
field of semiconductors and of circuitry miniaturization that they allowed.
While all this was happening, design culture and urban planning stuck to
1950 paradigms, their academic parochial clans and their ideologies. Thus
it is true that many design disciplines need a radical makeover to match the
reality of the new tools available.
As for the city, its vision and design, not only is it necessary to adjust
them to the tools available today but to those which are likely to be available
at the time of their implementation, dynamic development and growth, some
of which are still unknown.

Fig. 3 − 2020: 9 gram 64 Gbytes Lexar Memory Key 64.000.000.000 bytes

22
1.3. City futures

The future of cities is related to their present and to the specific cultural,
political and economic context. So present cities are related to their past
culture and history as suggested by the well known aphorism, “we all live
in cities that somebody else designed and design cities where somebody else
will live”.
The city is the product of its culture, which is built with a delay of years
since the time of its conception, implicit or explicit.
Like a mirror that returns the reflected image after many years, the city
is always obsolete for its dwellers, their requirements and the available
technical tools. It is only possible to fill this gap through forward-thinking
political vision and an implementation structure capable of operating with
consistent time continuity.
This is not an easy task: even if the design professionals are able to con-
ceive in great advance forms, technologies, cultural economic and social
conditions of the future city, such competence is not usually matched by the
political decision-makers.
The political responsibility is subject to different conditions and limits
which are often dictated by present day contingencies, not in line with strat-
egies and investments for the future of the city, if not detrimental to them.
The 1950 culture that designed the city where we live and the passive
management of the last 50 years are responsible for the present day critical
situation and for the looming catastrophe: an outstanding example being the
city of Beijing in China.

1.4. Tactics and strategies

Present day management of metropolitan systems has for many years

abandoned the concept of “plan” as a tool studied and defined off-line to
be later implemented by executive responsibilities at various levels and in
different times.
The “plan” today has become an “institution” responsible for the man-
agement of urban regions with a vertical mandate covering contingency
action and long-term vision. Conceptual stages and implementation are
organically coordinated and connected so as to grant continuity between
short-term governance and long-term strategies. At least, this is the theoret-
ical assumption.

23
1.5. The crisis of urban systems

The critical condition of urban systems and of metropolitan regions is

the consequence of many different factors, the interactions of which vary,
and are peculiar to various contexts and geographies: Northern Europe,
Mediterranean Europe, North America, Central and South America, Asia
China, Central Asia, Asia Japan, Indonesia, Pacific Rim, Australasia. In
brief, all the cities in the World are now running on a suicidal course: The
very same reasons of general economic and functional efficiency that led to
their foundation are leading them to their doom. If urban civilization is to
be restored within a reasonable timeframe, the problems must be faced and
tackled very thoroughly.
The following is a non hierarchical list:

• Urban climate pathology

• Energy and mobility
• Traffic: public and private
• Commuting times
• Density
• Water
• Urban waste
• Maintenance
• Safety
• Social stress

There is a compelling interdependency among the problem areas, and

what follows is a brief perusal of the topics.

1.6. Urban climate pathology

Large urban territories interact with local microclimate like rocky deserts
absorbing solar radiation and immediately delivering the resulting heat to
the lower atmospheric strata. In addition, they discharge into the atmosphere
the heat from heating and cooling equipment and the heat of the hundred
thousand internal combustion motors of public and private mobility and
the heat of industrial processes. The thermal balance of large metropolitan
crusts is radically deformed by the structures, by the activities and services
of the hosted community.

24
 In due time the return to almost natural climate dynamics in metropolitan
regions will be possible, with the transition to passive heating and cooling
technologies with electric solar back-up and the transition to electric vehi-
cles for public and private mobility, all fed by flowing energy: solar, wind,
geothermal.

During the next fifty years a new technology era will set in: a technology
derived and suggested by the ecosystem, with its dynamics and tools for
balance and compensation; a sophisticated technology with high informa-
tion content, capable of homeostatic feedback and self-control. The city will
again find the balance of the “forest” and according to Lewis Mumford’s
foresight, “the gods who left the city will come back” (The City in History).
Not only will technologies have to adjust but behavioural patterns of the
city culture will also have to change. The changes will imply consistent
evolution of the urban form and infrastructure at various levels; regional,
urban, town block.

Air quality and atmospheric pollution of urban regions interact more or

less directly with various aspects of local climate and urban life: morbidity,
life expectancy, welfare and public health costs, economic efficiency of the
city, traffic and commuting times, transportation technologies, service fre-
quency, building types and density, heating and AC technologies, wind, solar
radiation, temperatures, relative humidity…

1.7. Energy and mobility

Today’s highly energy-intensive metropolitan regions, must, in the short

medium term, become self reliant and possibly energy exporters.
The basic tool for urban energy planning is the energy model for the
urban sector analysed. Energy demand must be represented by its inten-
sity and power in the three peculiar conversion features: space, time and
enthalpy, that is where it is used, when, and the quality of the conversion
the specific usage.
At present, several urban energy modelling software programs are availa-
1
ble and ENEA has set up a specific software platform for professionals with
the acronym Odesse.

1. http://www.enea.it/it/Ricerca_sviluppo/documenti/ricerca-di-sistema-elettrico/promozi-
one-tecnologie/rse59.pdf

25
 This is the brief description of the platform supplied by ENEA2:

The software platform Odesse is made freely available to planners and

designers by ENEA, a dynamic modelling tool to assess technical-economic
feasibility of energy upgrading, also extended to groups of various build-
ings. The software is a solving support to assess the integration of several
high energy efficiency technologies (renewable, cogeneration, solar cooling,
etc.) assuming the weather conditions of the site and the contextual territo-
rial demand in order to increase efficiency and competitivity.

The Odesse platform supplies some basic modules:

1. User interface to input data for the simulation (structure and shape
of buildings, conversion equipment specifications, variables to be
monitored etc.)
2. Data base of materials according to UNI10351 and UNI10355 with
possible extensions by the user.
3. Pre-processor to calculate thermal parameters of the building, ther-
mal bridges, internal heat gains according to the usage profile of
spaces and electrical equipment (PC, lighting).
4. Dynamic simulator and computing routine to evaluate hourly thermal
load, yearly primary energy demand of distributed sources and yearly
cost for winter and summer conditioning in function of solar radiation
and external temperature.
5. Post-processor to supply the results of the dynamic simulation as dia-
grams and performance indicators of the building-equipment system.

The transition of metropolitan regions from the present situation to a

sustainable self- reliant future should respect the following sequence:

a. Elimination of waste
b. Energy saving
c. Energy alternatives

It is clearly absurd to put energy alternatives on systems which waste and

do not save energy. It is a theoretical sequence, not always practically appli-
cable. Financial incentives and energy conservation standards can induce

2. http://www.enea.it/it/Ricerca_sviluppo/ricerca-di-sistema-elettrico/Risparmio-ener-
gia-elettrica/tecnologie-per-lefficienza-energetica-nei-servizi/odesse-1:

26
exceptions to the rule of the sequence. Important changes of the grid, now
fed by large power plants, must be implemented in order to make it hospita-
ble to a plurality of alternative depolarized sources.
Electric energy generation and distribution will have to be complemented
by consistent storage structures based on technologies now being defined, or
yet to be defined (i.e. vacuum-contained flywheels spinning on magnetically
supported axes). High capacity and cost effective storage technologies will
be the solution for the eventual complete transition to alternative energy
sources (solar photo voltaic, wind electric, solar thermal-electric). Future car
parks, mainly electric, could be conceived and organised as high capacity
electric storage structures.
Energy interacts more or less directly with all the other conditions of urban
systems: climate pathology, air quality, air and soil pollution, health, economic
efficiency, density, traffic, commuting times, public and private mobility…

1.8. Electric cars

Transition to total or mainly electric commercial, public or private trans-

portation, fed by non-fossil fuel sources, will be dictated by reliable technol-
ogies availability, by market demand, by government incentives and by solar
and wind energy availability.
The Italian private automobile park today counts 37.07 million vehi-
cles, the yearly turnover rate is 4% (Italian Automobile Club Data) which
means every 25 years, at that rate, 100% of the park is substituted. The
function is not actually linear and is influenced by stochastic events, thus
these numbers are an approximation. The substitution time of the vehicle
park can be shortened by government laws or specific incentives. If within
the next twenty years the substitution will take place only with electric
cars, we could assume that in 35 to 40 years almost all the cars running on
Italian roads will be electric cars. Obviously reality is more complex with
transition stages dominated by hybrid vehicles before the total transition
to fully electric cars. There could be surprises because, in the short-term,
electric cars could be much cheaper than internal combustion engine cars
on account of the very simple motor and “power train” and for the advan-
tage of the power-to-weight ratio, longer durability and low maintenance.
Another possible surprise may be the success of car sharing practices or
of organisations similar to Uber, which could imply a significant decrease
in private traffic.

27
 Mobility in metropolitan regions interacts with various aspects of the
economic functional paradigm of the city: commuting time, density, air
quality and pollution, public transportation network and service frequency,
energy cost for the various sources (petrol, diesel, methane gas, electricity),
health, life expectancy, economic efficiency of the urban system, real estate
values…

1.9. Commuting times

The design of metropolitan regions, density, location of industries,

administrative and service hubs, organisation of mobility, public and private
transportation and road networks, dictate commuting times.
In coastal metropolitan regions which extend for hundreds of kilometres
(Perth, Sydney, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami) commuting times
for hundreds of thousands workers can add up to three hours a day. It is time
stolen from private life or taken from useful profitable and income-yielding
activities. The effective cost of commuting comprehensive of all externalities
for a city of two million people has macroeconomic importance. The traffic
of commuters’ private cars produces pollution, penalizes the efficiency of the
urban system and has a negative impact on the dwellers’ quality of life. The
design of future cities will provide for job depolarization; urban management
will promote teleworking and the use of public transportation and car-pooling
practices (car-sharing, ride-sharing, lift-sharing, covoiturage). Public trans-
portation should be cheap, fast, comfortable and friendly. Subsidizing tickets
with public money would acknowledge the advantage to the community of
mobility mainly served by public transportation.
Commuting times interact with urban climatology, urban efficiency,
morbidity, territorial density, energy, public transportation networks, road
networks and industrial as well as residential locations...

1.10. Territorial density

Territorial density defines the land area needed to host the urban popula-
tion. Low density (less than eight thousand inhabitants per square kilometre)
is responsible for urban sprawl; high density (more than thirty thousand
inhabitants per square kilometre) generates the compact city. Whatever densi-
ty is chosen the consequences on the social and cultural urban model will be

28
paramount. In general terms the compact high density city is more efficient
if congestion and traffic problems are solved. The low density diffuse city,
sprawled over large metropolitan regions, is less efficient, requires expensive
infrastructures and services and implies long commuting times. At present,
both models face critical challenges: high density cities are suffocated by
environmental pollution and traffic congestion; low density cities have to pay
the toll of expensive services, infrastructures, and lengthy commuting times.

In the long term, pollution and congestion problems can be solved by

organizing mobility and transportation and cutting fossil fuels usage. Long
commuting times will be reduced by fast regional transportation systems.
In the medium and long-term, obsolete urban sectors can be demolished to
implement high density residential correction strategies with “vertical vil-
lage” typologies. It is, in any case, a matter of long- term strategies (twenty
to thirty years) which imply political forward vision, heavy public and mar-
ket investments and a radical evolution of residential demand. Economic
and environmental efficiency of urban systems is a political scope that
requires long term vision and strategic decision-making. Future economic
advantages must be pursued with proper investment policies and real estate
market incentives, discounting to the present future advantages. This strate-
gy demands strong taxation manoeuvres, tough decisions, political strength
and consistent information of the public. Residential densities interact with
all the environmental and economic parameters: energy, urban climatology,
pollution and air quality, morbidity, real, estate values, commuting times,
public transportation networks, private mobility technologies…

1.11. Water

Large metropolitan regions all over the world have serious water supply
problems. Many cities have been processing grey water for a long time.
Many cities are now processing sewage to supply drinking water. Processing
heavily polluted river waters has been current practice for many years, as has
the desalination of sea and brackish waters. All these processes imply high
electric energy and fossil fuel demand and could be programmed in a grid,
heavily fed by solar or wind energy, to contain or solve energy storage prob-
lems. Water supply will become even more difficult in the future on account
of current climate change trends, which show a general radicalization of
rainfall: longer and more severe droughts in some regions and heavy floods

29
in other areas. To compensate, the general trend metropolitan regions should
be equipped with large storage basins to collect water instead of letting the
rainfall drain after a few minutes in the soil, or in the sea. Such water basins
inserted in built-up regions could have beneficial consequences on the sur-
rounding urban climate.
Water supply interacts with urban climatology, energy, storage structures,
urban design, road pavement, roofing technologies and design, urban sector
water grids, public and private green, urban hygiene and environmental
health and morbidity.

1.12. Urban waste

Urban waste production in Italy totals on average 487 kg per inhabitant.

Top-ranking Emilia Romagna produces 625 kg per inhabitant a year and
Molise 394 kg. The top ranking region for waste selective collection is
Trentino Alto Adige with 64.6 % Sicily records the lowest percentage with
13.4%. The national average is 42,3%.3
Short term trends will see the overall increase of selective collection
percentages and the increase of waste production in Southern regions, while
waste production in the Northern regions will be stable on the 2013 data.
Selection efficiency of recycling plants for plastics, glass and metals will
increase, and urban waste used as fuel in incinerating last generation energy
power plants should increase significantly. At present the quota is limited
on account of biased sensitivity of the public opinion informed by political-
ly-minded sectarian environmentalism.
Responsible standards and sustainable packaging designs may signif-
icantly reduce waste originated by commercial packaging as per the cur-
rent trend. In the medium term future, non recyclable waste which is now
discharged in dump sites should slowly decrease. The whole process of
production, collection, selection recycling and environmental discharge of
urban waste is strongly dependent on public information and controlled by
the users’ civic culture and behavioural patterns. It is obvious, however, that
even the most informed and civilized public cannot behave in an environ-
mentally consistent way where structures and services that support such a
behaviour are not available.

3. 2013 data, source ISPRA Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale,
http://www.isprambiente.gov.it/files/pubblicazioni/rapporti/RapportoRifiutiUrbani2014_
web.pdf

30
 Urban design information and organisation will have the responsibility
to assist urban systems with structures and assets that support and allow
positive behavioural patterns of the users.

1.13. Maintenance

The city is a living organism that changes and continuously adapts to

current usage conditions and the speed of the adaptation process is a forceful
condition of the system’s efficiency. The complex process that controls and
feeds “urban metabolism” is maintenance.
Maintenance at all levels: territorial, urban system, urban infrastructures,
networks and grids, urban sector, urban block, single building and building
parts, is the process by which the complex human settlement keeps and
upgrades its functionality, responds to change, technology innovation and
users’ requirements, and maintains and upgrades its economic efficiency and
environmental consistency.
All maintenance programs must be strategically designed to achieve
energy self- sufficiency and environmental sustainability within the eco-
nomic framework of their assumed useful life.
Maintenance is a complex process that requires information, design,
strategies and capital coverage. In current Italian contracting practice, main-
tenance is not included in the services and works provided by builders, the
assumption being that it is the responsibility of the subsequent real estate
property and management.
To include maintenance in building construction contracts and in the
choice of the building contractor would significantly contribute to the quali-
ty of works, relieving consistent responsibility of performance specifications
and contractual documentation.
Maintenance interacts with all functional, economic, and environmental
aspects of built systems.

1.14. Safety

The safety of urban systems during natural catastrophes or extreme

events (earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, typhoons, fires) requires manage-
ment and design attention. Plausible emergencies should be considered and
solved by the design of the system and by infrastructural services (water,

31
electricity, sewage, drainage, mobility networks and grids) and by territorial
management.
Safety interacts with the following aspects of the urban system: escape
routes, emergency meeting sites, drainage of the road network, fire con-
tainment, building structures and building materials, networks and essential
services redundancy…

1.15. Social tensions

Cities are places of political expression which can be radical and some-
times violent, events which imply concentration of crowds, not necessarily
peaceful. Public order depends on political management and responsible
police corps. Urban design may inform orderly performance of political
demonstrations, even violent ones, and can contribute to their control by
police responsibilities. Structures to facilitate crowd gatherings and pro-
test-expression may be useful to prevent extreme behavioural patterns.
Phenomena related to the movement of crowds in contained urban spaces
(squares, streets, boulevards) should be studied and solved, bearing in mind
safety and the prevention of panic situations.

1.16. Bibliography
AAVV edited by Wheeler M. and Beatley T. (2004), The Sustainable Urban
Development Reader, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York.
AAVV Edited by Moor M. and Rowland J. (2008), Urban Design Futures,
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York.
Alexander C., Ishikawa S., Silverstein M. with Jacobson M., Ingrid Fiksdahl-King
I., Angel S. (1977), A Pattern Language Towns, Buildings, Construction, Oxford
University Press, New York.
Calthorpe P. (1993), The Next American Metropolis, Ecology, Community and the
American Dream, Princeton Architectural Press.
Droege D. (2006), The Renewable City, Wiley-Academy, Chichester, West Sussex.
Hall P. and Pfeiffer U. (2000), Urban Future 21, a Global Agenda for Twenty-first
Century Cities, Spon Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
Kelbaugh D. (1997), Common Place, Toward Neighborhood and Regional Design,
University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Mumford L. (1938), The Culture of the Cities, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc, New York.
Mumford L. (1961), The City in History, its origins, its transformations, and its
prospects, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc, New York.

32
Radovic D. (2009), Eco-Urbanity, towards well-mannered built environments,
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York.
Register R. (2006), Ecocities, Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature, New
Society Publishers, Gabriola Island B.C., Canada
Rogers R., edited by Gumuchdjian P. (1997), Cities for a Small World, Faber and
Faber London.

33
2. FutureCities: smart, green, adaptive
Roberto Pagani

Abstract

The concept of Smart City has powerfully introduced the topic of data
in the city, not only as a rational element for a better urban design, but as a
widespread, accessible information on elements, settings, infrastructures of
the city itself.
The transition from sustainable city to smart city has its fulcrum in data
and its successfulness is linked to data economy. The topic of smart cities
had, in recent years, an undeniable grip on the industry, joining industry
information and communication programs and planned to start by the town,
the pulse of the internet of things and of augmented reality on the develop-
ment prospects of urban knowledge.

The European industry is looking for innovative solutions to address

new markets, in great evolution. European cities can provide genuine
experimental platforms: “living labs” on which full-scale test applications,
compare them, measure them in the economic and social impacts, propose
to the internal market and to bully the emerging economies. Neighborhoods
in intelligent management, decentralized renewable sources, eco-building,
info-mobility, new vehicles, smart grids, distributed solutions are areas of
research and development potentially revolutionary impact on our urban
fabric, but at the same time on our structures of government , those profes-
sional on our educational systems and research.
This drive for innovation, the available data networks, chaotic, but good
enough, are a disruptive technology, unthinkable in the past, to make deci-
sions, strategies, lines of action.

34
 The chapter introduces the basic concepts of smart cities and elaborates
the possible transformations of the city in the direction of operation, man-
agement, intelligent control.

2.1. Urban data

The data, interrelated with their processes of production, extraction, deri-

vation, analysis, interpretation, use, display, are opening up new architectur-
al design implications on different scale: urban, building, systems.
We are facing a phase of innovation and change in the relationship
between man and technology, primarily driven by the rapid development
of new information technologies and their pervasiveness in our daily lives.
As mentioned in the literature, the speed of change and diffusion of ICT
is likely to highlight the need to redesign the conceptual tools for the under-
standing of data, and for their responsible use.
In the past, our research training led us to maximize information from a
few initial data, expensive to recover, hard to manage, by developing sam-
plings, classifications, extrapolation methods.
Until now, we always acted in areas of research with limited resources.
The availability of large amounts of data in real time is changing the way
in which research is conceived and implemented.
Big data have changed the overall scenario.
Information available: big, messy, good enough are literally wiping out -
at least in new research concepts - decades of research practice on methods,
procedures, selection, sample analyses, extrapolations, and derivations of
rules.
The implications relate, as well, to the area of design, in its various
forms: conception, evaluation, operation, maintenance, optimization, thanks
to the use of real-world data in models and simulations.
One can consider the innumerable building samples to generate group-
ings of the built heritage of a city or a region, and to produce interpretative
models of the reality from which deriving essential rules and attributes
on energy performance indicators, maintenance, and renovation solutions.
These approaches appear to be obsolete, outdated by the advent of big data,
although the latter have yet to find the right mode of coupling and query.
New opportunities have opened up by data management in terms of
“smart cities”: networking nodes that can gather, communicate and transmit
data, are becoming a reality, practiced already in many cities.

35
2.2. The innovation of Smart City

At the beginning of the Smart Cities movement in Europe, when even

the European Commission questioned on the meaning of a “smart city” in
comparison with the many programs already dedicated to the cities, SMART
CITIES was identified as one of the most important research platforms
to be started in Europe, aimed at the economic, social and environmental
improvement of member states.
Smart Cities is made up of a mix of technical and procedural interven-
tions, pervasive enough to involve a large number of aspects in urban deci-
sion making.
Smart Cities encourages a new role of research, closer to the innovative
management of cities, inspiring visions and projects, new infrastructures,
a new social conviviality. Perhaps it is not yet clearly perceived, but today
researchers and innovative professionals are called to a great effort to set
up large-scale solutions, systems, technologies for improving the quality of
life in our cities. Smart Cities is activating this process through a stronger
exploitation of innovators in our societies.
The new role of research turns into innovative design solutions devel-
oped in working teams with municipal techno-structures, with the vital
participation of industry and private partners, where researchers act as guar-
antors. This role is, therefore, strategic for universities and research centers
(Pagani, 2010).

New companies grow in the market through innovations that can be

purely organisational and managerial, such as some smart energy services or
alternative supplies. For example, the technical possibility of pooling users
of a whole district or neighborhood, so that the negotiated energy supply
remains constant, allows Utilities to keep peak power under control. This
results in a considerable energy and economic saving for individual users.
Therefore, already identifiable innovations enter our urban areas, but these
innovations are not exclusively technological. The Smart Cities platform
tends to expand choral responsibilities, and penetration in urban fabrics.
Sharing the experience among municipal leaders, professionals, researchers
and industries, gives a methodological strength to urban projects. Smart
cities can be defined like a fractal: an algorithm that generates forms in con-
tinuous replication and increasingly pervasive expansion.

36
 The Smart City approach relies on the development of human and pro-
fessional capital, and profits of every opportunity to develop local skills
and capacity to involve stakeholders who live and work locally, to promote
the concepts of partnership and cooperation on specific objectives. Smart
City provides new financing instruments, with a catalytic role in supporting
urban regeneration programs. Smart City creates special entities in cities to
manage urban transformation programs, linked to ambitious environmen-
tal, energy, economic targets, in complience with their social and cultural
impacts. It stimulates the cultural ground for pilot projects in pioneer cit-
ies, by instructing processes, disclosing methods, benchmarks, innovative
solutions, and allowing the expansion of innovation (Calderini and Pagani,
2011).

In the willingness of municipalities, Smart City merges with the capabil-

ities of professionals and industries to find and implement technical solu-
tions of high environmental value. New biomimetic, photocatalytic, organic
materials entering the building market. Digital and home automation solu-
tions allow remote management, rationalization, new information. Growing
design capabilities let to qualify new sustainable projects, to integrate
innovative features in the architecture of the city, without isolating them to
“exemplary case-studies”. The Smart City accommodates innovations and
routes them in a targeted way, as eco-punctures on the urban fabric. Many
eco-punctures realize the transition from tactics to strategy of therapy and
treatment (Pagani, 2012).

Every day cities have to manage complex urban transformations that

cannot be separately addressed and cannot be resolved with purely technical
solutions. Smart City realizes a critical step, from the “management of pro-
jects” to the “management of change”, for which ideas, vision, capacity, and
appropriateness are required.
A model where the intangible assets matter more than material ones.

The industry sector has joined Smart City with considerable enthusiasm.
Industries across Europe are looking for innovative solutions to address
new markets, in vast evolution. European cities can provide a genuine
experimental platforms: “living labs” on which testing full-scal applications,
comparing, measuring them in their social and economic impacts, proposing
large-scale implementations to internal markets and to emerging economies.
These expressions of European industry interests are based on a growing

37
public sensitivity on climate change issues, reinforced by media, local poli-
cies and international treaties. The responsibility of cities to climatic effects
on a planetary scale is close to 70%, attributable at large to construction.
Intelligent neighborhoods, decentralized and centralized renewable
sources, eco-building, info-mobility, alternative fuels, new smart vehicles,
decentralized network solutions, all these domains are areas of potentially
revolutionary impact on our urban fabrics, but at the same time, on our gov-
ernment structures, on professional ones, on our educational and research
systems. A challenge for cities, a challenge of an era, a challenge for restart-
ing our economies.

2.3. Smart City: a method

Smart Cities is an opportunity to develop a set of methods and best

practices for urban governance. Still few cities are able to govern complex
dynamics of social and physical transformation. Skills are the most impor-
tant resources, while decision-sharing methods help in managing com-
plexity. When talking of sustainability in urban projects means operating
in a comprehensive manner, connected among the players, creating shared
visions and managing transformations in a participatory way. Innovative
technologies are part of this picture. Technologies alone cannot make any
difference.
A new approach to manage decisions is needed, where cities can design a
win-win scheme with individuals: the public wins if the private wins as well,
the community wins when the individual wins.

In order to clarify the concept of Smart Cities we can adopt an interpre-

tative scheme, already proposed for other suggestive areas of application
(Cipolla, 1988). It consists of a diagram that expresses the individual advan-
tage in relation to the collective advantage, in a cartesian system which, in
my adaptation, represents urban variables.
The area |++| (individual advantage / collective advantage) shows the
situation of a smart choice which combines the advantages of individuals to
those of the collectivity. It is the place where a city should be: a smart city
combining the advantage of individual citizens to that of the whole commu-
nity (Fig. 1).
The area |-+| (individual disadvantage / collective advantage) indicates a
far-sighted choice, up to the limit of naivety, as uneconomic at the individual

38
level. Those who operate such choices come with projection towards the
community, farsightedness. If we apply this concept to a city, that would be
a pioneer-city (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1 - The Smart City

Fig. 2 - The pioneer City

The area |+-| (individual advantage / collective disadvantage) identifies
the status of an adventurer choice, which focuses on individual advantage at
the expense of the community. Private vehicle in cities is a simple example.
If we refer to the city, we will define this area of the diagram as the situation
of the unfair city (Fig. 3).

The area |--| (individual disadvantage / collective disadvantage) is the

riskiest choice, or rather the more foolish. To simultaneously obtain the
own individual disadvantage and a disadvantage for the whole community
is a foolish attitude. These choices are often unconscious, as such they keep

39
their character of foolishness. The individual damage of a city is simple to
be implemented, it is sufficient to adopt more of the same strategies: obso-
lete thermal plants of public properties, old and polluting urban transports,
expensive and ineffective infrastructures. When a community disadvantage
is coupled with an individual one, a city can only be a damaging city (Fig. 4).
This diagram can be used to represent and compare the environmental

Fig. 3 - The Unfair City

Fig. 4 - The Damaging City

quality of antagonistic cities, or to compare a city with itself, over time.

By using this tool, some energy technologies in our cities can be assessed,
and we could gain useful information for future directions (Figure 5).

In the |++| area we could find energy efficient and passive buildings. Both
combine effectiveness at the individual level (remunerated money saving) and
a positive effect on the community, by lowering urban pollution and CO2.

40
Fig. 5 - Example of information for future directions

Energy saving in buildings, as an individual advantage, is linked to the

improvement of comfort and energy costs, both with economic implications,
and normal paybacks within five years from investment.
These actions constitute two main advantages for the community:
• the urban regeneration, that is always connected to individual buil-
dings renewal
• the emission reduction, due to a lower consumption of conventional
energy (fossil).
In our diagram, this deep renovation is positioned in a significant collec-
tive advantage, while in a regular individual advantage. In fact, it provides
an important requalification, minimising the urban energy consumption, but
at higher costs than simple efficiency programs.
The biomass plants at the district level can be considered in a neutral posi-
tion as far as to the collective advantage is concerned, but slightly positive at
the individual level due to a somewhat lower cost than conventional fuels.

In the |+-| area the private car is portrayed, at a different rate of dam-
age in relation to its emission levels. The car-pool is less harmful than the
un-shared car, nevertheless still the individual advantage is privileged.
An inverse symmetry on the previous example of deep renovation is
evident when a ten-years-old private car and a car-pool using a new car for
urban commuters are compared.
A car in the city traffic is a choice that a citizen takes for convenience

41
and speed to reaching a place of interest. As shown in the figure, its position
is quite barycentric: the greater the individual advantage is, the greater the
collective disadvantage will be. The exemplification is given by the dis-
placement with respect to pollution emissions: the greater the displacement
(distance), the proportionally greater the pollution will be.
The straight lines assume different trajectories in relation to the vehicle
quality. More the vehicle is dated and poorly maintained, the greater the
damage for the same individual benefit (displacement) would be.

The | - + | area meets the most anticipatory choices, at the expense of

the individual convenience: a “zero energy” district is an advantage for the
collectivity, penalizing the individual benefit in the short term.
Although, step by step, these solutions are being transformed from eco-
nomically naive options, to affordable choices even at the individual level.
A specific mention is deserved by the recent divergence between Nearly
Zero Energy and Net Zero Energy. One might be led to think they are two
ways to mean the same thing, or nearly so. When a building comes close to
zero energy (nearly), the same the net energy will be. But it is not exactly so.
The Net Zero Energy is not an advancement, but a regression. Let’s see why.
The theoretical limit of the Net Zero Energy District concept - an inter-
mediate scale between the building and the city - consists of keeping urban
neighborhoods as they are, without quality and efficiency improvements,
but installing abundant amounts of renewable energies, enough to outweigh
energy consumptions for heating, cooling, and electricity, that would remain
unaffectedly high. On the contrary, the theoretical limit and basic concept of
the Nearly Zero Energy consists of resetting the fuel consumptions, reduc-
ing them to zero, which means moving from efficiency to the “sufficiency”,
namely to satisfy the same requirements with the minimum use of resources.
Net-Zero-Energy implies a waste of renewable energy to meet high require-
ments, even though it can reach an energy balance of conventional energy.
Both solutions can be attributed to the same |-+| diagram area. A city
adopting these solutions can be classified among the pioneers and for-
ward-looking, although their trend is different. We could state that the trend
of Nearly-Zero-Energy is moving to the smart sector, while the Net-Zero-
Energy trend goes towards the dangerous sector of the diagram.

Finally the |--| area: it embraces the “damaging” solutions, those gener-
ating at the same time a collective disadvantage and an individual disadvan-
tage, as well.

42
 It’s hard to consciously decide for a self-damage, but it happens in every-
day life. Driving in a congested traffic, with pedestrians walking faster than
cars, is a clear example.

But we can find other examples, less obvious and more ambiguous, such
as the use of bikes - the “very ecological” transportation - without bicycle
lanes, with a risk for bikers as well as for others’ safety.
The damaging city (if we can name it so) is the one that does not adapt its
public building stock to new energy efficiency standards; the one that does
not replace public lighting bulbs with efficient LED lamps; the one that does
not reduce the emissions of public transport with adequate maintenance and
replacements of vehicles.
An easy objection by city managers is represented by the lack of resourc-
es for these technological upgrades, but this objection can be controverted
by the high costs allocated on citizens: high pollution equals higher sanitary
cost; high energy consumption equals more durable taxation, and so on.

This method could help to trace and measure a city’s effort to achieve
better levels of sustainability in the medium term.
We can move forward on the smart city diagram, turning it into an inter-
pretative scheme on the level of sustainability of any city.
A study on urban indicators, presented at an international conference
(Pagani, 2003) and published in the following years (Pagani, 2007), portrays
a city in a virtual space, comparing it with others (Fig. 6).
The scheme is built on two indicators:
- an indicator summarizing the economic well-being: the GDP per capita;
- an indicator summarising the environmental quality: the CO2 per capita.
By portraying the two indicators within the Smart City diagram, showing
the GDP/per capita on the horizontal axis (individual advantage), while the
vertical axis shows the effects on the community in the form of CO2 emis-
sions (collective advantage)
The origin of the diagram (0,0) representing respectively:
- 26,600 EUR/per capita, the annual income in Europe (World Bank)
- 6.8 ton/CO2 per capita, the annual emissions in Europe (EUROSTAT)

As in the previous case, the sector | ++ | of the diagram shows the situation
of a smart city, which combines the high specific income ingredients with a
low CO2 emission level. The higher the income and lower CO2 emissions, the
greater urban quality, the attraction, the intelligence of the city.

43
Fig. 6 - Relationship between an environmental quality indicator (CO2) and an economic indicator
(per-capita income). Comparison among cities and within cities’ historical trends
(R.Pagani, Solarcity Conference, Goteborg 2002)

The sector | + - | (bottom / right) shows the state of cities with high per
capita income associated with high CO2 emission levels. It shows the situa-
tion where a city must invest in reducing its emission levels to improve the
environmental quality. We can define this sector of the diagram as the situ-
ation of the exploiting city: it leverages the resources, it produces wealth for
the individual, against the collective advantage in terms of environmental
and health conditions.

The sector | - + | (top / left) of the diagram indicates the cities that have
lower per capita incomes, combined with low levels of CO2 emissions, with
a virtuous environmental policy.
A city belonging to this sector is normally a city with limited resources or
delayed development, but at the same time with a potential to be far-sighted,
and maintaining a balanced development of its economy and environmental
protection.

The sector | - - | (bottom / left) is showing cities that have a low per
capita income, associated with high CO2 emissions. Cities whose citizens

44
are punished in both directions: poor and polluted. For this reasons we can
label this sector as: cities at risk.

Since the quality and quantity of available data in each city may vary,
due to various factors, and considering that the primary objective consists
of detecting the evolution that each city gives to its urban development, this
tool can be useful to understand the evolution of cities, their own tendency
to change over time.
In fact, despite the many efforts undertaken by cities to balance their
CO2 budgets, often their results cannot be compared with those of other
cities, because of differences in methods of data gathering and treatment.
Basically, we are not allowed to draw the conclusion that cities with low
CO2 emissions per capita have achieved the stated objectives of sustainabil-
ity, because not necessarily data sets are homogeneous.
For example, some cities report their financial statements in terms of
primary energy, while others in energy end-use. Some cities incorporate the
industrial sector in their energy balances, while others do not. The purpose
of the CO2 budgets at the urban level, characterized by methodologies not
fully established and yet to be refined, is to enable cities to be self-refer-
enced, to measure its evolution over time, and possibly its improvement, the
“trend” followed by the city and the policy that generates it.

The scheme is useful for positioning a particular city in its development

space. By detecting the position of the investigated city during a certain
timeframe, the diagram is able to show the progress of the community in
pursuing CO2 reduction policies in accordance with its economic develop-
ment. In fact, the representation of the trend, shown by the arrows, provides
information on the effort and negligence in concurrently improving the eco-
nomic development and environmental policy on an urban scale.

2.4. Conclusions

How can we use mega-available-data to simplify our life, our building

environment, our cities? How can we use data to make them more functional
and liveable?
Our technical disciplines are somehow shaped by giving specific needs to
objects: a car needs to have an efficient engine, prompt and speedy, but what
is our mobility need? Is not the car that needs to move..it’s us!

45
 On a similar level, a building does not need to be heated or cooled: we -
humans - have needs.
We should not look at our buildings or transport as objects with their own
independent needs, but check how they comply with our requirements and
improve their responsiveness to the variation (or steadiness) of our needs.
Today, we all know, or presume to know, what complexity is. We spend
a lot of words, time, readings, academic lectures to explain complexity. But
we do not know anymore what simplicity is.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said “You know you’ve achieved perfec-
tion in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have
nothing more to take away.” How do we make things as simple as we can, as
cheap as we can, as functional as we can? If we make that kind of simplicity
in our design we have reached our goal”.
To recover such a new simplicity we need, however, big data.

2.5. Bibliography

Calderini M. e Pagani R. (2011), “Sotto la Mole si sperimenta un nuovo fund rai-

sing”, Il Sole 24 Ore NordOvest, Wednesday June 8th 2011
Cipolla C. M. (1988), Allegro ma non troppo, Ed. Il Mulino, Bologna, ISBN 978-
88-15-01980-6
European Initiative on Smart Cities
<https://setis.ec.europa.eu/set-plan-implementation/technology-roadmaps/euro-
pean-initiative-smart-cities>, visited April 2016.
EUROSTAT Statistics Explained, Conti nazionali e PIL,
<http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/National_accounts_
and_GDP/it>, visited April 2016.
Mayer-Schönberger V. and Cukier K. (2010), Big Data: A Revolution That Will
Transform How We Live, Work, and Think, Ed. John Murray, ISBN: 978-1-
84854-790-2
Meeus L., Delarue E., Azevedo I., Glachant J-M.,Vitor Leal V. and de Oliveira
Fernandes E. (2010), Smart Cities Initiative: how to foster a quick transition
towards local sustainable energy systems, funded by the European Commission
FP7 project THINK, Brussels.
Pagani R. (2012), “Future Challenge for Cities: the Case of China”, Energy for
Smart Cities Conference, Cascais Conference Series II, 28-30 November 2012
<www.fundacaocascais.pt/E4SC_2014.pptx>, visited April 2016.
Pagani R. (2010), The Smart City Concept Behind the Future of the City, in: Matteoli
L. e Pagani R., eds., CITYFUTURES Architettura Design Tecnologia per il futu-
ro delle città, Hoepli, Milano. ISBN/ISSN: 13: 9788820344610 / 8820344610

46
Pagani R. (2007), Energia e territorio: l’esperienza delle città, UTET Università,
De Agostini, Novara, pp. 1-63. ISBN 9788860081476
Pagani R. (2003), “CO2 Reduction Potential Assessment”, European Solar Cities,
Habitats of Tomorrow, European Commission, DG TREN, EESD Programme,
paper presented at ISES Solar World Congress 2003 Solar Energy for a
Sustainable Future, Gothenburg (SE), 18 June.
Pagani R. et al. (1994), Pianificazione Energetica per il Settore Edilizio-Residenziale
in Umbria, coll. Tortoioli L., Grandolini M. (Regione dell’Umbria), Giunta
Regionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, March.
Pagani R., Pavoni G. e Ketoff A. (1983), La pianificazione del risparmio energetico
nel settore residenziale, EDILIZIA POPOLARE. - ISSN 0422-5619
World Bank, CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita),
<http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC/countries/
EU?display=graph>, visited April 2016.

47
3. Model, digital technologies and datization. Toward
an explicit design practice
Giacomo Chiesa

Abstract
Urban and architectural design have been characterized by implicit
approaches based on the application of designers’ and experts’ non-explicit
knowledge and experience. However, with the advent of digital techniques,
whether of the first (modelling), the second (materialization) or the third
(datization) digital era, it is possible to use tools and design methods based
on models and algorithms to reach possible explicit solutions to project
challenges. Design practices and design actions are becoming explicit, and
are enriched by data, meta-data and information. Models can be used to
create complex realities, and, furthermore, to analyze, interpret and improve
them. Data allows us to generate conscious visions, study correlations and
influences, optimize forms and integrate different aspects of knowledge
and different performance-driven scenarios from the building programming
design phase onwards. Architects and planners have to face this challenge
to ensure the survival of their professional figures and meet the needs of
innovation resulting from pervasive datization and the diffusion of digital
instruments and tools.

3.1. Conceptual background

The act of design, which is the nodal point of the architect’s work and
the goal of methodological studies of architectural technologists, is char-
acterized by a high degree of complexity and articulation. Design practice
involves, in fact, several implications at different scales. These implications
are related to the difficulties of integrating into an organic vision the differ-

48
ent combined competences and knowledge that are essential to elaborate
a project that meets quality requirements. In this respect, Renzo Piano
affirmed that “architecture is a border art because it is continuously con-
taminated by thousands of things, and it is fertilized by thousands of artistic
expressions that belong to other disciplines. Everything needs to fertilize
architecture” (Piano, 2002). The multidisciplinary value of architecture was
already recognized in antiquity, by, among others, Vitruvius: “the science
of the architect is adorned with many disciplines and several eruditions: he
must be able to judge all those works that the individual arts build”(Vitruvio
Pollione, 15 BC). At the same time, it is necessary that the design action take
place by means of a vision that is able to coordinate processes, products, and
innovative and conventional projects. The vert rapid development of new
solutions, tools and techniques, mainly linked to the digital revolution, are
drastically changing the prospects for contemporary architectural and urban
planning practice at every scale (Sevtsuk and Amindarbari, 2012; Braham
and Hale, 2007; Oxman, 2006a; Oxman, 2006b). Digital design, rapid proto-
typing, building automation, and the challenges associated with parametric
and algorithmic design and production are innovating software and solu-
tions. Furthermore, new technologies are radically changing the potential
of the modelling sciences and are creating new horizons for hybridization
between real and virtual spaces (Chiesa, 2015a; Sakamoto et al., 2006;
Sass and Oxman, 2006; Mitchell, 2005; Milgram and Colquhoun, 1999;
Negroponte, 1995). At the urban scale, the influence of ICT is growing sig-
nificantly (Offenhuber and Ratti, 2014; Occelli e Staricco, 2002) instrumen-
tally supporting the development of future-city visions such as the SmartCity
(Matteoli and Pagani, 2010), the chip city (Chiesa, 2010; Hashimoto and
Dijkstra, 2004), the digital city and the senseable City (SENSEable Lab;
CityForm Lab). Moreover, several other visions regarding the sustainable
future of cities can find valuable instrumental support in ITs. These visions
are, for example, related to the creation of the ecocity (Register, 2006),
the renewable city (Droege, 2006), the transition city (Chamberlin, 2009;
Hopkins, 2008), the living machine (Todd and Todd, 1993) or the vegetable
city (Schuiten, 2010). The support given by ITs can cover several fields of
study, such as the analysis and optimization of processes and spatial organi-
zation, the management of flows (energy, resources, people, ...), the compu-
tational morphogenesis of forms and geometries, and the parametric analysis
of variables related to lifestyles and urban organizations.
The horizons and scope of design practice, and even its nature are chang-
ing under the effect of these new tools. This affirmation implies that it is

49
essential to reformulate the “fundamental concepts of design theory in order
to consider their appropriateness in this emerging field” (Oxman, 2006a, p.
225). It is important to remember the meaning of the “word ‘project’ [that
can be used] to indicate both the activities connected to the analysis of avail-
able resources to meet certain requirements, and the process of decisions
that are assumed to achieve a specific goal” (Tosoni, 2008, 12).
Innovation entails an increase in the responsibility of architects and plan-
ners towards their users and the environment in which their projects will be
realized (Rahim, 2006). To deal correctly with this increase in responsibility,
it is necessary that designers take on board “feedback from their physical
and cultural contexts rather than relying solely on conventional analytical or
internal processes of development” (Rahim, 2006).
The need to innovate professional practice, is not only related to the
desire to incorporate new instruments and possibilities related to digitaliza-
tion, but also by the desire to avoid the risk of the extinction of architects in
favor of other professions, as described, somewhat provocatively, by David
Celento in his essay “Innovate or Perish” (2007). It is possible to identify
at least two major forces in the progressive process of aging and the impact
loss of the professional figure of the architect (Mayo, 1992; Cuff, 1991).
These two forces are related to both culture and methodology. Culturally
the design action, which is, by its very nature customized and connected
to a specific object and its background, differs from current market trends
that are interested in mass products (Celento, 2007)which are released by
processes of infatuation dictated by a massive use of media (Anders, 2000;
Pizzighella, 2008). Living in a liquid, flexible, unstructured society and
having to deal with a mass-consumption market (Bauman, 2007; Bauman,
2000; Sennet, 2008; Benasayag and Schmit, 2007) have reduced the ability
to understand, appreciate and subsidize economically and temporally the
design practice. Methodologically, designers and architects are reluctant to
innovate. This resistance slows the spread of innovative conceptual tools
and practices including the use of effective potentialities and design methods
related to digital tools and their implications in different digital eras (Chiesa
2015a; Oxman 2006b). This lack of innovation may reduce the action of
architects and urban planners to secondary processes, leaving the core of the
project to other professionals (Celento, 2007). Actually, these processes are
often characterized by a “naive” use of computer sciences that is likely to
result in an empty repetition of forms and landscapes that are devoid of the
necessary technical and cultural development of a good project. The urban
expansions dominated by “CAD created landscapes” and “CAD created

50
buildings”, which are generated by the unaware use of digital instruments
and tools (Sennet, 2008) – as for example “copy and paste” or “mirror” –,
reduce the professional importance of designers and architects. According
to this vision, these figures are relegated to the role of drafters of mass-pro-
duced objects, which are by their nature disconnected from the local context
(Chiesa, 2014a). The same happens when instruments and tools are used in a
manner which is not consistent with the design process, such as for example
an excess of precision – e.g. generated by the use of CAD software – in the
early stages of the design process (Kalay, 2006).

The spread of digital tools, when not properly used, is likely to increase
and speed up the development of universal solutions, where standardized
geometries, a-localized and therefore unable to integrate with sustainable
aspects of the design act, “grow like weeds in the space of the Global City”
(Droege, 2006). Droege highlights a real “speculative disaster (...) that
reduces residences to banal consumer products powered at low cost”, whose
production and exercise are similar to the energy consumption of a car and
like a car they become subject to rapid depreciation. “Contemporary apart-
ments have become a monothematic script which are able to host clearly
defined lifestyles and working methods , short-term industrial processes
and commercial activities that are continuously replaced” (Droege, 2006).
According to this vision, the relationship between architecture and climate
is dominated by a shift from the envelope to the mechanical equipment, thus
allowing the spread of the international style of buildings (Basilico, 2005).
According to the international style, indoor comfort, whose conditions are
fixed and internationally diffused regardless of the location, is relegated to
the plant system (Santamouris, 2007; Nicol and Roaf, 2007; Allen, 2005;
Butera, 2004; Reid, 1988). This choice has obviously led to an increase in
energy consumption and environmental impact, in both the heating and the
cooling seasons (Chiesa e Grosso, 2015a; Santamouris, 2007). This process
strongly influences the shape of our cities and is often motivated by a “cyn-
icism expressed by the modern design culture” (Droege, 2006) that is far
removed from a sympathetic relationship with the climate and with the actu-
al needs of users. These needs are too often represented by models which
are defined as those best suited to represent average behaviors. Without any
action of re-design and re-engineering of design tools and theory (Floridi,
2013; Oxman 2006a), ICTs are worryingly likely to speed up these processes
of impoverishment of the architectural and urban design practice.

51
 The admonishment of Celento is fundamental to encourage the emer-
gence of a professional figure in the design field who is able to integrate
and manage digital innovation. Several studies support the gradual shift of
the cultural and technological paradigm of architectural practice based on
the emergence of explicit processes in design theory and practice (Chiesa,
2015a; Chiesa, 2014a; Chiesa e Grosso, 2015b; Kokaturk, 2012; Braham
and Hale, 2007; Oxman 2006b; Mitchel, 2005). In order to support these
new visions of design practice and theory, it is important to properly man-
age the conceptual, methodological and technological aspects and the con-
sequent tools related to the different digital eras (1st era: Modelling; 2nd era:
Materialization; 3rd era: Datization). The impact of the digital revolution is,
in fact, able to change professional practice. At present, to manage the com-
plexity in the design, realization and maintenance of large architectural and
urban projects, the most widespread strategies are the adoption of hierarchi-
cal decision making and the temporal division of responsibilities. However,
these strategies often implicate low integration between the different disci-
plines and professional figures involved because of the rules of engagement
and of belonging to different and distinct structures. This partitioning has
practical and legal origins, but it can reduce the final quality of the design
practice (Kalay, 2006). The use of ITs facilitates, at least in general, a flow of
information and elaboration methods of an innovative nature, by integrating
different skills and the life phases of the building in an innovative neuronal
and interconnected (rather than sequential) horizon. Additionally, alongside
the potential offered by new software and methodological solutions another
possible line of innovation emerges, where the design practice will focus
not only on “how” the project and the procurement is managed, but also
on “what” can be realized (Kalay, 2006). The exchange and the innovative
use of ITs can exceed the capabilities of individuals, creating a shared pro-
ject that originates from the union of the different disciplines involved in
the design process. Obviously, it is necessary that individual competences
be equipped with their own knowledge, part of which has to be properly
structured in order to be shared with the other actors involved in the process
(Carrara et al., 2014; Osello et al., 2013). However, at the design level, it is
necessary to state that the predominance of the “intelligence of the room”
over that of the individuals that compose it, as described by Weinberger
(Weinberger 2011), should be secondary to the necessary skills of indi-
viduals within their specific working area since the “room” can not act as
a designer. Furthermore, these skills need to be structured in “specialism
opening” and not in “specialism closure” (Chiesa, 2010; Geymonat, 1986),

52
avoiding a structure based on a vision merely inherent to the “long tail”
(Anderson, 2012; Anderson, 2006) that would result in the feared extinction
of the designer as a professional figure.
This new conception of design practice, if properly addressed, can eas-
ily integrate the performance-driven approach by adding an explicit modal
vision to topological and morphological procedures, as will be detailed in
the following section. This vision is able to incorporate not only a function-
al a-physical definition of building programming (meta-design), but also a
definition of spaces, at least at a virtual level, with the purpose of allowing
their modeling and algorithmic programming. The performance-driven
method, which is related to a technological approach to architectural design,
may also be applied at the urban scale, thanks to the new possibilities related
to digital innovation.
The performance-driven approach can also be applied to the new hori-
zons in the field of control systems, allowing not only the creation of
projects that respond to environmental stimuli, but also the adaptation and
adjustment of their environmental characteristics according to defined needs
(and requirements) and expectations (Chiesa, 2014; Wang, 2010; Kalay,
2006). The availability of large amounts of data and information facilitates
changing the modality of managing functional models by creating user pro-
files and projects that are more adaptive and responsive to the real world. It
is possible, for example, to speculate on hybrid systems which are connect-
ed, on the one hand, with the datization of real-time information, and on the
other, with analyses of large amounts of data for the construction of profiles
of expectancy based on a predictive nature (Nielsen, 2012). However, it is
important to intend these profiles not as a substitute for the architect’s work,
as provocatively feared by Negroponte in the 70s, but as an element to help
design intelligent responsive spaces. In his book Human use of human beings
(Wiener, 1950), the inventor of cybernetics points out that if we delegate to a
machine a decision on our conduct, without knowing its function and the laws
that govern this machine, this will involve an enormous danger. The machine,
in fact, even if it may be equipped with the ability to learn, is not in any way
obliged to decide in the same way in which we might decide ourselves, or at
least in a way that is acceptable to us (Wiener, 1950). Furthermore, delegating
our decisions to machines, whether they are “metal machines or those living
machines that are the offices”, will ensure we “never reach the right answer to
our questions unless we ask the right questions” (Wiener, 1950). The architect
is, therefore, an important figure who is delegated to take the necessary deci-
sions, since he/she is a bearer of specific knowledge and questions.

53
 When we consider design practice, both for architectural and urban
development, it should be remembered that the fundamental need for ration-
ality, which is necessary to manage the relationship between objectives and
resources, has to address a further need which is connected to “ tangled
problems, whose contours are imprecise” (Tosoni, 2008). In this sense,
studies connected with the sciences of the artificial (Simon, 1981), which, as
noted by Tosoni, are pertinent to “regulations and planning, aimed at decid-
ing, organizing, planning, and controlling,” facilitated, and facilitate today,
in the light of developments in the new digital media, the birth of a “science
of design practice”, a practice that becomes a shared work in many fields
of knowledge. It is therefore necessary that architects and urban planners be
able to manage this knowledge in their respective areas of competence, wis-
dom and awareness, by mastering new ways of understanding the project, in
order to avoid the afore-mentioned extinction. For the purpose of this text,
it is also important to remember that “in the design field the know-how is
always knowing how to do something, while the know-that is knowing the
ways things work” (Tosoni, in 2008, 17).

3.2. Implicit VS explicit approaches to design

In the contemporary scene, urban and architectural design is configured

as a practice that is digitally mediated, as is detailed in Paradigmi ed ere
digitali – Paradigms and digital eras – (Chiesa, 2015a). Rivka Oxman in her
essay “Theory and Design in the first digital age” (2006b) states that “if the
new design is in any sense revolutionary, it is so not due to its forms, but to its
ability to propose meaningful alternatives to the logic of repetition in the com-
prehensive historical sense proposed by Mitchell” (Oxman, 2006b, p. 232).
Consequently, the theoretical nature of this study focuses on the technical and
methodological aspects of the design process and does not explicitly consider
aesthetic and formal compositional studies, which, since the onset of the wide-
spread use of IT, have found great favor, especially among young designers.
The interest in the modalities of integration of digital technologies into
design practice has been of prime interest since the ‘90s, but had already
shown profound implications in researches of the previous decades (e.g. the
first CAD system dates back to the’ 60s). The current increased interest in
digitally mediated design instruments (from 2D CAD to CAD nD) merely
expands the resonance of the first theoretical analysis proposed by Mitchell
and Negroponte (1995) (Penttilä, 2006; Lee et al., 2002).

54
 As part of digital practice, it is necessary to properly handle the direct
link between theories and the methodological-operational areas of digi-
tal design to avoid losing control of the process (Chiesa, 2014a; Oxman,
2006b). Design practice, when digitally mediated, is, in fact, radically
different the paper-based design, since “the medium would no longer be the
message” (Negroponte, 1995). A digital representation, unlike a traditional
one, is only one of the possible materializations of a message and not the
only one. According to this affirmation, designers, to prevent their extinc-
tion or obsolescence, must understand and directly manage techniques and
digital environments, and not only the digital representations of objects and
ideas (Oxman, 2006b). Indeed, it is essential that designers remain at the
center of the design process, and not be relegated to the sidelines, or worse
replaced by an algorithm which is able to generate an almost infinite number
of variations of possible materializations. The practice of minimal changes
is a process which is strongly connected with the contemporary arts and
several artists’ works, as is evident, for example, in minimalist contemporary
classical music (e.g. Jeroen Van Veen, Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, Ludovico
Einaudi, Simeon ten Holt). Furthermore, the research on minimal variations
is also sometimes to biomimetics (Molinari, 2006), which can, for exam-
ple, be linked to 3D printing and to the urban and architectural processes
of propagation (Pagani et. al., 2015; Gruber, 2011). Nevertheless, in order
to be functional and meaningful, the selection, given the different possible
materializations of an object and the definition of rules of propagation and
modeling, requires a thorough understanding of the process and of the per-
formance framework related to the specific need-requirement background.
However, the construction of the necessary specialized knowledge is, unfor-
tunately, a factor which is often neglected, even though it is a crucial point
given the instrumental nature of technology.
Current architectural practice is characterized by a sort of obsolescence
due to, among other causes, the lack of feedback cycles (Celento, 2007).
In order to be applied, a cycle of feedback requires a clear definition of the
objectives and performances to be achieved. It is also necessary that the
required tools for the evaluation and subsequent progressive optimization
of the process itself have been previously developed. Hence, this practice
requires an explicit formalization of the process. This formalization could
take place in the practice of modeling, or in the words of Jeff Rothenberg
“modeling is one of the fundamental processes of the human mind”
(Rothenberg, 1989, 75). The model, a design tool embodied in the architec-
tural practice at least since the Renaissance (see among others Maldonado,

55
1992), is, as noted in the work of Minsky, “an abstraction of reality in the
sense that it cannot represent all aspects of reality” (Rothenberg, 1989, 75).
A model is, in fact, characterized by three fundamental attributes: reference,
purpose and cost-effectiveness. These attributes are integrated with the fol-
lowing aspects:

• before building a model, it is necessary to clearly define its purpose;

• the model used is closely related to the scope of the project and should
change with it;
• in order to be adapted, an integrated model must include at least the
parts that are necessary to achieve the required level of integration.

These aspects are essential in order to give meaning to the models and
make them useful tools for the project, as was argued by Arto Kiviniemi in
a conversation that took place in Turin in 2012, and reported in literature
(Terzidis, 2006).

It is necessary to develop knowledge and explicit methods for the design

action and the responsible use of resources. This need is also implicit in
the desire to use and integrate the vast amount of information and data
(technological, constructive, environmental …) associated with the project
(Bar-On and Oxman, 2002). Faced with the large quantity of technological
information that can be used today, the ability to process and integrate it into
architectural and urban practice is a complex action, which requires skill,
knowledge and specific tools that are often not available. This limitation
reduces, for the designer, the possibility to be a professional figure who is
able to handle the contemporary decision-making framework (Bar-On and
Oxman, 2002). The processes of integration provide, in fact, on the one hand
the need to structure the collected data, by using metadata, in order to collate
information, and on the other hand to logically organize different informa-
tion in structures which are able to build knowledge entities. These steps
are essential to overcome the simple electronic cataloging of technological
information and articulate them in a relational matrix. This matrix has to
link environmental and technological systems with the various environmen-
tal and technological elements. Furthermore, the ontological studies on the
design action of the research group coordinated by prof. Carrara (Carrara et
al., 2014) are worth noting.
The dissemination, the development and the adoption of specific tech-
nologies and technological decisions are elements that effect professional

56
practice, architectural and urban morphologies and ecological, social, and
economic frameworks. Unfortunately, these implications are hard to identify
ex ante.
This is because “technologies are not planned: they emerge as culture
evolves” (Kalay, 2006). Digital technologies help professional practice by
allowing architects and urban planners to organize their work according to
a perspective that is more responsible, intelligent, cautious, effective and
efficient. In fact, these changes in the operating mode, which require an
adequate process of model building and a focus on their materialization in
accordance with explicit processes, lead to greater reflection and a more
accurate representation of the project during its development.
This new vision is made possible thanks to the spread of mixed reality
technologies (Milgram and Colquhoun, 1999) and to the rapprochement
between the intentions of the designer and the technological means used
to express them (Kalay, 2006; Virilio, 1984). Cardwell affirmed that “tech-
nology is a highly sophisticated tool, but like every tool it can be misused”
(Cardwell, 1976). It is therefore essential to develop, especially in the case
of digital techniques, given their great undoubted impact on society (Floridi,
2013), the appropriate concepts, the necessary cognitive frameworks and the
operational tools in order to use them in as cognizant a way as possible. In
this regard, the extensive bibliography on the subject of risk in our societies
and urban spaces (Sunstein, 2002; Beck, 1986), and on the responsibilities
associated with the use of technologies when dealing with several social
constructs (Pizzighella, 2008; Gallino, 2007; Douglas and Wildavsky, 1983)
is worthy of note. Of course, it is essential to connect these studies with the
conception of rights and obligations that include the destructive potential of
human actions, even when only intrinsic (Anders, 2000; Mela et al., 1998;
Jonas, 1979).
According to Kalay (2006), it is possible to identify two main paradigms
which are capable of describing the problems of adapting new digital tech-
nologies to the professional practice of architecture and urban planning. The
first paradigm, defined by the author as “forcing a square peg into a round
hole”, identifies the difference between the instrument and the traditional
design process. The second, called the “horseless carriage”, focuses on
the lack of vision and operational modes that can exploit the full potential
of the new instruments. In other words, digital media are still defined by
the cultural framework and the operational mode of previous technologies,
exactly as happened in the early twentieth century with the transition from
the horse-drawn carriage to the motor car.

57
 In both cases, it is clear that the main tasks of the designer are unchanged
because fundamental housing needs remain the same. Design practice,
however, has radically changed, and this is particularly evident in the first
paradigm. Design practice implies for each specific objective a vision that
includes methods, processes, organizations, knowledge and cultures (Kalay,
2006). This vision may come to the architect and the urbanist thanks to an
explicit or implicit process. In the latter case (implicit process), the designer
has a clear solution for a given problem, but not the awareness of the moti-
vations behind the explicit values associated with the specific design choice.
The digital media and computational tools allow including in their use not
only the representation and the instrument itself, but also the skills associ-
ated with the practice. In other words, some parts of the project, up to now
implicit in the competence of the designer, are made explicit and included
directly in the instrument used for the design practice. In particular, within
the parametric generative design – e.g. when a tool like a grasshopper is
used –, it is necessary to describe not the single materialization, but the rules
that generate it along with hundreds of other similar possible materializa-
tions.

It is essential, therefore, to dwell on the need for each designer’s specific

knowledge, without which the digital medium becomes a nightmare. In this
perspective, even for mere representations (e.g. rendering) it is necessary to
define parameters such as roughness, surface reflection, brilliance… These
requirements can end up with the endorsement of the use of pre-compiled or
tabulated solutions that may be considerably different from what the design-
er would have chosen. In this sense, it is also necessary to avoid situations
where the excess of representation transgresses the physical parameters of
the materials employed and negates the possibility of using shared databases
in the various fields of expertise (and the consequent performance of the
design project in the different fields). It is essential therefore to be able to
mediate between different visions, such as, for example, those arising from
virtual cities and architectures, that are, nevertheless, a substitute for the
real world as in “Second Life” or “The Sims” (Chiesa, 2014b; Chiesa and
La Riccia, 2013 ). At the same time, it is important to integrate “digerati”
culturally into the design process as recognized professional figures, who
are able to handle the full potential of big data and the new digital tools in
architectural design culture.

58
3.3. Explicit design methodologies: the case of the performance-
driven sustainable design

Since the 70s, a clear need to change the approach to projects was evident
and, in particular, there was a need to change the definition of technological
and environmental systems, by adopting a method which could adapt to dif-
ferent contexts and which was based on an approach devoted to programming
(Cavaglià et al., 1975). This consistently methodological approach focuses on
identifying the needs arising from the activities of users and from housing-re-
lated behaviors in order to proceed with the definition of the environmental
system. However, the identification of the requirements, which is the central
aspect of the performance-driven design, cannot take place through a pro-
cess of homogenization based on a single model. It is necessary, especially
at the urban scale, to multiply the number of the considered models in order
to obtain, even when the complexity increases, a set of methods based on a
programming approach that can be effectively applied and replicated. Users
are not characterized, in fact, as unique and immutable, but they are divided
according to a variety of behaviors, that may change over time depending on
type of activity, age, cultural background and many other factors that, in order
to be analyzed, must be at least partially translated into models. Variations to
the above-mentioned models can be evaluated in terms of disturbance, as was
already pointed out in Industrializzazione per programmi – Industrialization
for programs – (Cavaglià et al., 1975). These disturbances, however, act
on the models and influence their equilibrium, via a dual conception of an
artificial system – the model –, and a natural one (environment, ecosystem)
(Chiesa, 2015a; Chiesa, 2010; Mela et al., 1998; Thompson, 1983; Douglas
and Wildavsky, 1982). As in the case of natural systems, it is possible to distin-
guish, according to the methodology and “programs” used, different reactions
of the model which is subjected to disturbance. In particular, it is possible to
distinguish between disturbances whose impacts remain within the balance of
the system threshold, allowing them to be implemented by the existing mod-
els, and disturbances that alter this balance, making the creation of a different
model (e.g. residential, urban) which can be implemented, necessary.
The study of the compatibility between the various components that con-
stitute a model shall be assessed according to a complex and detailed process.
It is, in fact, necessary to reduce the excesses of “objectivity” that often arise
from the adoption of models based on lists of simplified and non-adaptable
requirements (e.g. yes / no). This limitation can be greatly reduced by increas-
ing the amount of data included in a test sample used for the improvement

59
of the correspondence between a model and the actual needs. It is important
that these databases are able to be enriched not only with new records, but
also new fields. Nevertheless, it is essential that this increase does not entail
exceeding the equilibrium threshold of the system represented by the validity
range of the adopted model. Furthermore, it is important to remember the
issues related to the interoperability of these databases, in order to make them
usable in every different platform used for the definition of the project (e.g.
Osello et al., 2013), or at least to make them describable in terms of metada-
tization (Chiesa, 2015a; Chiesa, 2014c).
Contemporary research on big data involves an extension of the amount of
data available to designers and creators of models, allowing them to develop
cross-checks between the different areas under review – e.g. cultural assump-
tions, physical and technical factors, structural factors... The big data revolu-
tion increases the size of the test sample whose extension tends to the total
population (Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier, 2013). Moreover, the amount
of variables that may be taken into consideration is increasing thanks to pro-
cesses of datization of information that previously could not be included in a
database. It is possible, for example, to extract certain data and information
from social networks, depending on the quantity and quality of the metadata
that is available, in order to support advanced analyses of flows and processes
which were not previously possible (Nielsen, 2012). Likewise, with different
outcomes, it is possible to remember the possibilities of computational mor-
phogenesis, which is able to generate a large amount of shapes that can be
adapted and/or optimized to a specific need-performance framework. This
innovation allows us to include, at least theoretically, in the performance-driv-
en approach a modal model which is capable of integrating rules, constraints
and requirements of different natures, including, in all phases of the design
process (from building programming onwards) a more structured use of the
model used. According to this vision, the design model is able to integrate
need-performance frameworks not only based on a prescriptive-morpholog-
ical approach.
Nevertheless, this vision must be supported by the use of explicit knowl-
edge in order to increase its possible applicability range (Carrara et al., 2014).
Digital design has been configured, since the Non-Standard Architectures
Exhibition (2003 Centre Pompidou in Paris), as directly connected with the
research related to a design practice not only based on standards, legisla-
tion or the obsessive repetition of established models (Oxman, 2006b). This
statement is linked with the previous paragraph, showing a high potential for
integration between the digitally mediated project and the explicit processes

60
of performance-driven methodology. Nevertheless, this method has to be
considered non-typical, being a design practice that is linked to the real world
rather than to the logic of repetition and standardization of an a-perturbative
framework (Mitchell, 2005). In digital practice, especially considering the
implications of the II digital era (materialization), mass production is custom-
izable, without added cost, as industrialization takes place via “programs” and
not via products. For example, a numerical control milling machine can cut
freely, without having to change its operational mode, 10 products character-
ized by an equal or a variable length, within the limits of its operational area,
depending on the user need-requirement framework. The term “program” is
not considered here as related to standardized “traditional” industrialization,
a “legacy of a deeply outdated” culture (Carrara et al., 2014, 2-3), be it based
on a closed cycle (models) or open (components). This term is considered here
as an overcoming of traditional prefabrication on the way towards an algorith-
mic and procedural form of industrialization (algorithm-parameter-machine)
which is not object-related (Chiesa, 2013; Anderson, 2012; Kocaturk, 2012;
Sakamoto et al., 2008).

It is useful to focus on the four steps of connection between design action

and controlled production that were identified by the group designtoproduc-
tion (Sakamoto et al., 2008, 160-163):

• organization of the design process according to three-dimensional,

structured and parametric logic;
• algorithmic optimization of the model (as a design means) based on
defined interactions between its parts;
• simplification of the model’s parties through a process of rationaliza-
tion aimed at the production;
• materialization of the information contained in the model due to the
translation of data for the production of the parts themselves.

It is, therefore, possible to affirm that the new technologies used in the
mass-customization industry allow to “stand” perturbative phenomena that
previously could not have been taken into consideration except by means of
an expensive model change, or the abandonment of the industrial factor.
If we consider the first digital era (modeling – Oxman, 2006b), the perfor-
mance-drive method allows to identify those characteristics and those require-
ments which are useful for the selection of the most suitable model and are
able to answer the question “suitable for what?”.

61
 Researchers have introduced a number of tools that can automatically
organize the interior of a home based on the requirements of closeness
and compatibility between the different spatial units or between spaces
and equipment (Medjdoub and Chenini, 2013; Medjdoub, 2009; Ferré et
al., 2004; Carrara et al., 1989). In particular, the analyses conducted by
Benachir Medjdoub show how it is possible to optimize the distribution
of the internal partitions of a building according to a series of constraints
and needs expressed in and integrated into a program. Similar tools can
be developed to optimize the orientation and the shape of a shell in order
to maximize incident solar radiation having fixed the location and the
context (Casetta, 2011), or to maximize natural lighting and improve nat-
ural ventilation or other factors. Obviously, the choice of parameters and
algorithms used during the process of optimization can greatly influence
the outcome depending on the mode of interconnection between the dif-
ferent requirements. Parametric/algorithmic practice can help to study
and optimize some choices by running specific simulations which are able
to evaluate the model performances at the correct scale. In this sense, the
limitations, intrinsic in the use of a single parameter related to a material,
to a technology or to a technological system (e.g. thermal transmittance),
are overcome by evaluating it with respect to the entire model behavior.
This evaluation has to be carried out at the building scale, at the neighbor-
hood scale, at the city scale, interfacing it with climatic and environmental
parameters (Chiesa, 2014a). At least theoretically, it will be possible in
future to overcome the simple juxtaposition of sustainable buildings (com-
plex systems per se, and not just the sum of individual energy-efficient
technologies) for the creation of neighborhoods and cities classified as
sustainable (Pagani, 2014; Matteoli and Pagani, 2010). This can be done
by analyzing the “emergency” related to complex systems. As pointed out
by Anderson “the whole becomes not only more than but very different
from the sum of its parts” (Anderson, 1972).
This mode of addressing the design process allows for activating cycles
of feedback and evaluation that can be at least partially be organized into
expert systems. Furthermore, in the building programming phase, it may be
possible to connect the typological and topological classification established
by the UNI standards relating to the requirement-driven method, with an
environmental approach that integrates a modal-dynamic classification to
define and analyse activities and relevant needs/requirements. These are
classified into four modal categories (Chiesa and Grosso 2015): space-time
mode, relational mode, dimensional mode and physical mode.

62
 The results of traditional professional practice, whether they are represent-
ed on paper or digitally, rarely make the information concerning the frame-
work of needs and the strategies adopted to achieve the requirements of a pro-
ject explicit. This makes it difficult to follow and render interoperable process
and project management. The design process, from the problem definition
to the creation of solutions and their maintenance over time, needs strong
integration between the developments of the geometric-formal design aspects
and the need-performance analyses, according to a logic of interaction and
feedback (Ozkaya and Akin, 2006). This integration is essential to pass from
the digitally mediated representation, to the digital practice (Oxman, 2006b).
Internationally, “performance-driven design” has undergone significant devel-
opment since the 90s. This development, especially in the last decade, is
connected with the ability to link such a design approach with digital practice.
In computational design it is, in fact, possible to manage the transition from
a typological approach to an algorithmic approach or, if thought useful, to
connect them. In this regard, it is necessary to remember the studies about the
ontology of spaces and buildings, which allow for connecting environmental
and technological elements in design practice based on the evaluation of the
compatibility of requirements and needs. This ontological effort has several
advantages since it formalizes the knowledge involved (explicitations) for its
digital use and makes it shareable (Carrara et al., 2014). Studies on industri-
alization for programs (Cavaglià et al., 1975) introduces, in a theoretical and
preliminary vision, the possibility of using algorithms in the process of the
validation and creation of forms and distributions, based on functional graphs
for residential buildings, complex structures, and cities. Other similar studies
of the same period are reported in literature (e.g. Carrara and Kalay, 1994;
Novembri, 1987; Carrara et al., 1980). At least methodologically, the interest
in these issues in architectural and urban fields is linked with studies relat-
ed to expert systems, artificial intelligence and knowledge (Chiesa, 2015a;
Carrara et al. 2014 Tosoni, 2008), defined as structures of data and metadata.
In the 70s, it became clear that the design “for programs” is based mainly
on rules and concepts and that the representation of the project is only one of
the aspects of the design process. This process may lead to different material-
izations depending on how the parameters are configured in the design algo-
rithm and on how the model responds to the need-performance framework.

63
3.4. Parametric Urbanism

New information and communication technologies are changing our

lives profoundly. Economically ICTs are the key element in the fifth long
wave of technological development (Atkinson, 2004; Freeman and Perez,
1988; Mansfield, 1983), which is currently underway. These macro-waves,
defined by Schumpeter (1939) as Kondratiev’s waves (he was the first to
identify cyclical trends in the industrial economies), underpinning an accel-
erating series of macro-technological innovations crossed by shorter cycles
(Pagani, 2007). Recently, several studies have focused on the sixth wave of
innovation, currently in early development, defined as “the post-information
technological revolution” (Šmihula, 2009). This wave is also referred to as
the era of hyper-innovation based on the following key words: sustainabil-
ity, radical productivity of resources, systemic design, biomimetics, green
chemistry, industrial ecology, renewable energy and green nanotechnology
(the Natural Edge Project). Thanks to this sixth wave, digital technologies
will continue to play a crucial role. Of note is the analysis of the influence
of ICT (5th wave) on the city that was summarized in literature (Occelli
and Staricco, 2002). An interesting catalog of the impacts that ICTs have
on human processes and activities was developed by The Onlife Initiative
(Floridi, 2013) and described with respect to its architectural implications in
a previous work (Chiesa, 2015a). This classification is based on four main
axes: the reduction of the distance between the real and the virtual world;
the hybridization between the natural and human world; the transition from a
scarcity to an abundance of data and information; the change from a primacy
of entity to a primacy of interaction. Here below these impacts are articulat-
ed in relation to their influence on urban areas.

3.4.1. Hybridization between reality and virtuality

This first axis of interaction is characterized by a change in the rela-

tionship between human beings and computers. The first microprocessors
were as big or bigger than a room, and therefore the human interaction with
respect to them was characterized as “internal”. More recently, the advent
of personal computers has reversed this ratio allowing the diffusion of an
“external” interaction with computers (Gubitosa 2007). Current techno-
logical development in this field is changing the nature of such interaction
again leading to a new “internal” phase. In this phase, technology wraps

64
around humanity which ends up as being a part of computers (conductive
textile elements, diffused sensors, augmented reality, touch technologies,
infrared, Kinect, sensor / actuator systems based on real-world objects and
human beings as components of a circuit – e.g. the makeymakey project).
Furthermore, a high rate of innovation is evident in research areas which
focus on augmented virtuality (AV), augmented reality (AR), and hybrid
mixed reality (MR) (Milgram and Colquhoun, 1993). Hence, it is necessary
to remember the increasingly close relationship between the virtual and
real worlds. A very interesting aspect of this innovation is the new ways in
which virtual spaces and universes – e.g. the ones related to video games–
are becoming part of the common background and “reality” from which the
geography of memory and the experience of language and of things take
form (Augé, 1992). In fact, the reading and the encoding / decoding of sym-
bolic elements is a necessary step in the interpretation of a space, in order
to live it in a personal dimension (Chiesa, 2014b). This dimension is very
significant in urban planning and at the perceived landscape level, as noted
in Chapter 7, because “the environment produces an emotional reaction in
us, with or without our will” (Cullen, 1979). Spaces, territories and objects
create a strong relationship with the human being (Ghirri, 1989). As Pasolini
said, “your most direct educational sources are mute, material, object-based,
inert, and purely present. (...) They have their own language, and you, as
your friends, are a great decipherer of that specific language [of things]”
(Pasolini, 2009). This statement is closely linked to the territorial reading
method proposed by Turri (Turri, 1998). According to this method, visions
become projects and as projects, they influence the subsequent actions of
actors. The influence of ICTs and virtual realities on living organization
are evident, as suggested for example by some language expressions or
by several visions / projects of reality (e.g. the case of Villa Auditore in
Monteriggioni – Chiesa and La Riccia, 2013 – and some internal design
projects which are influenced by video-virtualized reality). Researchers and
industries are also quickly developing tools for modeling, virtualizing and
designing, by using parametric and algorithmic solutions, architectures and
urban planning visions which are able to integrate AV, AR and MR (Saleh
and Al-Hagla, 2012; Tang and Anderson, 2011; Krish, 2011). Such influ-
ence is increased by the new techniques of the materialization of models
and virtual or mixed realities, which facilitates the construction of hybrids
(Chiesa, 2015a; Zhang and Khoshnevis, 2013; Anderson, 2012; Lim et al.,
2012; Khoshnevis, 2004). The design process, whether it is performed in the
physical or in the virtual world, must be able to give an identity to spaces in

65
order to avoid the proliferation of non-places (non- identitarian, non- rela-
tional, non- historical).

3.4.2. Hybridization between nature and artefact

The growth in scientific and technological knowledge has forged a new

relationship between the natural and artificial worlds. The hybridization
between these realities can occur in at least two ways.
The first involves the further development of the bionic sciences, which are
able to create new hybrid realities. An example of such realities is represented
by the integration between a robotic arm and the human brain of the patient
Cathy Hutchinson (Hochberg et al., 2012). Bionics, the science that studies
those systems whose performance is similar, comparable, or based on that of
natural systems (Gérardin, 1968), is mainly engaged in research into robotics
and artificial tissue (Gruber, 2011). For this reason, it is an integral part of the
long history of artificial sciences described by Cardwell (1972).
The second way, however, is based on the terms biomimicry and bio-
mimetics, which are here assumed as synonyms for simplicity (for a fuller
definition see: Chiesa, 2015b; Gruber, 2011). Such sciences aim to develop
and study systems, processes, products, projects and inspired shapes, which
are copied or synthesized from natural solutions (Chiesa, 2015b; Gruber,
2011; Chiesa, 2010; Bar-Cohen, 2006; Benyus; 1997). Unlike bionics,
biomimetics aims at developing a new phase of artificial history, changing
the relationship between the natural and the artificial world (Chiesa, 2010:
Chiesa 2008). At the urban level, for example, several biomimetic projects
are under development (e.g. Sahara Forest Project) in order to grow food,
establish desert settlements, thanks to an innovative technology based on
the condensation of morning water vapor inspired by the Stenocara gra-
cilipes, a species of beetle (Chiesa and Mauro, 2015; Guadarrama-Cetina et
al., 2014; Parker and Lawrence, 2001). Other studies in similar fields are
the ones developed by Nancy Jack Todd, John Todd and the New Alchemy
Institute. These pioneering visions are related to the creation of bioshelters
and stable ecosystems for human settlements starting from an ecocity con-
cept and arriving at real living machines (Todd and Todd, 1993; Todd and
Todd, 1984). At the design level, biomimetic science is linked to the B3D
(B-cubed-D) design concept, based on the triad, biomimicry, biomimetic
and bio-inspiration. This specific design approach involves the use of words
and definitions hybridized between the biological and the engineering-tech-
nological research worlds. To facilitate the diffusion of the B3D, a specific

66
thesaurus was developed by Nagel (Nagel, 2014; Nagel, 2012; Nagel et
al., 2010; Stroble et al., 2009). Furthermore, recent studies have analyzed
the biological criteria that can be a source of inspiration for architectural
and urban planning practice (Gruber, 2011). These criteria are: use of open
systems; order; propagation; growth; energy and energy processes; reaction
to stimuli; homeostasis; evolution; information; self-organization; limitation
-especially the temporal one- (Gruber, 2011). The hybridization between
nature and artifact is also linked with human interface devices, or those
sensor / actuator systems including humans, such as embedded components
of the circuits, that have already been introduced in the previous point. A
discussion of the possible biomimetic implications in urban and architectural
contexts and some reflections on the theme of flows (transport, energy) were
introduced in Biomimetica, tecnologia e innovazione per l’architettura –
Biomimetics, technology and innovation for architecture – (Chiesa, 2010).

3.4.3. The abundance of data and information

The scarcity of information that has characterized research methods and

society for years is now being replaced by an abundance of data and meta-
data, thanks to new techniques for datization and to improved data-storage
capacities. In fact, current limits to the growth in data production are prin-
cipally imposed by the storage capacity of our HDD, which, since 2009,
cannot keep pace with the amount of data annually produced (Floridi, 2013).
It is possible to refer to the different effects of this increase, as for example
the ones defined as cognitive surplus (Shirky, 2010), intelligent network and
rooms (Weinberger, 2011), memory capacity that outperforms intelligence
(Floridi, 2013), and the long tail of information (Anderson, 2012). The new
horizons opened up by datization are defining new unexpected ways towards
scientific discovery (Nielsen, 2012). This innovation does not obviate the
need for solid theoretical foundations (Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier,
2013), because expertise in mathematics, statistics and computer science and
the necessary theoretical bases or correctly choosing the methods of analysis
are always required.
The use of bigdata, associated with cloud computing, collective intelli-
gence and cloud manufacturing, alters the relationship between information
and individuals. Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier identify, in a recent essay,
three modes of change (2013):

67
 • from a few-data logic to a lot-of-data logic - the dimension of the
dataset taken into account in the analysis tends to the total of the
population;
• from the logic of accuracy to a general-trend-based logic - less sam-
pling errors may allow more measurement errors;
• from the logic of “why” to the logic of “what” - in the big data world
it is possible to search for trends and correlations that identify what
is happening, regardless of the motivations that generate this phe-
nomenon. The core of this type of study is characterized, in fact, by
correlations.

The extraction of knowledge and the creation of new research methods

based on the use of large amounts of data, which are usually not considered
sources of useful information, began even before the advent of computers
and the spread of ICT in society. In this regard, it is possible to remember the
work of the oceanographer Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873), head of
the Depot of Charts and Instruments of the US Navy. Unsuitable for active
service on a ship due to an accident, he dedicated himself to the study of the
large amount of navigational notes, written over time by different captains
that was stored in the archives of which he was the keeper. From this mass of
data that was considered insignificant, Maury managed to develop synoptic
tables of oceanographic variables by cross-referencing the archive data with
the testimonies of captains and with measurements carried out on several US
navy ships. The new maps that he produced radically changed navigation,
moving from zigzag routes to straight routes, thanks to the study of currents,
dominant winds and other navigational parameters. Thanks to these results,
he was knighted in four European countries and awarded eight medals of
Honor. His maps were conceived according to an incremental logic, thanks
to the involvement of ships’ captains, who were required to send the record-
ing of new data in order to improve the mapping system that they used along
their routes. Thanks to this expedient, Maury geo-localized and accumulat-
ed more than 1.2 million pieces of information (Mayer-Schönberger and
Cukier, 2013).
The use of great amounts of data to create information and knowledge is
becoming very common thanks to the diffusion of innovative techniques of
datization and to the rise in the total amount of collected data. This develop-
ment has huge implications in the urban and architectural context. It is pos-
sible to consider, for example, the potential such innovation can have when
integrated with GIS science – i.e. to analyze and optimize the distribution of

68
services and activities , or to study, plan and manage city flows, such as the
distribution of energy, goods and people . Vastly increased amounts of infor-
mation also help develop intelligent transport systems, such as those sug-
gested in the definition of the Chip City concept (Hashimoto and Dijkstra,
2004) or by other research (e.g. the European research on “Transport
Intelligent Systems” – ITS). It is also important to remember the potentiality
of the use of data resulting from social media or from telephone traffic infor-
mation especially if it is geo-localized (e.g. Urban scope - PoliMi; Senseable
Lab - MIT). An example of datization from social networks is presented in
chapter 7, while a further example of the use of the plug-in Mosquito con-
nected with Grasshopper and with the CAD environment of Rhinoceros v.5
is reported in Ref. (Chiesa, 2014a). Finally, it is important to remember the
potentiality in the ability to manage and implement databases based on real-
time monitoring from diffused sensor networks (e.g. Lee et al., 2015a; Lee
et al., 2015b; Chiesa, 2014c; Sevtsuk et al., 2009).

3.4.4. The primacy of interactions

The fourth axis focuses on the shift between the centrality of nodes to
the centrality of networks. Tessellations of space are historically derived
from networks based on existing nodes. Right now, this process can be con-
sidered as reversed, the network is the predominant element into which the
nodes arrive when two links join, as outlined by the City Form Lab. Floridi
(2013) points out how we are shifting from a conception based on objects
to a conception based on interactions. An emblematic example of this shift
is represented by the results obtained by some citizen science initiatives,
such as the mapping of existing galaxies in the Galaxy Zoo initiative. There
are numerous additional examples, from collective chess games, to the pos-
sibility of bringing together latent ultra-specialist knowledge for a specific
purpose. An interesting research on collective intelligence can be found in
Nielsen (2012). Nevertheless, there are numerous difficulties associated
with the use of these procedures: They are connected, for example, to the
ability to include in the design process these latent skills which are often
disconnected from traditional knowledge networks (i.e. distributed in the
long tail); to organize them into communities and to be able to handle them
by creating a real interaction based process. It is, therefore, evident that on
the one hand there is a risk of denying the need for expert knowledge, while
on the other hand it is necessary to develop complex systems, databases and

69
models which are capable of integrating highly diversified knowledge and
skills. How do we translate a problem into sub-models? How do we make
the processes at the design stage understandable to different cognitive areas
that are not very clearly identified? How do we integrate these skills? How
do we translate them into information and structured information? In the
architectural field, this practice is still limited, and focuses on the spread
of a limited number of shared databases of projects (e.g. Open Architecture
Network). Nevertheless, the diffusion of sensors for the production of data
(see the previous axis), requires spaces for interaction and interconnection.
It is, in fact, necessary to develop platforms for the collection, the analysis
and the use of data (Chiesa, 2014c; Chiesa, 2013), especially when these
actions take place on the urban scale. The choice and the peculiarities of
these platforms involve several repercussions on the organizational modali-
ties of data themselves modifying their potential in terms of use and access
by administrations and third parties. There are, in fact, proprietary platforms
for the collection and the interaction between data (e.g. the IoT platform
developed by Reply) and open platforms. Furthermore, in addition to the
studies inherent to the monitoring and processing of data, there are platforms
dedicated to the preparation of design projects which are able to work at
different scales. The integration of knowledge is the basis of the functioning
and the diffusion of such software, such as BIM systems and other platforms
(Carrara et al., 2014). Furthermore, the platform concept can be applied to
design practice considering the various digital eras (Chiesa, 2015a), manag-
ing the interactions between the real world and virtual models, knowledge
and skills, information and technologies in the complex context that charac-
terizes the contemporary design process (Mitchell, 2005).
Network analysis is a very active field of research with a major impact
on the urban scale, and at project level (Sevtsuk and Amindarbari, 2012;
Sevtsuk, 2010; Barabasi, 2002). According to new scientific possibilities,
multi-criteria analysis on the distribution of services and activities can facil-
itate optimizations and advanced design strategies for the deployment of
services and infrastructure. In this sense, it is possible to refer to the doctoral
thesis “Prospettive di sviluppo dei sistemi urbani delle Alpi. Analisi spaziale
del ruolo dei servizi” (Prospects for the development of urban systems in the
Alps. Spatial analysis of the role of services (Di Gioia, 2012) and to other
researches such as the ones of the Senseable Lab at MIT and the CityForm
Lab at Singapore Polytechnic (e.g. Sevtsuk and Mekonnen, 2012; Sevtsuk,
2010).

70
3.5. Conclusions

The new possibilities of analysis and study of urban phenomena will

help designers to study with greater accuracy the effect that several specific
parameters and variables have on models and reality concerning urban forms
and living modalities. It could be possible to analyze these influences at
different temporal and geographical scales. For the purposes of this essay, a
list of parameters that can influence civilization over a long period of time
is listed below (see also Chiesa, 2015a). This list it is not exhaustive and is
based on macro-categories of factors.

• The political-cultural organization of society and the resulting influ-

ences on property, on land subdivision and on land management
(e.g. Roman castramentatio, feudalism, landlordism, city state) and
on the forms and images of territories (Antonelli and Macioti, 2012;
Chiesa and Di Gioia, 2011; Vitta, 2008; Cohen, 2002; Barbieri, 2002;
Magnaghi, 1994);
• The economic model, the financial organization, the economic glo-
balization and the resulting influences in terms of distribution of
population, trading, labor, use of soil, landscape, strategic networks,
financial functions and access to credit (Sassen, 2010; Abrahamson,
2004; Georgescu-Roegen, 2003; Rhomer, 1964);
• The used energy vectors and sources and the resulting influences
on economic choices, territorial distribution, urban planning, trans-
port network, technological tools and their diffusion (Droege, 2006;
Butera, 2004; Hawkes et al., 1987);
• Climatic impacts and the resulting influences in terms of distribution
of fertile lands, cold / hot zones, suitable technologies to maintain
comfort conditions, settlement capacity and social organization, as
analyzed in paleoclimatic studies (Coppens, 2006; Fagan, 2004;
Fagan, 2002);
• The anthropization of the biosphere, and the direct human-induced
impacts on the environment, with the consequent impacts in terms of
resources, livability, extinction of species, desertification and climate
change not dependent on other causes, pollution and air quality (Foley
et al., 2013; Slaughter, 2012; Syvitski, 2012; Chiesa and Di Gioia,
2011; Crutzen, 2005; Crutzen and Stoermer, 2000);
• Data and information management, production and transmission
modes with the consequent influences in terms of systems organi-

71
 zation, development of technologies and political decision-making
tools, knowledge property, ways developing scientific research,
service and components optimization and the pervasiveness of ICT
in private and social life (Chiesa, 2015a; Floridi, 2013; Occelli and
Staricco, 2002; Cohen and Nijkamp, 2002).

It is also important to remember the researches on the main determinants

that influence urban forms in the medium/short time. The CityForm Lab, a
structure of the Polytechnic of Singapore, developed a research on that field
(Sevtsuk and Amindarbari, 2012). This study identifies six classes of macro
determinants that are able to influence the geometric shapes of a city:

• Determinants related to economic aspects (e.g. Average family income);

• Determinants related to transport (e.g. yearly km/vehicle);
• Energy-related determinants (e.g. Average consumption per house-
hold);
• Determinants related to politics (e.g. Corruption);
• Determinants related to geography (e.g. Temperature);
• Determinants related to demography (e.g. total population).

This study should also be compared with the potential of the new fron-
tiers of GIS science as introduced in other studies (e.g. Sevtsuk, 2010).
Furthermore, this topic has to be related to the impact of ICT on cities (e.g.
Occelli and Staricco, 2002). It is, in fact, possible to forecast a future in
which monitored real-time data, predictive algorithms developed by using
large databases and urban determinants will be integral parts of models
which are able to predict the urban operation with high responsiveness and
accuracy. The maintenance of furnishings and networks shall be organized
according to “focused” procedures, such as the case of the manhole covers
of the New York power company that is reported in Chapter 7, optimizing
the operation of urban systems. At the same time, it will be possible, as
is already the case for some postal companies (Mayer-Schönberger and
Cukier, 2013), to optimize urban travel – public, commercial or personal –,
by improving service delivery and by optimizing the chosen itineraries. This
may also be applied to the distribution of energy (electricity, heat, cooling),
using targeted control actions, which can be, for example, connected with
the next-generation of control systems that are used for home automation,
or y to reduce the risk of blackouts and modulate peak energy consumption
demand according to public-private multi-scale actions.

72
 Smart cities cannot be separated from the study and the development of
visions and theoretical models and from their practical progressive appli-
cations in order to assess their impact on future urban development and
eventually to prevent or deal with the occurrence of disturbances. In order
to facilitate the development of such models, the study and the identification
of the main urban determinants (and their mode of operation) at different
temporal and geographical scales are essential.

We are facing a major change in the way we understand and design the
future. The new instruments require not only a change in technical skills,
but also new operational and theoretical methods. These innovations in
fact, influence even the way we think about and understand the models
themselves when intended as design tools. It is essential that architects and
urban planners enter this transformation, because they are the key figures
in the management of the difficult relationship between vision and practice,
especially in the construction, architectural and urban fields. As a Japanese
saying states, “a vision without practice is a dead dream, but practice with-
out vision is a nightmare”.

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4. Model, language, stereotype
Anna Rosa Candura and Orio De Paoli

4.1. Stereotype or prejudice? The weight of words

(by A.R. Candura)

The history of taxonomies speaks of the need to identify (geographers

would use the term “regionalise”) an object in order to describe and analyse
it. However, there ensues a series of crystallisations that have changed or are
changing, sometimes into stereotypes and sometimes into prejudices.
It would seem, therefore, essential to take a regular look at these chang-
es (because it isn’t just a lexical matter), in order to prevent the simple
operation of creating order in the study field from turning into a series of
unchangeable (and apparently incontrovertible due to some divine order)
constrictions/chains.
Just think of what happens in geographic dissertations on the landscape:
“[…] due to […] the application of abstract models, such as those of an
agrarian space, theorised by Heinrich von Thünen, or of an industrial nature,
as conceived by Alfred Weber, or even urbanised spaces, with industrial or
service purposes, like those considered by Christaller or by Lösch, all wide-
ly used in geography and in similar territorial disciplines, there is a risk of
creating absurd landscapes, causing inevitable conflicts between design and
culture, between the theoretic and practical space. […] in a book dedicated
by Denis Cosgrove, in 1984, to landscape, an attempt is made at analysing the
relationship between meaning and structure, […]: focusing on the symbolic
landscape, the author proved that […] what lies behind the idea of landscape
is […] based on the distinction between insiders and outsiders, those who
produce and experience the landscape every day without recognising it as

82
such (farmers for example) and those who observe it from afar, from the out-
side, with an aesthetic appreciation […]. In this way, the landscape becomes
the vision of the outsider who, thanks to this type of representation, besides
recognising an order in the world contemplated, exercises social control
over the territory, subtracting it from the producers and curators of the land-
scape. […] Andreotti […] by way of example […] observed that the River
Arno, as seen by a foreigner with no knowledge of Italian history, […] can
be nothing but a river running from the Casentino to Pisa […] whilst in the
eyes and interpretation of a cultured person, it is primarily “that little stream
born in Falterona”, written about by Dante […] (Andreotti, 1994, pp.46-47).
[…] In geography, the concept of landscape stems from that of territory, the
latter being considered as a portion of the earth’s surface defined not only
on the basis of physical elements but also, and especially, in terms of the
presence of a social organisation that has imprinted quite evident tangible
signs over time” (Rocca, 2013, pp. 4-5 passim).

It is necessary to do two things:

1- learn about the historical link between the representative model and
the reality represented (taking into account the geographic method
of investigation which envisages constant reference to the primitive
relationship between mankind and the territory, considering all the
reciprocal influences).
2- identify the variable parts of the model and those that can be adapted
to the new reality (as happens with architectural models that can be
broken down)1.

4.1.1. Historical link between representative model and the reality

represented

The “[…] direct link between cartographic representation and objective

reality […]” can be grasped by gradually overcoming a widespread con-
viction: “[…] the geographic map continues to be a hard to use instrument
for many and is often considered as an almost indecipherable mishmash of

1. See, for example, the article “Strutture in acciaio smontabili. ll futuro del settore delle
costruzioni?” at: http://www.casaeclima.com/ar_20123__TECH-Ricerche-acciaio-strut-
ture-smontabili-Strutture-in-acciaio-smontabili.-ll-futuro-del-settore-delle-costruzioni.html
(visited April 2016).

83
Fig. 1 − The Klencke Atlas in a drawing by Orio De Paoli which gives a idea of the size of the
object. A photograph can be seen at http://www.vanillamagazine.it/klencke-atlas-l-atlante-antico-
piu-grande-del-mondo/ (visited April 2016).

graphic signs” (Mazzanti, 1999, p. 5). To move just slightly away from our
rooted convictions, just think of the two most common (very European)
ones: the orientation of geographic maps and the Atlas. For most educated
people, an Atlas is a general cartography book, a collection of small-scale
maps in a folio form2, used mainly for educational purposes. Rarely, when
confronted with the term Atlas, does an anatomical Atlas, a tactile Atlas or
even a celestial atlas3 ecome to mind, and we never think of the Klencke
Atlas4 which owes its large size to a precise desire to shed light on the his-

2. It would seem helpful to remember that, roughly speaking, “large scale”, corresponds to
the representation of a small portion of territory, with considerable detail, while “small scale”
refers to a large portion of territory which has been scaled down considerably.
3. See the entry “Atlas” in the Encyclopaedia Treccani (treccani.it/enciclopedia/atlante/).
4. “The Klencke Atlas is the biggest Atlas in the world. Published in 1660, it is 1.75 tall,
1.9 metres wide and so heavy that it takes six people to carry it. […]». (vanillamagazine.
it/klencke-atlas-l-atlante-antico-piu-grande-del-mondo/). «Until recently, the Klencke At-
las was renowned as being the largest atlas in the world (a title now taken by Millenium
House’s Platinum Earth atlas) but size alone would not necessarily get the work into a list
of great maps. The atlas was presented to Charles II in 1660 by a consortium of Amsterdam
merchants led by Johannes Klencke. The 41 maps it contains are largely the work of Joan
Blaeu, a master of the Dutch Golden Age of Cartography. The atlas was conceived, likely
by Johan Maurits, Duke of Nassau-Siegen, as an enormous book containing maps of the
world and its heavens. It was to collectively contain the world’s knowledge. For that, a truly
large atlas was born but it is the maps it contains that make the cartography so enthralling.
Blaeu’s work was meticulous, detailed and of a consistently high quality. His maps are all
works of art in their own right and symbolic of the artistry of the Dutch cartographers and
engravers of the time. The Klencke atlas is not merely an over-sized book and contains very
little white space. Each map fills the large sheets in detail and the borders contain numerous

84
Fig. 2 − An Australian planisphere

torical role played by King Charles II of England (Oresko, Gibbs and Scott,
1997, p. 115).

In the same way, if we think of a planisphere, we tend to look for

Greenland towards the top of the page, as we are not particularly familiar
with it as we are with a banal Australian planisphere5.

Nor are we aware that the orientation of the map is not an absolute
rule, as we can easily see if we look at numerous historical maps, such as
the portolan (1519) of Vesconte Maggiolo6, now kept at the Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek in Munich7.
The geographic map is not just a representation, but our perception of
reality, and when we look at it we can identify much more than the neutral

illustrations of cityscapes and persons. Even the seas and oceans are adorned with sailing
ships representing exploration and discovery. A large, beautiful and historic atlas that rep-
resents a golden age of map-making. The atlas is large but it’s impressive cartography too.»
(mapdesign.icaci.org/2014/08/mapcarte-235365-the-klencke-atlas-by-joan-blaeu-1660/).
5. See the observations of Corna Pellegrini (1997, p. 13).
6. See the entry “Maggiolo, Vesconte” in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 67
(2006) entry by A. Pizzaleo (treccani.it/enciclopedia/vesconte-maggiolo_(Dizionario-Bio-
grafico)/).
7. A reproduction can be seen at https://www.facebook.com/108379959188199/photos
/a.108383029187892.14023.108379959188199/1252961011396749/?type=3&theater (visit-
ed April 2016).

85
information relating to the geomorphological structure of the planet and the
reciprocal positions of the countries; we read things from our own point of
view, using our own style of reading and applying a mental hierarchy of the
territories. Size doesn’t matter, if you think that a territory like the Antarctic
continent, while possessing a fascinating geopolitical condition and impos-
ing size (approximately 14 million square kilometres), is quite probably
the territory least known by most people (educated and otherwise). This is
why the decision was made to offer examples taken from geo-cartography,
a sphere rich in history and models. Architectural and geo-cartographic
models have always met and entwined, but this has happened much more in
the contemporary age, not just due to the profitable possibility to interface
CAD and GIS, as they meet in the observation of the planet (in points where
technical and descriptive elements come together).
To reconstruct the relationship between “humanistic” culture and “scien-
tific” culture (as the two fields were distinguished and are, by some people,
still distinguished today) we must look back over the complete history of
mankind, but even that won’t be enough. Alternatively, we could choose
illustrious examples of scholars who weren’t interested in such distinction,
such as Parmenides (whom we mention constantly when talking about
the astronomical areas of our planet, and when reflecting on philosophy),
assuming that this need to distinguish, split and separate is a contemporary
thing.
To introduce the eternal contradiction between the disciplines, it is inter-
esting to read a contribution relating to the culture of Dante: “[…] Dante had
[…] an excellent observational knowledge of the skies, with all the precision
allowed by the Ptolemaic system; he possessed experimental data, obvious-
ly that visible to the naked eye. And today, possibly few physics graduates
would be able to compete with him in this field. But none of this is of any
importance to Odifreddi: the distinction between scientific and literary mind
serves to sustain the complete superiority of the scientific mind and his
mind, in particular” (Grimaldi, 2015, pp. 1-2).
Not that having associated Ptolemais to an error instead of his real
astronomical knowledge did Science (whatever it is) much good, but we
speak of Ptolemais, and of Copernicus (even if only to spout of about the
“Copernican revolution” in the cesspool of ferociously superficial clichés).

Perhaps we could/should trace this problem back to a method-related

problem; we could discuss the matter of hard sciences and soft sciences at
length. However, it is interesting to read the claims of Hedges: “Research

86
results in the social and behavioral sciences are often conceded to be less
replicable than research results in the physical sciences. However, direct
empirical comparisons of the cumulativeness of research in the social and
physical sciences have not been made to date. […] Essentially identical
methods are used to test the consistency of rese- arch results in physics and
in psychology. These methods can be used to compare the consistency of
replicated research results in physics and in the social sciences. […] The
exemplary comparison suggests that the results of physical experiments may
not be strikingly more consistent than those of social or behavioral experi-
ments” (Hedges, 1987, pp. 443-444, passim).

Example of lexical stereotype: the ‘terrone’

From an educational point of view, it is particularly interesting to recon-

struct the origin of the word ‘terrone’ which, in Italian culture, was an
insult for many years and has now become a auto-ironic reference for some
people and a pet-name for others, depending (obviously) on the place of
origin and education. Having to present examples of use in literature, many
people would quote Mastronardi: “We drove past the custom-built car of a
Southern Italian industrialist: - That’s the boss, Pedale! - said Nicola. – Now
that’s what you call satisfaction, - continued Giuseppe. – Just think: he’s got
over four hundred people from here, from the North, working for him! –
That’s satisfaction for you! – he repeated lasciviously. Pedale doesn’t want
Southern Italians in his factory... – But he’s Neapolitan... – I said. - Precisely,
- said Nicola. – There’s a sign hanging up in his office. You know what the
sign says? – What does it say? – It says: no entry to dogs, pigs and “terroni”!
– said Nicola, smugly. He’s wrong! ’ I said. Forget it, sir’; he’s right, hell
he’s right, -said Giuseppe; - and it isn’t altogether true that Pedale doesn’t
employ “terroni”. He does. He lets them work as porters, doing heavy jobs;
sweeping the factory” (Mastronardi, 1964, p. 127). Quotes from books form
and reform our lexical memory, introducing us to the etymological life of
words.
In treating the serious, thorny and never-solved southern Italian matter,
the geographer Francesco Compagna8 chooses the title I terroni in città
(1959), an Italic apotheosis of a pejorative cliché. We can observe the charm
exercised by the vulgar eloquence also on renowned scholars who clearly

8. See the entry under “Compagna, Francesco. – Italian geographer and expert on Southern
Italy (Naples 1921 - Capri 1982)” in treccani.it.

87
understand the incisiveness of the title of a book, written with anything but
comic aims9. In the Fifties, the use of this word was fully consolidated as a
substantive and in the worst of its meanings; this said, its root is much more
seductive.
We mustn’t neglect the etymological aspect, which is far from secondary,
if we think of the difficulties that we all have when it comes to identifying
the origin of this word that is midway between adjective and substantive10.
Most etymological dictionaries sustain that ‘terrone’ stems from ‘terra’
meaning earth; only Treccani (treccani.it) makes reference to a place name:
“terróne s. m. (f.-a) [der. of terra, probably from the names of places in the
south, like Terra di Lavoro (in Campania), Terra di Bari and Terra d’Otranto
(in Apulia)]. – A name assigned, with pejorative tone (sometimes jokingly),
by the inhabitants of Northern Italy to those of Southern Italy.” (treccani.it/
vocabolario/terrone/).

“The representation of Abruzzo and Terra di Lavoro11, included in the

Atlas, sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati figura
by Flemish Gerardo Mercatore, which […] offers […] a wealth of indications
relating to towns, dates back to 1565; […] The Province of Terra di Lavoro
map, drawn up by Giovanni Antonio Magini in his Italian Regional Atlas
(1620), which makes considerable progress in the cartography field, proposes,
however, a quite schematic and simplified representation of the territory – par-
ticularly with regard to the orographic aspect – completely lacking in impor-
tant elements, such as roads and secondary place names. Much more detailed
and rich in information in this sense is Carta topografica delle Reali Cacce
di Terra di Lavoro e loro adiacenze, published in 1784 by Giovanni Antonio
Rizzi Zannoni (who also wrote the more famous Atlante del Regno di Napoli).
[…]” (Quilici Gigli and Quilici (2004, p. 33).

9. Among many others, we ought to remember a contribution which clearly summarises the
sense of Compagna’s book: “In his book Terroni in città, Compagna had not only reiterated
the need to pursue a territorial and professional redistribution policy of the population, […] In
particularly, he had undertaken a battle declared against the policies expressed for many years
by the Communist Party with respect to the problem of mobility by the population, accusing
it of ruralist conservativism. Focusing on the sufferings and failures generated by the rural
exodus, as the product of anti-popular political decisions implemented by the government,
the communists, in the opinion of Compagna, showed continuing consideration of the rural
exodus as a calamity produced by failure to implement the agricultural reform, whether seen
as expulsion or escape.” (Lacaita, 2007, p. 107).
10. We use the term “terrone” with reference to a person, even though its use as a substantive
is invalid.
11. See https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campania#/media/File:Terra_di_Lavoro_nel_%27700.
jpg (visited April 2016), for the reproduction of the map Terra di Lavoro, Olim Campania
Felix, by Giovanni Antonio Magini, 1620.

88
 In effect, the Campi Laborini, which had already been mentioned by Pliny,
generate the medieval use of Liburia and Terra di Lavoro (from Leborini, who
were the ancient inhabitants of the area), so even in origin the root “Terra”
refers to territory12. The history of words is also referred to by Galasso when
he says, with reference to the Campania region, that it is: “[…] a creature
closer to history than to Geography” (Galasso, 1978, p. 10). A claim of this
kind by a geographer is rare, and it is also rare for a geographer to distin-
guish the two disciplines, but sometimes it is necessary where the root is so
old; necessary even at the risk of falling into the stereotype of History as
a list of dates and Geography as a list of names. This said, Sarappa (1917)
announced, in the title of his book, that he wanted to report geographic,
historical and sociological notions, identifying the province of Caserta as
the “Terra di lavoro”, even while granting formal precedence to Geography
(and it wasn’t a matter of alphabetic order because, if it had been, sociology
would have come before History, the Italian words being Sociology and
Storia)13.
So how did we get from Pliny to the “terroni”? Do we all have Gadda
Syndrome? We hope Roscioni won’t be offended if we simplify the linguis-
tic baroque nobility.
Morphologically, “terrone” stems from terra, but terra is synonymous
with territory which, in Geography, is not soil. Consequently, the lexical
path is rather twisted.
One of the small natural remedies against Gadda Syndrome is to resort to
the methodological proposals made by some promoters (of hard sciences14
and more), granting themselves narrative release. A Short History of Nearly
Everything is a suggestion by Bryson which has numerous pros and a rec-
ognisable educational utility but, in this case, it is interesting for us to look
at the negative aspect of stereotypes (a problem which has severely blocked
the formation of solid scientific protocols methods during the history of
mankind). “In 1787, someone in New Jersey—exactly now seems to be
forgotten—found an enormous thighbone sticking out of a stream bank at a
place called Woodbury Creek. The bone clearly didn’t belong to any species
of creature still alive, certainly not in New Jersey. From what little is known
now, it is thought to have belonged to a hadrosaur, a large duckbil- led dino-
saur. At the time, dinosaurs were unknown […]. Unfortunately, Wistar failed

12. See the entry under “Terra di Lavoro” in treccani.it/enciclopedia/terra-di-lavoro/.

13. See the entry under “Terra di Lavoro” also in treccani.it/enciclopedia/terra-di-lavoro_
(Federiciana)/.
14. See the claim by Hedges (1987, pp. 443-444, passim).

89
completely to recognize the bone’s significance and merely made a few
cautious and uninspired remarks to the effect that it was indeed a whopper.
He thus missed the chance, half a century ahead of anyone else, to be the
discoverer of dinosaurs. Indeed, the bone excited so little interest that it was
put in a storeroom and eventually disappeared altogether. So the first dino-
saur bone ever found was also the first to be lost. That the bone didn’t attract
greater interest is more than a little puz- zling, for its appearance came at a
time when America was in a froth of excitement about the remains of large,
ancient animals. The cause of this froth was a strange assertion by the great
French naturalist the Comte de Buffon […] that living things in the New
World were inferior in nearly every way to those of the Old World. America,
Buffon wrote in his vast and much- esteemed Histoire Naturelle, was a land
where the water was stagnant, the soil unproductive, and the animals without
size or vigor, their constitutions weakened by the “noxious vapors” that rose
from its rotting swamps and sunless forests. In such an environment even
the native Indians lacked virility. “They have no beard or body hair,” Buffon
sagely confided, “and no ardor for the female.” Their reproductive organs
were “small and feeble.” Buffon’s observa- tions found surprisingly eager
support among other writers, especially those whose conclu- sions were not
complicated by actual familiarity with the country. […]” (Bryson, 2003, pp.
57-67, passim).

4.1.2. Identifying variable parts of the model

Example

The cartographic reading of the territory has to change and adapt, but
cannot be separated from its history, and it is not possible to ignore certain
stereotypical visions that say so much about reality, in terms of its percep-
tion by the masses. “Recent experiences of pure and applied research on
the territory have revealed the increasing need to uses antique toponymical
and cartographic sources, which have only been consulted so far in an orna-
mental or erudite way. There is now a universal awareness that the territory
is a complex reality, a real programme of nature and history, the product of
stratifications […] of the soil over time” (Aversano, 2007-8, p. 5).
Think, for example, of the functional similarity between the Tabula
Peutingeriana15 and the contemporary plan of an underground railway

15. See the reproductions of the various sheets at http://www.romancoins.info/Tabula-Peutin-

90
system, both representations of landmarks, lacking in proportional design
of areas and distances. As happens to all everyday items, the function of
cartographic representation (hardcopy) has a considerable effect on its
form, determining its perceptive identity. It is neither strange nor bizarre,
in introducing students to the history of cartography for example, to claim
that GPS descends from the Tabula Peutingeriana, along the hereditary axis
of the road atlas. The plan of an underground railway system, therefore,
has genetically inherited the elongated eye of the Tabula, the linearity of
the connections between stops, landmarks and junctions, cartographic sym-
bols as it were. If we read any description of the Tabula, all we have to do
is remove the toponymical indications and a couple of other things to see
how this description adapts perfectly to the explanation of the plan of an
underground railway system. “The only thing that is missing from the doc-
ument that we have today is the extreme western part of the Empire, part of
Britannia and the Iberian Peninsula, both definitely reproduced originally,
but lost even before the medieval reproduction. […] In the Tabula there
is a representation which embrace the whole world known to the Ancient
Romans (Europe, Asia, Africa), which presumably extended from the Pillars
of Hercules as fare as the far eastern regions well beyond the border of the
Empire (India, Burma, Ceylon, the Maldives and China (Sera Maior), the
country of the Seres. […] failure to show Britannia, Northwest Africa and
the Iberian Pensinsula leads us to assume that there was a segmentum […]
presumably lost […]. The need for the cartographer to present the pluricon-
tinental drawing of the geographic reproduction of the Empire on a single,
easily transportable scroll […] led to the use of an ideal horizontal line as
reading reference […]. It is important to point out that this doesn’t want to
be a physical geographic map, but a road map, with the maximum reduc-
tion of those physical features that are not interesting in terms of roads,
such as seas, mountain chains, large forests and deserts. […] it is not a real
cartographic document (based on precise proportional ratios […]), but a
road itinerary which prioritises the reporting of the road system, with indi-

geriana.html, (visited April 2016). See the descriptive pages in Carli (2013): “The itinerary
map known as the Tabula Peutingeriana, discovered in 1507 by the German humanist Conrad
Celtes (1459-1508) is now kept in Vienna (Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Codex
Vindobonensis 324), and is an essential document for the history of antique cartography, be-
ing one of the most complete examples of itineraria picta still existing today. […] while the
only version of the Tabula that has been conserved is a 13th century copy produced in Ger-
many-Bavaria […], scholars agree that the copyist made only very slight changes […]. The
peculiar form of the parchment scroll is also of particular interest: made up of eleven sheets,
it is 7.4 metres long and just 37 cm wide […].

91
cation of the most important stations and towns, leaving out the geographic
elements […]. The cartographer wanted to give […] the exact distances
between one town and the next […]. This “tourist” information was given
with the written or drawn indication of the presence along the route of minor
and major towns, spa centres or stations where caravans could stop off […]”
(Valentini, sd).

Paradoxically, the missing part of the Tabula is perhaps the most inter-
esting (cf Valentini sd, cit.). What has been passed down to us over time
is information that has to be interpreted, a status of the object on which
to reflect. The loss of the segment containing Britannia and the Iberian
Peninsula (Bosio, 1983, pp. 86 and 149, passim) can be an example of how
drawing apparently obvious conclusions can be misleading; in the case in
question, the missing part was likely that most used.

The identification and perception of self in relation to other is the first

instrument for the orientation of man, as we are ironically reminded and
shown by Tsvetkov (2013), in the introduction to the dissertation on prej-
udice. An exhilarating dissertation on prejudice opens the first volume of
the Atlas: “Before the Italian poet Girolamo Fracastoro invented the word
syphilis during the Renaissance, people referred to the famous disease using
a variety of other names. The Italians, the Germans and the Polish called it
the French disease, while the French named it the Italian disease. The Dutch
insisted it was the Spanish disease. On the other side of the continent, the
Russians were convinced it was the Polish disease. The Ottoman Turks to
the South weren’t as pedantic and simply called it Christian disease. I bet
Treponema pallidum, the bacterium that causes syphilis, cannot distinguish
the ethnicity of the organisms it invades. […] History is a strange creature.
It has the amazing ability to blind us with our own reflection when we peek
over its deep mysterious waters. Many of us drown in it just like the mytho-
logical Narcissus, whose infatuation with his own beauty was stronger than
his survival instincts. Those who don’t know history may be bound to repeat
it. But even people who know it may follow the same fate if they interpret
it exclusively in their own favor. Inevitability aside, in the end, all it takes
to be less prejudiced is to exercise our brains a little bit more often. If we
refuse to accept the prêt-a-penser ideas which are constantly regurgitated in
endless PR campaigns and advertising agencies, and take responsibility for
our own choices, we will not only minimize our snap judgments but ulti-
mately improve our way of life. In an interconnected global society, where

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information flows faster than thoughts, prejudices can turn out to be just a
side effect of intellectual laziness.” (Tsvetkov, 2013, pp. 10-15, passim)16.

The sublimation of this Ego in the maximum aspiration of the so-called

civilised man (religion) leads to the description of territories on the basis of
a very personal and highly crystallised vision that the author indicates as
a series of paradoxes (see the two books by Tsvetkov, 2013, 2014). In the
specific case, perception is filtered by a “spiritual” conditioning. The (very
pleasant) reading of the two atlases by Tsvetkov would be enough to convey
meaning to the history of cartographic prejudices, and consequently the
temporal cage of models17.

Many of the formal stereotypes are generates within the cartographic

and landscape spheres, two sectors closely linked and interrelated, because
the visual memory determines the majority of the landmarks in our thought.
One of the simplest ways to analyse (or teach) the role of stereotypes is to
use examples taken from the figurative arts, looking not much at artists like
Escher (evidently much more interested in the surreal than the real), as at
painters like Gonsalves18 who look for magic in things that are real, insisting
on the representation of very simple objects which almost always refer to
components of a landscape and which, combined in various ways, lead to a
different and just as common landscape19.
The spell cast by reality (some people include Gonsalves among the
exponents of magic realism20, but this is not the place for a historical-artistic

16. See the fun representation of self in Tsvetkov (2013, p. 11), also visible at atlasofprejudice.
com/contemplating-prejudice-a302ebfa9135#.fhwtnbf7r (visited April 2016).
17. See the exhilarating Europe according to the Vatican, in Tsvetkov (2013, p. 31), also visi-
ble at http://alphadesigner.com/mapping-stereotypes/ (visited April 2106).
18. The works of Gonsalves can be seen at http://www.demilked.com/magic-realism-paint-
ings-rob-gonsalves/, (visited April 2016).
19. See also the comments of the artist in Gonsalves (2015).
20. “Rob Gonsalves is a famous Canadian artist whose works are recognizable for their magic
realism and well-planned optical illusions. One image melts into another and comes back
again full circle, playing with our minds by creating irrational dream worlds. Gonsalves has
been interested in drawing since he was a kid. By the age of twelve, he already demonstrated
masterful technique and a good understanding of architecture and perspective. After he found
out about the works of Salvador Dali and René Magritte, he turned to surrealism himself and
has never looked back since.» (demilked.com/magic-realism-paintings-rob-gonsalves/). «Rob
Gonsalves is one of my favorite contemporary painters. His unique style and perspective are
just so simple and yet so complex that I just find myself lost in his work. His paintings tell
multiple stories, with the line between them gradually fading and making the viewer jump
back and forth between the images. Is there one reality, or are there more? Gonsalves’ art
explores that question. Although Gonsalves’ work is often categorized as surrealistic, it dif-
fers because the images are deliberately planned and result from conscious thought. I think

93
assessment) is based on objects of the landscape that are deeply interiorised,
on associations of ideas that are universally taken for granted, and lastly, on
stereotypes. Among the five senses, sight is the easiest to use to communi-
cate and learn, not because it’s the most “powerful” but simply because our
contemporary civilisation is developed on appearances, image and exteriori-
ty in ways and for reasons that are entirely random, as proven by the incred-
ible capacities for compensation manifested by people who lose their sight.
Those who can see, perceive sight as a series of stereotypes and imprecise
(when not completely incorrect) convictions, as we are reminded, to mention
a famous name, by the neurologist Sacks (1995), with his narrative style that
is so much more appealing than that of many professional storytellers. “[…]
Isn’t any experience required in order to see? Isn’t a certain amount of learn-
ing necessary? […] The 17th century philosopher William Molyneux, whose
wife was blind, asked his friend John Locke this question: “Let’s imagine a
man born blind and now an adult, who has been taught to distinguish a cube
from a sphere using touch and who is now given sight; would he be able,
before touching them… to distinguish them and say which is the sphere
and which the cube, using sight alone?” Locke considered this problem in
his An essay concerning human understanding (1690) and decided that the
answer to the question posed by his friend had to be no. In An essay towards
a new theory of vision (1709), examining the matter in greater detail and
considering the problem of the relationship between sight and touch, George
Berkeley concluded that there was no necessary link between the tactile and
visual worlds, and that a connection could be established only on the basis of
experience.” (Sacks, 1995, pp. 160-162, passim; the italics have been used
by the Author).
It is hard to calculate the educational/didactic effect of illustrations and
all too often they are chosen at random, for pure ease, as in the well-known
story of the cycle of Nasrudin21: A man saw Nasrudin searching for some-
thing on the ground in front of his house. “What have you lost, Mulla?” he
asked. “The key,” answered Mulla. They both got down on their knees to
look for it. After a while, other man asked: “Where exactly did you drop
it?” “In the house.” “Well then why are you looking for it here?” “Because

the term “Magic Realism” describes his work accurately; it shows just how magic mundane
things can be, and what beauty lies in the most common environments. His ideas come from
the external world, and while most of the elements in his pictures area easily recognizable, the
illusions he creates are often hard to comprehend. Many of his paintings also seem to send out
a message, speaking out to the viewer.” (Mihai, 2015).
21. As we all know, there are numerous declinations of the name, as there are accompaniments
by worthy titles, but this is not the place to discuss them; we only wish to mention the other
spelling “Nasreddin”, for which reference should be made to the text by Fiorentini (2004).

94
there’s more light here than in the house.” We too, like Mulla Nasrudin, look
for things where there is more light. And we keep on going round in circles,
chewing circular, repetitive matters and thoughts over and over again, never
getting anywhere” (Phillips, 1999, p. 10)22.
Scientific literature in every sector is full of mistakes, multiplied by the
random nature of certain choices, and reiteration generates a constant phil-
ological imbalance (exponentially augmented by the advent of information
technology, which sometimes makes us nostalgic for the locus desperatus,
the crux desperationis, and every sign of non-place to proceed with recon-
struction, if for no other reason than because it interrupts the generation of
errors). Illustration is often considered to be mere decoration and caption a
bother which can sometimes be avoided.

Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn

It was not the Sicilian lemon groves (while being the real and powerful
Sicilian farming landscapes), but the lemon greenhouses of Garda that were
first seen by Goethe23. Yet the seductions of Trinacria are mentioned and it
is of them that we think when considering the verses of the poet, despite the
fact that he wrote about lemons from Garda and Limone del Garda24. This is
just a small example of a stereotype of geo-literary memory.
And it isn’t a matter of philological-literary issues: obviously he visited
Garda first, but his direct inspiration didn’t necessarily have to follow a
route dictated by the map. Our teachers talk to us about poetic license from
primary school onwards, with the roses and violets of Giacomo Leopardi
in the foreground when teaching us to grant more philo-logical space to
artists. So, Goethe was free to remember Italy and its image(s) in an order
which didn’t take into account time, latitude and the fatigue of the journey:
“13 September 1786. The morning was magnificent, slightly cloudy, but
calm when the some rose. We passed Limone, with its gardens and terraces
climbing up the mountain slope; a spectacle of wealth and grace. The whole

22. The version reported by Phillips (1999) is quoted because he was a child psychotherapist,
expert in that part of the identity and learning that concerns the moment between pre-school
and school age.
23. An attentive eye on form and substance: “The format is immediately retransformed and
we, if we want to acquire a living perception of nature, must stay mobile and plastic, following
the example given to us by nature herself.” (Goethe, 2008, p. 43).
24. hotelilma.it/limone/Limonaie.html

95
garden was filled with rows of white, square quadrangular pillars set a
certain distance apart, climbing the slope of the mountain, in steps. Above
these pillars there are strong posts to cover the trees, that grow in the gaps,
during winter. The slow pace of the crossing allowed the observation and
contemplation of this delightful spectacle” (Goethe, 1965, p. 76)25.
Experts on Sicily and matters linked with its landscape quote the famous
verse by Goethe Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn as referring to
Sicily.
Barilaro (2008, p. 103) quotes the famous verses by Goethe which
sing of the land of lemons, as a symbol of being Sicilian, using the trans-
lation “terra” for Land, but mistakenly reporting the position in the work
Italienische Reise, while the verses are pronounced by Mignon, in Wilhelm
Meister: “Know’st thou the land where lemon-trees do bloom? /And orang-
es like gold in leafy gloom, /A gentle wind from deep blue heaven blows,
/The myrtle thick, and high the laurel grows! /Know’st thou it, then? /Tis
there! ’tis there! /O my belov’d one, I with thee would go! /Know’st thou
the house, its porch with pillars tall, /The rooms do glitter, glitters bright
the hall, /And marble statues stand, and look me on: /What’s this, poor
child, to thee they’ve done? /Know’st thou it, then? /Tis there! ’tis there!
/O my protector, I with thee would go. /Know’st thou the mountain bridge
that hangs on cloud? /The mules in mist grope o’er the torrent loud, /In
caves lie coil’d the dragon’s ancient brood, /The crag leaps down and over
it the flood: /Know’st thou it, then? /’Tis there! ’tis there, /Our way runs; O
my father, wilt thou go!» (J. W. Goethe, Know’st thou the land where lem-
on-trees do bloom? 1795- Translation from J. W. Goethe, Wilhelm Meister.
Apprenticeship, for the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, 1917)26. The chain
of stereotypes is interesting, perfectly in harmony with a German stereotyp-
ical view of Italy27.

25. There are blogs discussing the subject; see cantierepoesia.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/

conosci-la-terra-dove-fioriscono-i-limoni/.
26. «Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn, /Im dunkeln Laub die Goldorangen glühn,
/Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht, /Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht? /
Kennst du es wohl? Dahin! /Dahin möcht’ ich mit dir, /O mein Geliebter, ziehn. /Kennst du
das Haus? Auf Säulen ruht sein Dach, /Es glänzt der Saal, es schimmert das Gemach, /Und
Marmorbilder stehn und sehn mich an: /Was hat man dir, du armes Kind, getan? /Kennst du es
wohl? Dahin! /Dahin möcht’ ich mit dir, /O mein Beschützer, ziehn. /Kennst du den Berg und
seinen Wolkensteg? /Das Maultier such im Nebel seinen Weg, /In Höhlen wohnt der Drachen
alte Brut; /Es stürzt der Fels und über ihn die Flut. /Kennst du ihn wohl? Dahin! /Dahin geht
unser Weg! /O Vater, laß uns ziehn!» (J. W. Goethe, Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen
blühn – 1795).
27. See also the considerations of Trovatelli at http://berlinocacioepepemagazine.com/conos-
ci-il-paese-dove-fioriscono-limoni/.

96
 It should be remembered that: “The cultural contaminations that have
occurred throughout history in the rural economic organisation of Sicily
have contributed to creating a particular image of its farming landscape,
which offers us fragments of its history, capable of illustrating the age-old
relationship between the land and society.” (Barilaro, 2008, p. 104). In part,
Goethe himself suggests thinking of Sicily, reading about the lemons; all
you have to do is give a quick look at Google and consider the wide variety
of quotations for Italien ohne Sizilien macht gar kein Bild in der Seele: hier
ist erst der Schlüssel zu allem28, obviously in Italian, often rough, almost
always second or third hand, but this too is seductive and not just from
the philological point of view. It seems that the Germans love Sicily more
than the Italians do, but it also seems that Italians love Goethe more than
the Germans do, spending a lot of time interpreting Mignon’s words like a
thought focused on one Italic latitude or another, looking at Southern Europe
from a Teutonic angle.

4.2. Project, model and technological representation

(by O. De Paoli)

The reflections contained in the following pages seek to reconcile the

elements proposed on the previous pages by Anna Rosa Candura, and the
methods of graphic representation that the architectural project uses in its
capacity as conceptual model.
The subject of these reflections is the process of methodological approach
that the use of CAD has determined since its introduction, a generation ago.
CAD systems make it possible to design within 2 or 3D mathematical models
and, since their release, have made it possible to technically further the control
of design with respect to previous manual drawing methods. CAD systems are
also the biggest expansion in the trans-scalar process (Landini, 1999) made
by GIS, ending up representing the greatest technical and theoretic connec-

28. Southern Italy in particular strikes our traveller, who finds powerful seductions in Sicily,
so much so as to lead him to state, in his report dated 13 April 1787: “Italien ohne Sizilien
macht gar kein Bild in der Seele: hier ist erst der Schlüssel zu allem” “Italy, without Sicily,
leaves no image in the mind: this is the key to everything”. Again, Sicily plays a key role in
the cognitive and re-cognitive journey that Goethe passionately completes upon returning
to Germany, leaving expressions in some architectural works, as well as in his writings and
drawings.” (Lugeri, 2012, p. 7). See also the translation into Italian: “Senza veder la Sicilia
non è possibile farsi un’idea dell’Italia. È in Sicilia che si trova la chiave di tutto” (Without
seeing Siciliy, one cannot formulate an idea of Italy. It is in Sicily that the key to everything
lies) (Barilaro, 2011, p. 123).

97
tion between Architecture and Geography. The history of cartography is the
history of research into algorithms and projects aimed increasingly at drawing
the planet in a manner as close to reality as possible29; like in the passage
from the excess of cartographic symbolism (while essential in objects such as
the Tabula Peutingeriana and all travel maps) to a more structured search for
models of information that would allow safer oceanic explorations, now we
are progressing from 2D portrayal to 3D, which portrays space and reality
using methods which are still in the assimilation phase.
These words don’t aim to present computer aided design tools, which
have already been well covered and acquired. Their intention is to consider
the awareness by users of the effectiveness of the 3D model.
In the minds of more traditional designers, there is still a strong pre-
domination by the 2D model, which spoils the functionality of 3D infor-
mation, which is more complete, both in geometrical-mathematical terms
and as regards reality. In this case too, it is a matter of avoiding what A. R.
Candura calls “unchangeable chains”, deriving from that anxiety to apply
well-summarised models in the contribution by Rocca (2013), starting from
the classic example by Christaller.
The use of 3D (and subsequently parametric) systems, expands the pre-
dictive possibilities of design.
In particular, the angle from which we wish to see the matter is that of the
possible evolutions in terms of overall assessment of design choices.
The reflections that we propose are based on the concept of technical
drawing in its characteristic as a model which simulates reality. The term
“drawing” in this case, is used in its meaning as a method for scientifi-
cally describing the elements designed, creating a mathematical model. In
this sense, to remind us how the link between model and reality cannot be
“caged” in a single discipline or in a single disciplinary area, A.R. Candura
cites the passage on hard sciences (Hedges, 1987,) and the intellectual ste-
reotypes that have accompanied history (stereotypes that Hedges confutes
“scientifically”). For the same reason, A.R. Candura looks at the contri-
bution by Marco Grimaldi and his pungent reflections on the umpteenth
attempt (this time by Odifreddi30) to discuss the non-scientific and cosmo-
logical non-cultural nature of Dante Alighieri.
A scientific model is the portrayal of something from reality, reproduc-
ing the fundamental aspects and features: these, in turn, have to be based
upon precise facts obtained by applying a method which guarantees con-

29. See also the comments by Candura (2001, pp. 587-8, passim).
30. leparoleelecose.it/?p=20665

98
trollability and objectivity. In these terms, architectural design is rightfully
part of the scientific model family and this why we are going to look at the
matter in further detail here. It is on this point, the belonging of architectural
design to the broader category of scientific design, that we intend to open
areas of reflection.
Reflection on signs and symbols related to language (which began in
the Seventies in linguistics) can offer inspiration for assessing the reach
of innovation determined by the computerised simulation systems used in
architecture. We can claim, without worrying that we’ll be contested, that
every society, even the most civilised, has developed its culture around the
signs and symbols that it has produced during its evolution. The function
of signs and symbols has always been expressed in an attempt to convey
rational order to the complexity of reality; since ancient times, man has
tried to attribute sense and meaning to even the most mysterious and least
comprehensible aspects of the reality around, in order to dominate them,
placing the most obscure aspects in comprehensible categories. In their often
inappropriately used meaning of “something which stands for something
else”, sign and symbol are confused and used as synonyms. In actual fact,
there is a quite considerable difference between them: the sign, a minimal
unit of expression, indicates a correlation between significant (the sensorial,
phonetic or graphic element) and significance (the conceptual element – the
mental image) of an immediate and precise type, so it has an eminently
informative value. The symbol, on the other hand, can be considered a sum-
mary of signs which, placed in a particular form, expresses a conventionally
accepted meaning; while the sign is synthetic and can be immediately rec-
ognised through the sensorial image, the symbol contains various signs in its
construction and requires and analogical association to be recognised (having
an evocative value). The considerations on the use of programs that enable
increasingly detailed simulation of reality allow the observer to interact with
the virtual reality which becomes, in practice, an alternative relative just like
the objective reality. The mathematical model that the computer enables us
to create is not just a reproduction similar to reality, it is becoming more
and more its reflection. “Consequently, models are not mere illustrations
to “see things better”, but forms with an ontological capacity, according to
which it becomes possible to see things. In practice, the interpretative model
used, besides describing the aim as precisely as possible, also determines the
intellectual and sensitive placement and induces metaphorical aspects. The
part of the model seen as metaphoric expresses aspects that cannot yet be
explained using a technical language but have already been shared due to the

99
innovative character that often distinguishes the abstractions in their initial
phase. In the case of design, considered as a scientific model, the system of
symbols that makes it up is now changing, along with the subject of design,
reality itself, which is constantly and rapidly evolving.
In practice, the action of designing using highly effective computerised
systems like those available today has already generated a cultural develop-
ment of process which designers often use almost without being aware of it.
For a systemic reading of this cultural transferral process which we place at
the basis of the design process, we can identify two ways of modelling real-
ity: one analogical and one metaphoric. The former is the objective element
deriving from the essential technical choices linked to socio-environmental
problems in which every specific project is positioned. The latter expresses a
much simpler portrayal of reality, in that it contains the subjective element of
the designer’s creativity. Now because designing meaning “looking ahead”,
casting a glance at the future, the two aspects mentioned above have to be
accompanied by innovation. Among the various meanings of the term “inno-
vation”, the one we use here associates the creative spirit of design with the
widespread knowledge of the need to operate according to criteria of envi-
ronmental sustainability. Every innovation in this sense has to be calibrated
to the conditions of the context in which it is placed and related to the single
intervention with a prompt check on the local requirements and contextual
control over relations with the environment as a whole31.
The modelling enabled by today’s programs makes it possible to bring to
this controlled environment, or mathematical model, the design theories that
are verified in real time, while the designer is working to change or generate
solutions and new elements. A field in which the greatest predictive capacity
by the architectural project is needed is that of environ- mental design. In
particular, the last decade has highlighted two weaknesses. On one hand,
the difficulty encountered by western societies in tackling the problem of
productive degrowth and, on the other, simultaneously, insufficient attention
to the overall environmental matter. Among the many different formulas
that can be used to bring the construction sector closer to environmental
requirements, it would be easy to indicate strategies or instruments of con-
trol the application of which should solve the stalemate currently affecting
the sector. There are two significant elements: firstly, design, in its capacity

31. A matter that the sector of Italian Architectural Technology has been tackling for over
three decades, introducing and developing the requirements-based approach method which, as
things stand, is the basis on which to organise the design activity in which technological/en-
vironmental components take precedence over traditional technical/compositional elements.

100
as a model which is increasingly similar to reality, should incorporate, in
the meta-design phase, more prescriptive indications which pragmatically
explain all the elements that will be defined in the subsequent development
phases of the design process. Secondly, we propose the need to flank the per-
formance-related approach, already acquired as theoretic knowledge, with
feedback systems to help with the further sequences of design. This type of
control, which is unusual in Italy but very common in the UK and US, envis-
ages checks on consistency between the initial programming logic and the
subsequent technical developments, through to the verification of the parts
of work produced during the constructive phase. This way of operating, if
applied correctly to the production process, could lead to a result in agree-
ment with the explicit and implicit needs of customers and, in more general
terms, to the satisfaction of the pre-set environmental requirements. But, as
we said, it would be too simple to suggest that these two elements alone can
allow a better rationalisation of the productive activity of the construction
sector which would simplify the distribution of innovative components and
systems and virtuous attitudes. The unresolved issue that prevent the results
of the research carried out during the last decade from being exploited by the
sector lies in a series of problems that come from other directions. What we
are dealing with here, and what could enable an improvement in the relation-
ship between needs and the finished construction product, can be described
as the limited capacity of design (and of the action of designers) to dissem-
inate a prepositive environmental culture. We can restate the need to update
architectural design, assigning it scientific value as a metaphoric reference
model which can allow the management of a new quantity of information
necessary to tackle today’s complexity. To achieve this result, the method
could consist in structuring the actions after the initial hypothesis into design
matrices; this could take place via a more radical use of the possibilities
offered by current information technology, incorporating the greater needs
imposed by the current socio-environmental change into a single, complete
control instrument (technologically aided design). However, while this state-
ment is consistent with current market requirements, it cannot be classed as
original, if not in the proposal for use of the information technology that has
evolved over the past five years in the direction of simulative capacity; in
consolidated technological culture, many different proposals for the upgrade
of design sequences have been formulated and divulged over the years; the
point on which we propose further reflection consists in the current possibil-
ity for incorporating the parametric information technique that is currently
expressing real possibilities of evolution, becoming a tangible method for

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verifying design and allowing, in the model building phase, the verification
of the real performance that the product of the design will be able to supply,
into the design practice.

4.3. Bibliography
AA.VV. (2001), Tutto su Sierpinskij, 15 volumes, Frescobaldi Editore, Firenze.
Andreotti G. (1994), Ipotesi sui concetti di paesaggio geografico e di paesaggio culturale,
in Caldo C. e Guarrasi V., ed., Beni culturali e geografia, Pàtron, Bologna, pp. 39-57.
Augé M. (1993), Nonluoghi: introduzione a una antropologia della surmodernità,
Eleuthera, Milano (original ed.: Non-Lieux, Seouil, Paris, 1992).
Aversano V. (2007-2008), Manifesto del Car. Topon. St. (Laboratorio di Ricerca e
Didattica di «Cartografia E Toponomastica Storica»), in STUDI del LA.CAR.
TOPON.ST. Laboratorio di Cartografia e Toponomastica Storica, 3-4, Gutenberg
Edizioni, Salerno, pp. 5-8.
Barilaro C. (2008), Il paesaggio agrario tra processi di trasformazione e ricerca
di identità, in Castiello N., ed., Scritti in onore di Carmelo Formica, Università
degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Dip. di Analisi dei processi ELPT, Sezione
Scienze Geografiche, Napoli, pp. 103-114.
Barilaro C. (2011), “Il ruolo della Sicilia nel processo unitario italiano”, Studi e
Ricerche socio-territoriali, Napoli, 1: 123-148.
Bertani S.G. (2015), Il letterato Darwin. La scrittura dell’evoluzione, Editori
Riuniti university press, Roma.
Bignami G. (2013), Il mistero delle sette sfere. Cosa resta da esplorare: dalla
depressione di Afar alle stelle più vicine, Mondadori, Milano.
Bizzocchi M. (2015), “Laura Di Fiore, Marco Meriggi World History”, Storia e
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5. Raster to vector: towards a live associative model
Matthew Claudel, Marco Maria Pedrazzo, Niccolò Suraci

5.1. Introduction

The practice of architecture is defined by tools for representation.

Every project is a sequence of aggregating information, synthesizing
insights and representing a product. The deliverable is one step abstracted
from concrete: architects do not deliver buildings, but produce a set of draw-
ings that describe the design proposal.
Architectural practice can be understood as a language for communi-
cating spatial ideas, and the process hinges on the representational tool.
Christopher Alexander, a mathematician, linguist, and architect, first sug-
gested that the building profession should focus explicitly on the organi-
zation of information and the relationships between stakeholders. Through
projects such as ‘Pattern Language’, Alexander contended that the prima-
ry task of the architect is to circulate information, and that his purview
should encompass the means of transfer as much as the information itself.
Criticizing the traditional “tree” structures of spatial reasoning (Figure 1,
top), Alexander suggested a novel open-concatenated structure, what he
referred to as a “semi-lattice” (Alexander, 1964) (Figure 1, bottom).

In this case, each successive decision is tied to every other, in layered net-
works of associations and contingencies. Even if the process of developing
a ‘procedural fabric’ gets interrupted before the construction, the amount of
information embedded in the network of relationships between stakeholders
is maintained. It is effectively a non-spatial response to the architectural
design brief, based on stakeholders inputs and perceptions.

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Fig. 1 - Diagram representing the semi-lattice structure of the city, in “A city is not a tree”
by Christopher Alexander , Courtesy of Center for Environmental Structure

Here, the relationship between architect and stakeholder is problem-

atized. The stakeholders’ point of view, pre-existing the architectural
intervention, is an ex-ante ‘data’ that defines the project from its outset.
Each public dissemination of architectural information (renders, schematic
design, etc) impacts on the original generative data – in other terms, creating
a design solution to a brief changes the nature of the brief itself. A familiar
example at the urban scale is decision-making based on real-time urban data.
Current information about the state of the metropolitan transport system
affects individual mobility decisions, which in turn define the state of the
overall system.
In the same way as transportation providers are developing new tools
to leverage real-time information, architectural practice must acknowledge,
appropriate and respond to the abundance of spatial data coursing through
the contemporary city. The built environment is poised to become respon-
sive and dynamic, with the integration of new materials, fabrication meth-
ods, operational ‘software,’ and most importantly, networked platforms for
incorporating a broader spectrum of stakeholders into the design process.
The challenge is to enmesh every stakeholder into the entirety of the process,

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such that each design decision is linked to its input data and output implica-
tions. But if the discipline of architecture is to undergo such a radical shift,
it will need new representational tools – ones that democratize input and
dynamically manage a complex matrix of contingencies, akin to Alexander’s
‘semi-lattice’ concept. This platform – what we refer to as a live-associative
model – may radically reconfigure the architect’s relationship to informa-
tion, stakeholders, and builders, ultimately transforming the process and
products of architectural design.

5.2. Raster design

Architecture practice is highly technical. The building production chain

involves a large number of specialists concerned with individual stages and
aspects of the process. Representation tools transmit knowledge between
and across all of the actors involved. Building information technology has
evolved over time, from verbal and manual communication to physical doc-
uments to digital files, as a function of technical complexity and the number
of actors involved.
Etymologically, the root of achitect is tekton, “builder,” the person
responsible for every aspect of construction. In early history, there was no
need for codified models or drawings – the builder could construct the object
as he conceived it. Any project, of course, would involve many hands, each
guided by shared practical knowledge of construction. Rather than a plan,
the builder was directed by “the thoughts and hopes of men passed away
from the world which, alive within his brain, made his plan take form; and
all the details of that plan are guided, will he or will he not, by what we call
tradition, which is the hoarded skill of man handed down from generation
to generation” (Morris, 1969). Over time, as complexity increased, the role
of the architect became that of a master builder, coordinating the effort and
integrating the various areas of expertise of each actor in the building pro-
cess.
The roles of architect and builder remained fluid while design schemes
were shared by word of mouth and a common understanding of tradition.
Even if building projects lasted longer than a generation, the work could be
carried on – as in the case of Chartres Cathedral.
During Renaissance, Leon Battista Alberti theorized the distinction
between the one responsible for drawing a space – the architect – and the one
responsible for physically constructing it (Alberti, 1485). It became an intel-

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Fig. 2 - Accumulated knowledge in design process, over time (expressed in drawing itera-
tions)

lectual and practical distinction between professions. The designer required

pedagogical, cultural and mathematical preparation, while the builder devel-
oped practical experience.
Building complexity has increased exponentially over time, enlarging
the rift between designer, builder and user, and introducing an ever-in-
creasing number of technical specialists involved with any given project.
Today, building projects encompass entirely new figures, both specialists
and process managers. As the number of steps between concept to object
skyrockets, representation has correspondingly shifted from “architectural
drawings” to “building site documents”.
This introduced a multitude of new challenges and scenarios – liability,
for example, is carefully partitioned between different stakeholders accord-
ing to input and responsibility. In the United States, the American Institute
of Architects (AIA) established that, while the final construction sheets con-
stitute a legally binding document, the architect nonetheless has no control
over the means, methods, techniques and procedures of construction, and is
therefore free from liability1.

1. In many ways, representation defines the conception of the object itself. Architects build
what can be drawn and draw what can be built (Mitchell M.J., 2001).

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 Representation is a tool for communication, for transferring the design,
at any stage of development, between different stakeholders in the building
process. At each transfer, the design must be consolidated and approximated,
resulting in some degree of error. It follows that a greater number of passag-
es introduces a greater danger of distortion. As buildings become more com-
plex, collaborative and heterogeneous, there is a crucial demand for accu-
racy in representation and transfer, to minimize the the loss of knowledge.
Traditionally, every spatial element can be defined by a cartesian data
structure. Mimicking its origin in pencil and paper, standard architectural
representation media is bidimensional. For example, a line is defined as a
series of points with (x,y) coordinates – coordinates that refer to a universal,
‘container’ grid. Three dimensional digital drawing tools add another axis –
and a certain computational complexity – but the underlying data structure
is unchanged. Points are described by three values, (x,y,z) with respect to a
gridded ‘container box,’ and surfaces can be described as a ‘mesh’ of points
with interpolated planes.

Fig. 3 - Relationship between objects in CAD

A cartesian system of this kind is effective for rendering objects in three
dimensions (indeed, it is the basis of most CAD software), however, intro-
duces problems for editing. Taking as an example the system in Figure 3:
the circle in (1) can be moved by editing its x-y coordinates, resulting in (2).
The line pointing to the center of the circle, would, however, be affected by

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Fig. 4 - Relationship between objects in associative modelling

this edit. Moving the circle modifies the role of the line – to maintain it, the
original line must be deleted, and a new line must be drawn to the center of
the new circle (3-4). This system can be thought of as a ‘raster’ drawing:
elements are compositions of points, defined through coordinate-based
positioning.
We argue for a new data structure – one based not on the definition of a
point with respect to universal, gridded container space, but one based on the
definition of relationships between features. In this case, revision is contin-
gent. A line is defined not only as a graphical object, but as a ‘live’ element,
including relational features to associated elements2.

5.3. Vector design

In contrast to a raster design structure, a vector design concept can be

defined as a representation tool in which every relationship between objects
is defined, independent of a base coordinate system.

In such a model, every edit to a given object affects all of the related
objects in the system. Using the previous example (Figure 3), editing the
coordinates of the center point would cause an update of the line geometry,
such that it remains associated with the center of the circle – provided that

2. Note that standard CAD drawing does not per se affect the output generation, which limits
persist into their printing, representation media into raster manufactures. In this sense, there
is no real difference from a CAD software and a technigraph.

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the relationship between line and circle is explicit as the drawing was built.
Relationships can be managed in a cascading hierarchy of contingencies,
such that returning to a previous state does not necessarily eliminate the
edits that were committed subsequent to that state.

This system of drawing and design development is more time consuming

at the beginning, involving not only the definition of base geometries but
also of the relationships between elements and the hierarchies among those
relationship. However, as a project develops, growing in complexity and
number of contributors, subsequent edits will be faster and will preserve the
embedded knowledge of each contributor. There is no loss of information,
and there is no risk of returning to ‘square one’. A representation of effort
versus time in the design process demonstrates the shift from exponential
increase (Beck’s curve) to gradual decline (Bohem curve), in which the
majority of time is invested initially, to create, frame, and define relation-
ships between the elements of an associative model.

Fig. 5 - Effort curve in the process across different design phases, CAD drawing vs associ-
ative modelling

According to this basic conceptual structure for design development, it

will be possible to generate not only two and three dimensional objects, but
complex systems that involve time (4D) and cost (5D). Because objects are
defined not as a group of pixels, but as a feature with associated datasets, it is
possible to link them with any data matrix (nthD). Any data can be reduced
to a numerical/boolean value can be part of the computation leading to a
certain design, including social and environmental parameters (Pentland,
2014), as well physical and structural properties (Pinker, 2016).

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 The core concept of vector design – also known as associative design and
modelling – has already been effectively implemented in the naval industry.
In this case, the exchange of information between design, engineering and
fabrication departments is not enabled by visual representation in physical
documents. There are no rolls of blueprints. Project information – specifical-
ly, heterogeneous technical information generated by individual specialists
– is consolidated and integrated in an associative 3D model. Naval design,
modeling, and fabrication involves extremely complex geometry (for exam-
ple, physical profiles based on simulations of fluid dynamics and structural
integrity) and a low tolerance for error3. Buildings, today, are approaching
this level of sophistication – whether unprecedented heights, ecological
resilience, exotic form, new programmatic functions or integrated technol-
ogies for dynamic operation – a complexity that demands a new approach
more similar to naval engineering than architectural project documentation.

Just as in ship-building, the adoption of a live associative model may

enable the productive integration of heterogeneous knowledge inputs. To
date, this has been precluded by the constraint of representation and com-
munication - the effort required to consolidate and portray the entirety of
a project, compounded with the loss of information when it is transferred
and re-contextualized in another technical domain, impeded all but the
most crucial transmissions. But an associative model dramatically reduces
the time and cost of successive edits, and integrates information into the
representation (to the point that it defines edits). If a broader variety of
stakeholders and specialists are implicated in the design, fabrication, and
construction processes, an open associative model may arrive at more
refined and effective solutions. Every design iteration layers knowledge
into the design object.

In his Tokyo Hillside Terrace Complex, Fumihiko Maki implemented

a similar concept in its logical extreme. The project began in 1969 and
expanded in six iterative phases, until its completion in 1992. Maki inte-
grated feedback loops into a protracted workflow: upon completion of each
individual phase, the architect aggregated public response before beginning
the subsequent phase. Every iteration was influenced by continuous change

3. The expertise of boat builders have been widely surfed by the avantgard of parametric
design. As a reference, see the realization of the Restaurant Georges by Gehry, “the boat
building company produced their own model and shop drawings. Working with them was an
interesting experience since they had all the required technology (...) the technology was there
years before we came along” (Kolarevic, 2005, p. 269).

113
in the surrounding circumstances. Maki’s approach placed a strong emphasis
on the relationship of the “part” to the “whole”, and an awareness that the
relationship between project and population is dynamic and co-generative.

To a certain extent, every design process (architectural, creative or entre-

preneurial) follows a similar iterative sequence, but extensive feedback and
response is associated with unprofitable procrastination of the final delivery
(and an associated loss of revenue). For efficiency, the project must shut off
public input, and at a certain point, the project must end, despite the vision
of a perfect result.

5.4. Dream and failure of a perfect software

If the relationship between elements becomes explicit, it becomes much

easier to productively integrate interventions from a variety of contributors.
It also follows that individual elements of a project – code or design – can be
transposed between different projects. A given feature can be ‘plugged in’ to a
another project, through re-defining the linking relationships.
As such, the integrated modeling software can become a collaborative tool
similar to Github, in which the crowd publishes pieces of design/code which
can be downloaded, integrated or iterated as a branching tree.
This points to the vision of a perfect platform, one that (1) takes into
account every possible input (whether building physics, environmental, social,
experiential, economic or legal); (2) allows every relationship among those
inputs to be defined, and optimizes the final result. It is theoretically possible
to design a collaborative tool of this kind, which maximizes the symbiosis of
human ingenuity and digital computation. It is only a matter of time.
To succeed in creating such a software would bring the profession of archi-
tecture to an inflection point, requiring a profound reconsideration of the role
of the architect. If any and all data streams and user inputs can be merged into
the design process, and systematized by the software to achieve an optimized
result – what purpose does the design professional serve?
This could be thought of as ‘artificial intelligence’ in the field of design.
Any given set of inputs, has a corresponding idealized building4.

4. Following the same logic, we could imagine responsive emergency shelters, environmen-
tally optimized houses for specific microclimates, and even dynamic urban planning: if every
relevant piece of information can be understood and categorized, the perfect software could
be a perfect solution to the problem of the governance of the city. The conclusion is a sort of
data-driven spatio-sociology.

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 To a certain extent, this was the ambition of a project called Flux, the first
and only spinoff of Google X. It was conceived by Eli Attia, an architect who
built his reputation through decades of high-profile projects and teaching: the
landmark skyscraper at 101 Park Avenue in New York (with Philip Johnson
and John Burgee), lecturing at Harvard, Columbia and MoMA and taking on
projects from Seattle to Tel Aviv “blending his love for architecture and his
love for mathematics to come up with highly innovative geometric designs
in his buildings” (Greer, 1982). Pivoting away from traditional design, Attia
sought to revolutionize the process of architectural design itself. One central
software could link every possible geospatial database at the scale of the city,
from zoning to utilities to surrounding structures, to compute a building out-
put. He pitched the idea to the world’s largest information company – Google
– in 2010, and it was taken up by the Google X team to build an initial demo
software. Attia’s idea was the very definition of a ‘moonshot’: a bold idea,
a visionary lead, and an ambitious plan to reshape one of the world’s fun-
damental industries. The software developed into a success – becoming the
only Google X project to spin off with an independent business model – but,
unfortunately for its originator, the new venture, Flux, was launched without
Attia. It also had a subtle but decisive conceptual pivot. The original goal of
automated and optimized architecture was to create a basic input-output sys-
tem that could dramatically reduce the cost of architectural production, but it
soon became evident there was no need in the building professions, and it was
not relevant in practice. The first project of Flux was to produce a software
(Flux Metro, launched in October 2015), that identified the boundaries of what
is possible to build according to legal parameters, zoning, and environmental
characteristics, rendering possible scenarios according in 3D according to
different programs. It was no longer an automated design-production software
but a tool to quickly test possible scenarios and identify the most desirable
result. The architect still maintains full control over the process and product
of design, in a traditional sense.

Flux is now producing a software that integrates a series of possible

design input, (including CAD drawings, Building Information Models,
parametric design scripts, raw datasheets) and allows for constant updates
in a collaborative virtual environment. Every participant in the project can
commit edits, using a workflow very similar to Github.
Unfortunately, at the state of art this software remains a specialized tool
for experts in the field, preventing to citizens a direct access due to a high
technological barrier.

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Fig. 6 - Flux software screenshot

5.5. (A)Live associative model

The live associative model could engender an entirely new category

of architectural design tool. Its basis on associative design development
meaning that it is capable of linking different elements of a project to other
elements and to specific sets of inputs. The core underlying structure could
conceivably lead to a wide spectrum of different tools, but is defined by
three main disruptive characteristics:

• There are explicitly defined dynamic relationships between project

elements and external attributes, such as site characteristics (urban
positioning, building laws, environmental aspects, climate, shad-
ing…);
• There are explicitly defined dynamic relationships among project
elements internally, which accelerate design iteration and enable input
from a wide spectrum of participants;.
• Knowledge is cumulatively preserved by eliminating consolidation,
representation and transfer. Furthermore, design iterations are chron-
ologically embedded in the development process, as an aspect of the
relationships between elements.

The totality of a design project is live, meaning that the software enables
and orchestrates real-time updates across different professionals working

116
on the same object. Each participant brings a different background, skill
set and knowledge base, and all are integrated within a collaborative virtual
environment. It is an evolving system that enables organic design develop-
ment, rather than arriving at a single optimized and calculated result. Being
live and alive, it enables mutation, iterations, and evolution. The role of the
architect remains central and crucial: to ignite, guide and ultimately ter-
minate the design process. The trained professional must decide what data
inputs to accept, which stakeholders to solicit (and at what phase), which
changes to commit, and, most importantly, at what point the project is com-
plete. The architect maintains a vision, while a wide spectrum of specialists
dynamically any synergistically contribute revision.

5.6. Bibliography

Alberti L.B. (1485), De re aedificatoria, accuratissime impressum opera magistri

Nicolai Laurentii Alamani, Firenze.
Alexander C. (1964), “A city is not a tree”, < http://www.bp.ntu.edu.tw/wp-content/
uploads/2011/12/06-Alexander-A-city-is-not-a-tree.pdf>, visited June 2016.
Deutsch R. (2014), “Google’s BIM-busting App for Design and Construction”.
<www.bimandintegrateddesign.com/2014/10/24>, visited June 2016.
Flux (2016), “Flux: sustainable architecture at scale”, <www.flux.io>, visited June
2016.
Greer W.R. (1982), “A new style is making its mark”, New York Times, March 7th,
New York.
Kolarevic B. (2005), ed., Architecture in the Digital Age: Design and Manufacturing,
Talyor&Francis New Ed edition, Abingdon UK.
Maki F., (1964), Investigation in Collective Form, Washington University, St. Louis.
Mitchell W.J. (2001), Roll over Euclid: How Frank Gehry designs and builds, in
Ragheb J.F., ed., Frank Gehry, Architect, Guggenheim Museum Publication,
New York, pp. 352-363.
Morris W. (1969), cited in LeMire E., ed., “Gothic Revival II” The unpublished
Lectures of William Morris, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, p. 85
Pentland A. (2014), Social Physics. How good ideas spread - the lesson from a new
science, Penguin, New York.
Pinker D., “Kangaroo”, <www.grasshopper3d.com/group/kangaroo>, visited June 2016.
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June 2016.

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 PART II
Design, product and process:
tools and digital practices
6. Combining Pattern theory with Spatial Multi-
criteria Analysis for urban planning. The case of
a neighborhood renewal in Turin (Italy)
Aurelio David and Alessandra Oppio

Abstract

Urban planning today is more arduous than it was some decades ago.
Globalization and some of its main dynamics are intensifying changes on
the economic and social structures taking place in cities. As such, cities
have been long considered as complex, open multidimensional systems
which growth and transformations are difficult to manage in virtue of two
issues inherent to the current conception of planning itself. Firstly, goals
of planning are not objective, clear and a-political, but rather socially con-
structed trough processes of dispute among several players with conflict-
ing interests (Flyvbjerg, 1998). Secondly, planning is a “wicked problem”
(Rittel and Webber, 1973) subject to a more or less degree of uncertainty,
meaning that both problems definition and solutions are unclear and their
effects cannot be fully predicted. This situation results in the unreliability
of traditional rational-comprehensive approaches to support spatial trans-
formation, and calls forth innovative methodologies to cope with such
dilemmas by providing a solid rationale for decision makers, especially in
the intelligence phase of planning processes. The article proposes the use
of an open source software based on graph theory to bring together Spatial
Multicriteria Analysis and the Pattern Language design methodology. The
Spatial Multicriteria Analysis allows a solid support for territorial anal-
ysis, goal definition and scenario simulations by integrating Geographic
Information Systems tools with Multicriteria techniques, while the Pattern
Language theory provides an explicit and intelligible set of spatial instruc-
tions embedding multiple levels of knowledge to inform all the players
involved in the decisional processes on how to plan the city. The two the-

121
ories can be coupled together because of the specific structure of Patterns,
which allows design specifications to be constantly edited and subjected
to quantitative analyses.
The methodology is presented in the first part of the article, with a special
focus on the integrated decision tool and its features. In the second part, it is
applied to a case-study of neighborhood regeneration in Turin (Italy), with
the aim of underlying the potentiality of evaluation as support for urban
development processes.

6.1. Introduction

Urban planning today is more arduous than it was some decades ago.
Globalization and some of its main dynamics are intensifying changes on
the economic and social structures taking place in cities. As such, cities have
long been considered as complex, open multidimensional systems (Jacobss,
1964) which growth and transformations are difficult to manage in virtue
of two issues inherent to the current conception of planning itself. Firstly,
goals of planning are not objective, clear and a-political, but rather socially
constructed trough processes of dispute among several players with conflict-
ing interests (Flyvbjerg, 1994). Secondly, planning is a “wicked problem”
(Rittel and Webber, 1973) subject to a more or less degree of uncertainty,
meaning that both problems definition and solutions are unclear and their
effects cannot be fully predicted. This situation results in the unreliability
of traditional rational-comprehensive approaches to support urban develop-
ment processes, and calls forth innovative methodologies to cope with such
dilemmas by providing a solid rationale for decision makers, especially in
the intelligence phase of urban planning.
The article proposes a new design methodology to address the multidi-
mensional nature of planning problems by providing a visual decision-mak-
ing support tool.
In particular, the GEPHI tool, an open source software based on the graph
theory, has been introduced to bring together Spatial Multicriteria Analysis
and the Pattern Language design methodology. Spatial Multicriteria Analysis
allows a robust support for territorial analysis, goal definition and scenario
simulations and evaluation, by combining Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) with Multicriteria techniques, while the theory of Pattern Languages
provides an explicit and intelligible set of design recommendations on how
to plan cities and buildings.

122
 The two theories can be effectively integrated because of the many
conceptual and structural analogies between graphs and Pattern Language.
Furthermore, the specific structure of Patterns allows design specifications
to be subjected to quantitative assessments.
The chapter is organized in two sections. The first one focuses on the
theoretical backgrounds of the methodology, namely the Multicriteria anal-
ysis and the Patterns theory (Alexander, 1977) (Paragraph 2). The GEPHI
tool and its most relevant features are later introduced (Paragraph 3). In
the second section, the proposed methodology is applied to a case-study of
neighborhood regeneration in Turin, Italy (Paragraph 4), with the aim of
underlying the power of integrated decision support tools for urban plan-
ning. Finally, starting from the results of the application, the Paragraph 5
discusses strengths and weaknesses of the proposed tool, while pointing out
possible future research issues.

6.2. Background

6.2.1. Multicriteria Analysis and urban development: a literature

review

The introduction of evaluation into planning processes has been described

both from a theoretical and a practical point of view (Lichfield, 2001;
Khakee, 1998), with reference to the purpose and the scope of planning eval-
uation, and to its methodological innovations and improvements (Khakee
et al., 2008). The increasing attention placed on the process for developing
urban plans and on the effects of the planning choices underlines the com-
plexity of taking into account numerous data, information and objectives as
basis for identifying a set of possible solutions, as well as their consequenc-
es. Under this perspective, planning processes should be seen as decision
processes. Starting from the analysis of strengths and weaknesses of cities
and territories and passing through a crucial phase of problem structuring,
planners effectively define needs, objectives and forecast the outcomes of
the strategies in order to identify the optimal choice, to be implemented and
monitored (Las Casas et al., 2012). Along with this sequence of activities,
evaluation plays a double role: on the one hand, it provides a rational support
for facing the complexity and improving the robustness of decisions, and on
the other hand, it allows to verify the effectiveness and soundness of choices
by increasing their transparency and enhancing collective learning processes
(Bentivegna, 1995).

123
Table 1. Summary of literature on Multicriteria Analysis and urban development:
Approaches, Authors’ perspective and Decision problem.

124
 No. Authors Field of application Evaluation criteria
1 Feng and Xu (1999) Urban development Environmental development
Social development
Economic development
2 Hemphill et al. (2004) Urban regeneration assessment Economy and work
Resources
Building and land use
Transport and mobility
Community benefits
3 Bottero and Mondini (2008) Urban transformation Environmental sustainability
Relation with landscape
Socio-economic sustainability
4 Placa-Rocha et al. (2011) Urban planning Land use
Vulnerability of acquifers
Soil type
Slope
Distance to roads
Distance to urban center
Geotechnical risk
Distance to hospitals
Aspect
Distance to commercial centres
Distance to industry
Distance to population
Transport networks nodes
5 Kropp and Lein (2012) Urban sustainability assessment Mass-Transit Access
Recreation
Community connectivity
Social interaction
Habitat protection
Historical sites
Bownfields
6 Herranz-Pascual et al. (2013) Urban planning Management and Administration
Urban structure
Territorial trends
Economic trend
Transport system
Context
Quality of life
7 Chrysoulakis et al. (2013) Urban planning Environmental sustainability
Social sustainability
Economic sustainability
8 Wang et al. (2013) Planning of Sub-urban Protected Areas Poverty
Governance
Health
Education
Natural hazards
Atmosphere
Land
Freshwater
Biodiversity
Economic development
Consumption and production patterns
9 Riera Pérez and Rey (2013) Urban renewal Resources
Site and architecture
Health and comfort
Land and landscape
Infrastructures
Building concept
Investment costs
Communal life
Identity
Viability
Security
Energies
Water and waste
10 Loconte et al. (2013) Urban planning Priority
Users
Environmental Evaluation
Accessibility and Usability Evaluation
11 Del Giudice et al. (2014) Urban renewal Territorial presence index
Accessibility
Transport system
Neighborhood roads system
Environmental compatibility
Users
Occupancy

Table 2. Summary of literature on Multicriteria Analysis and Urban development: Application

and Evaluation criteria.

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 Within this context the Multicriteria evaluation approach seems to be
adequate since it investigates several alternative strategies in the light of
multiple criteria and conflicting priorities, ensuring to planning procedures
to be flexible, open and as much comprehensive as possible (Voogdt, 1983).
In order to provide an overview of the most recent scientific papers about
the use of Multicriteria evaluation techniques in the field of urban develop-
ment, Table 1 highlights the evaluation approach, the authors’ view about the
proposed evaluation approach and the decision problem.
Most of the authors stress the importance of the flexibility of
Multicriteria evaluation approaches for combining different evaluation
techniques (Feng and Xu, 1999; Plata-Rocha, 2011; Kropp and Lein, 2013;
Crysoulakis et al., 2013, Del Giudice et al., 2014). The different natures of
the decision problems structured and solved by the use of a Multicriteria
approach highlight its capability to face the complexity of urban planning
and development.
Furthermore, Table 2 puts in evidence the domain of application and
the criteria used to perform evaluation. As it emerges from the broad set
of criteria, the Multicriteria evaluation approach allows to deal both with
quantitative and qualitative issues, referred to the environmental, social and
economic dimension of urban development.

6.2.2. Alexander’s Pattern Language

In 1977, a group of researchers from Berkley led by Christopher

Alexander published A Pattern Language: Towns, Building, Construction,
a compendium of 253 design specifications to allow readers to build their
environment at various scales: from regional organization of settlements to
the internal arrangement of lights and doors of single houses. Alexander’s
diagnosis of the failures of contemporary practices in architecture and urban
planning lied on the abrupt paradigm shift in the process of design which
took place around the time of the industrial revolution, which he extensively
describes in The Timeless Way of Building (Alexander, 1979). Instead of a
process of construction based on fixed ends drawn in abstract blueprints, as
typical of modern praxis, he proposed a generative one, inspired by tradi-
tional ways of building and grounded in loose design specifications, piece-
meal growth and adaptation to local context.
The fundamental entity of the theory is the Pattern, a design recom-
mendation to guide architects in the production of space. “Each pattern

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describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment,
and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way
that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it
the same way twice” (Alexander et al., 1977). Each pattern is composed
of three fundamental parts: (1) the statement of a generic recurring prob-
lem, (2) a discussion and (3) the statement of a spatial solution to solve
the problem. Furthermore, patterns are described including hyperlinks
that connect them to others, if a relationship of mutual support exists.
For example, pattern – #127 - Intimacy gradient –, describes a potential
situation of conflict concerning the concept of privacy: “Unless the spac-
es in a building are arranged in a sequence which corresponds to their
degrees of privateness, the visits made by strangers, friends, guests, cli-
ents, family, will always be a little awkward” (p. 609). The conflict has a
social nature, but can be reduced to certain spatial features. A discussion
provides evidence for such claims (pp. 610-612) and a spatial solution of
the problem is proposed: “Lay out the spaces of a building so that they
create a sequence which begins with the entrance and the most public
parts of the building, then leads into the slightly more private areas, and
finally to the most private domains” (p. 613). For a better resolution of
the problem set by the pattern, one could subsequently implement other
patterns, like: – #141 - A room of one’s own – (to give each family
member an independent room, in order to strengthen individualization)
or, when dealing with non-residential buildings, – #149 - Reception wel-
comes you – (which goal is to make a person feel at ease when entering
offices or hotels) and – #152 - Half-private office –.

The entirety of patterns forms a language, the Pattern Language.

Before discussing why and how a theory proposed in the late seventies
can address current urban planning issues, some of its most important
aspects will be highlighted below. First and foremost, the number and
formulation of patterns is neither fixed, nor pre-determined. Alexander
himself negates the existence of one unique language. Because of their
structure made of three explicit parts, patterns can be collectively dis-
cussed, edited and generated. For example, the problem statement of the
Pattern described above may not be precise enough or simply not valid
for certain cultures with a different sense of privacy. Second, patterns
are data structures designed to embed knowledge and best practices from
different contexts. From an intellectual point of view, their implicit goal
is to contribute to the construction of an explicit, shared and open culture

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of design. Third, patterns are organized as a hierarchical network based
on levels of spatial scales, and their potential manifests only when con-
sidered within their system of relationships. No pattern exists alone, but
only in relationship with others. This principle governs the way patterns
should be practically used for design.

6.2.3. Pattern theory and urban planning today

In order to understand how the Pattern theory has influenced contem-

porary urban planning, it’s crucial to distinguish the Pattern Language as a
methodological framework for praxis from the underlying theory that serves
as its intellectual background. On the one hand, patterns have hardly (if
ever) adopted as design methods outside planning experiments conducted by
Alexander and his colleagues at the Centre for Environmental Structure of
Berkley. The Oregon Experiment (Alexander et al., 1975) narrates the pro-
cess of construction of the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene,
characterized by users’ involvement for the design of patterns and their
gradual implementation. In The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth:
A Struggle Between Two World-Systems (Alexander et al., 2012), the authors
describe another major experience of pattern design for the construction of
the Eishin Campus in Japan during the 80s. The book highlights the reasons
why Patterns could not find easy and wide application among planners: a rig-
orous application of a Pattern-based design methodology requires a different
planning system than the contemporary (Western) one, based on normative
prescriptions and fixed legal procedures (Davis, 2006). Instead, patterns had
a stronger impact on several other disciplines, notably in software design
(Beck and Cunningham, 1987), pedagogy and creative learning (Rising
and Manns, 2005; Iba, 2010) and business (Braga, Germano and Masiero,
1999). On the other hand, the intellectual substrate behind Patterns had a
far greater impact on our contemporary understanding of cities, especially
for what concerns mathematic-oriented ones, such as complexity theories of
cities (CTC) and urban coding and Spatial Syntax. In Complexity Theories
of Cities Have Come of Age (Portugali et al., 2012), Batty and Marshall
recognize Alexander as one of the forerunners in decoding the city as a
complex organism which evades top-down, linear, mechanical planning and
calls forth new models of organization, sensitive to co-adaptation, evolution
and bottom-up initiatives (Batty and Marshall, 2012). Similar approaches
mimic laws governing natural, sustainable systems, instead of artificial,

128
mechanical ones and over the years they have found theoretical support by a
new understanding of the act of planning and the role of planners, notably by
the work of Rittel and Webber (1973) and their concept of wicked problems.
“Planning problems are inherently wicked. As distinguished from problems
in the natural sciences, which are definable and separable and may have
solutions that are findable, the problems of governmental planning -and
especially those of social or policy planning - are ill-defined; and they rely
upon elusive political judgment for resolution. (Not ‘solution’)”.

Thanks to the development of theories and methods for decision mak-

ing, as well as software advancement, the Pattern Language can provide
an interesting subject to be investigated for addressing contemporary urban
planning issues. In particular, because patterns allow intra-disciplinary dis-
cussions and provide straightforward specification for designers and build-
ers, they encompass two crucial dimensions of planning: decision making
and design.

6.3. The methodological framework

6.3.1. Spatial Multicriteria Analysis

Over the last few decades the role played by information technology into
the planning processes has evolved, shifting from data-oriented information
systems in the 1960s to the intelligence-based systems in the 1990s and
beyond (Klosterman, 2001; Malczewski, 2004). As shown by the Table 3,
according to different rationality paradigms, in the 1960s most of the atten-
tion has been paid to rigorous computer-based data and models. In the 1970s

Time Planning perspective Information Rationality

technology
1960 Applied science Data oriented information Instrumentla
approach systems rationality
1970 Political process Information management
oriented perspective systems
1980 Communication Knowledge-based and
Knowledge decision support systems
1990 Collective-design Intelligence-based systems Communicative
rationality
Table 3. Evolving perspectives in planning and information technology (Source: adapted
from Malczewski, 2004).

129
a political process oriented perspective explains the relationship between
planning and society. The emphasis put on the socio-political dimension
of planning has been strengthened throughout the 1980s, and as such, the
importance assigned to values and preferences has progressively increased.
Consistently with this evolving perspective, the role of planner has changed
from being a technical advisor to a facilitator of processes of interactions
with experts of different field of research and with the public (decision mak-
ers, stakeholders, local communities, governments, etc.).

Given the instance of taking into account not only data but also sub-
jective judgments, views and attitudes, Spatial Decision Support Systems
(SDSS) has been introduced with the aim of aiding decision-makers to
tackle unstructured problems characterized by high level of uncertainty and
complexity. Within this context, the use of GIS combined with Multicriteria
Decision Aid (MCDA) techniques provides an evaluation framework for
integrating geographic data, represented by different maps, and decision
makers’ value judgments in order to explore and solve spatial decision
problems. By combining the two different areas of research, the Spatial
Multicriteria Decision Support Systems (MC-SDSS) allow both to store,
manage, analyze, visualize spatial data for decision making and to design,
evaluate and prioritize alternative choices, supporting group decisions in
addition to the individual ones (Jelokhani-Niaraki and Malczewski, 2012).
Despite these two fields have been developed separately, in the recent years
the exploration of their synergies is growing more and more, as it emerges
from the literature on land-use management, spatial analysis and spatial
planning (Beinat and Nijkamp, 1998; Ferretti, 2013).
Regional and urban development processes are typically considered
poorly structured, multidimensional decisional problems, because they tend
to neglect the coexistence of conflicting and complementary objectives, both
quantitative and qualitative. Investigating the trade-offs between develop-
ment alternatives in light of multiple, spatially distributed criteria is thus a
crucial concern for planners.
From a methodological point of view, the use of MC-SDSS involves the
following three main steps: 1) the intelligence phase is aimed to the analysis of
the context in order to define the decision problem on the basis of classification
of weaknesses and opportunities. During this step, objectives and criteria are
defined to consider the degree of achievement of each objective; 2) the design
phase focuses on the development and analysis of possible alternative inter-
ventions; 3) the choice phase refers to the evaluation and selection of alter-

130
natives. Within this step, sensitivity analysis is generally performed in order
to test the robustness anthe stability of results, providing useful recommen-
dations; 4) the evidence phase has to be considered as the overall system of
data, information and knowledge for planners, decision makers, stakeholders
and analysts (Simon, 1947; Sharifi and Rodriguez, 2002; Ferretti et al., 2014).

6.3.2. Pattern language and Gephi

In order to visualize the Pattern Language, Gephi, an open-source soft-

ware based on graphs analysis and management, has been introduced. A
graph is a representation of a set of distinct, interconnected objects, which
main entities are nodes and edges. Because of the conceptual analogy with
the structure of a Pattern Language, it is possible to consider patterns as
nodes, whereas edges represent the connections. In order to model the Pattern
Language in the virtual space of Gephi, one must first prepare and then
import two electronic data tables with any spreadsheet application: one with a
list of all nodes, named after the patterns they are meant to represent; another
with all the necessary connections among patterns. In our case, because of
the experimental nature of the research, the hyperlinks suggested in the book
A Pattern Language (APL) have been used. As a result, a digital database of

Figure 1. The interface of the “Data Laboratory Section” of Gephi, with the list of Patterns
organized in lables decided by the authors: Area, Scale, Type, Topic, Petal, Imperative, Goal.
(Source: adapted from Anselmino, David and Oppio, 2015)

131
patterns represented in two ways – graphic and tabular - has been obtained,
as the following two images display (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2).
Figure 1 provides an overview of the interface of Gephi, named “Data
Laboratory Section”. It contains the list of patterns and the various columns
of attributes one can add to give a stronger identity to each pattern. This
process of labelling is crucial to exploit all the most important features of
the software which are described in the next paragraphs. The following table
describes the attribute assigned to the scopes of the following research. They
were decided to mimic a designer’s point of view who wants to differentiate
the Pattern Language with respect to each design task he/she may undertake
in his/her profession.

Lable Description Source

ID The identification number of the Pattern A Pattern Language
Area The decisional area of influence of the A Pattern Language
pattern
Pattern The name of the pattern A Pattern Language
Scale The scale to which the pattern should be Personal interpretation from
applied. Landscape, Neighborhood - defi- A Pattern Language
ned as two or more buildings - or Building
Type The building typology to which the Pattern Personal interpretation
is related (i.e. Office, Residential, etc.). If
the pattern refers to more than one typo-
logy, it is labelled “All Types”
Topic The sub-category within each Type. (i.e. Personal interpretation
Building scale: Staircases, Physical
Distribution, Structure)
Table 4. Description of the lables used in Gephi to characterize patterns, as well as the ref-
erence source.

Petal, imperative and goal are tags of a different nature; they are crucial
to bridge Multicriteria analysis with the patterns themselves, and will be
described in Paragraph 4.

Figure 2 exhibits the graphic viewport. Patterns are represented by

circles, while their connections, the edges, are highlighted by lines. A
very important concept of graph theory related to the concept of edge is
its weight, representing the depth of the relationships among nodes. The
software accepts inputs of weight for each edge and it keeps track of the
information by rendering a difference in the thickness of the lines. For the
purpose of this research, we assumed that connections among patterns are of
the same importance, and thus we assigned a value of 1 to each edge weight.

132
Figure 2. The graphic viewport of Gephi (left) with the analytical panel for calculating the
percentage of patterns according to their type (right). (Source: adapted from Anselmino,
David and Oppio, 2015)
Graphic tools for data analysis
Among the most important features of Gephi there are a variety of tools
implemented to interact with the network of patterns. We explored ways to
make use of these tools in order to (1) simulate the behavior of designer with
standard practical needs and (2) to gain important insights about the pattern
language itself, thus testing the power of the software to adapt to both ana-
lytical and action-oriented functions.
As an example, we can assign colors to each pattern with respect to the
scale they are related to. In the picture above, for example, green circles
are patterns involved in Landscape organization and design, the blue and
red ones are related respectively to the neighborhood and building realm.
Statistical information about the topology of the language can be highlighted
through other analytical tools embedded in the software, like the Partition
Tool (See Figure 2, right).
Furthermore, the size of patterns can be automatically scaled in propor-
tion to some specific features. In the figure below, the size of each pattern
depends on the in/out linkages with other nodes. Bigger circles are located in

133
the center, close to other sharing a similar high number of connections, while
the smallest ones are floating outside, linked to two or three other nodes.
Through differences in color and dimension, a new order in the pattern lan-
guage emerges, along with natural centers and “gateway patterns”, namely
patterns with many links with other patterns belonging to other scales.

Figure 3. Zoom into the Pattern Language: big nodes are those with more connection with
the overall Language.

These kinds of functions can be useful for reviewing connections among

patterns, quickly pinpointing key patterns and make sense of the whole sys-
tem in case of large numbers of patterns. Gephi provides an optimal digital
support for a better understanding of the Language which other means of
organization, like ordinary datasheets or the book itself cannot guarantee
because of two reasons.
First, a design team made of several people should be able to have access to
parts of the Pattern Language with respect to the specific task it is required to
deal with, such as urban development, the design of an office building, and so
on. If the task is to design a school, architects will most likely not be interested in
patterns dealing with streets and mobility organization. When patterns are only
253, as in the original book, the overall language is manageable with tradition-
al media. However, the same job can be arduous when the number of pattern
increases to thousands, a not so unrealistic number in a professional context.

134
 Second, the importance of a pattern within a certain category (i.e. those
related to the design of park and squares) is neither absolute nor depending
on how many connections it has, but it is contextual to the specific goals
and values of a project. This suggests the importance to visually scope just a
small number of useful patterns within their potentially huge and confusing
cloud.
The first issue is addressed in the next two sub-paragraphs, while the sec-
ond one is extensively explored in the next paragraph, where Multicriteria
Analysis is coupled with the Pattern Language thanks to some specific
functions of Gephi.

Filters
Gephi allows filtering networks depending on classes added as columns of
attributes in the “Data Laboratory Section” (see Fig. 1). In this way it is pos-
sible to reduce the number of visible patterns according to the specific design
program a designer has to undertake. Filtering does not actually remove pat-
terns, but rather hides them.

Figure 4. The Pattern Language filtered to show only patterns related to the design of resi-
dential buildings. (Source: adapted from Anselmino, David and Oppio, 2015)

135
 Figure 4 displays the Pattern Language filtered through two subsequent
filters, “Scale : Building” and “Type : Residential”. The resulting network is
simpler to scan in search for useful design specification to structure the design
of a housing project, in comparison with the cloud of circles represented in
Figure 2.
Multiple filters can be applied according to practical design needs. For
example, it is possible to filter with respect to multiple categories at one
time. The filter “topic: physical distribution” enables a designer to visualize
the sub-network of patterns concerning the internal layout of residential
buildings. The result is a graph with only few entities on display, consid-
ered relevant by the user. Filters can be added and removed, concealing and
revealing desired parts of the Language. However, an extensive adoption of
filters may result in the serious drawback of losing a system-oriented vision.

Layout algorithms
ILayout algorithms represent a second function embedded in Gephi that
allow users to master the complexity of the Language without reducing the
number of patterns. Instead, layout algorithms arrange them in meaningful,
visual layouts. In this section, three different layout algorithms are discussed
thoroughly according to both their hands-on utility and their relationship
with the Pattern Language theory.

Concentric layout

“On choosing a root node, this plugin allows you to layout the graph
such the nodes that are ‘n’ hops away from the root lies on the ‘n’th
circle” (Gephi Tutorial Layouts, 2013).
Figure 5 displays an unfiltered network of patterns for the design of
neighborhoods and buildings arranged around pattern #69: “Public
Outdoor Room”. Concentric circles represent the degree of connec-
tion between the central pattern and all the others. For example, the
inner highlighted circle is made of patterns directly connected to #69,
while the outer, transparent one contains patterns that are indirectly
connected to the central one via one pattern, and so on for each distant
circle.
This layout is useful to enrich the Language to use for a certain pro-
ject, once its backbone is decided, as recommended by the original
theory (Alexander, 1977). Indeed, this function enables to easily
spot other patterns that can complement the one in the middle. An

136
 architect who aims at designing a public space can rely on instruction
embedded in “Small Public Squares”, “Accessible Green”, “Activity
Pockets”, etc. to complete the pattern: “Outdoor Public Room”, with
patterns all conveniently arranged around it.

Figure 5. The Pattern Language arranged according to the Concentric Layout algorithm. On
the right, a zoom in the center of the circle highlights the main pattern under enquiry (“Public
Outdoor Room”) with its direct connections with other patterns.

Radial Axis layout

Radial Axis Layout arranges patterns of a certain group (e.g. design

function) in threads. The designer can thus have an overview of the
number of patterns available for their design. For example, let us
assume to design an office building. It’s possible to filter the Language
for selecting only those patterns related to the building scale and to
the office type. This layout should be applied according to the label
“topic” (see Table 4) to arrange the remaining patterns into radial axis
representing instructions on how to design the physical distribution of
an office, its structural elements, its windows, etc.
Other layout algorithms can be explored by designers with respect to
their endeavors and creativity. As far as the present research is con-
cerned, the most important layout algorithm (“Force Atlas”) will be
discussed in the next paragraph, after the introduction of the case study.

137
Figure 6. Radial axis layout.

6.4. Towards an integrated evaluation process: the case study of

the Borgo Rossini neighborhood in Turin

This section describes the application of the proposed multimethodolog-

ical evaluation framework, in order to test the validity of the evaluation tool
and to highlight its strengths and weaknesses.

6.4.1. Overview of the neighborhood and the methodology

The case study chosen for this experiment is Borgo Rossini, a vibrant
neighborhood of around 7000 inhabitants in the north-east part of Turin, the
main city of Piedmont, in Northern Italy.
The area is located close to the historic center of the city and it is char-
acterized by a peculiar mix of residential and industrial buildings, as well as
a highly heterogeneous physical and social fabric. Borgo Rossini is likely
to be subjected to several processes of transformations in virtue of its prox-
imity with Scalo Vanchiglia, one of the most prominent and large strategic
areas of urban redevelopment identified by the city-plan of the next twenty
years. In particular, the project of a new subway line with three stops falling
into the neighborhood can act as an important catalyzer to foster investments
to regenerate the area. A holistic strategy based on sustainable principles is
needed in order to properly coordinate further transformations.

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Figure 7. The case study of Borgo Rossini in context. (Source: adapted from Anselmino,
David and Oppio, 2015)

The methodology consists of the following steps.

Firstly, a set of interwoven criteria consistent with the multidimensional
concept of sustainable development has been defined as a framework for
territorial analysis and evaluation of strategies. Such criteria are organized in
a system following the theoretical principle of the Analytic Network Process
(ANP) method (Saaty, 2005) and then imported in Gephi as Core Values
(CVs). and linked to each relevant pattern as explained in Paragraph 3.2.1.
Secondly, the area has been analyzed through a spatial SWOT analysis
(Klosterman, 1997) in order to have a systematic understanding of its main fea-
tures. Such analysis is carried out through GIS maps of physical and intangible
elements derived from the set of sustainability criteria defined (Paragraph 4.2).
The maps provide an important support for the generation of scenarios of inter-
vention, as they contain useful knowledge about spatial and social features of
Borgo Rossini that can act as catalyzer for a sustainable development.
Following the ANP methodology, the relative importance of each criteri-
on has been evaluated. As a result, the two scenarios are represented as two
distinct lists of criteria associated with coefficients of relative importance
(Paragraph 4.3).
Thirdly, the coefficients associated to the various criteria have been used
as weights values for both the integration of the maps of the SWOT elements
and for the edges of the Gephi model (Pattern Language + CVs). This step
allows to identify potential areas of transformation and the essential patterns
for each scenario (Paragraph 4.4).
Finally, by inquiring Gephi via the application of filters and layout
algorithms as explained in Paragraph 3.2, a basic Pattern Language for the
design of the two scenarios has been defined (Paragraph 4.5 and 4.6).

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6.4.2. Structure of decision problem (Defining a hierarchy for the
criteria: Superdecision)

The first step of the methodology consists on building a framework of

criteria as a reference to guide the design process through all stages, from
early intelligence phases, such as the organization of territorial analyses, to
late evaluations of project alternatives. A prior review of the current rating
systems (Oppio, 2007; Parker, 2012) was carried out to understand recurring
topics of sustainability for urban and neighborhood development. Among
the various ranking system, the Living Building Challenge 2.1 (LBC) was
acknowledge as the most appropriate one for the purposes of this research.
LBC provides a general and comprehensive framework of values grounded
on seven performance areas of sustainable urban planning: Energy, Water,
Site, Health, Materials, Equity and Beauty. They are called “Petals”, and
are sub-divided into “Imperatives”. This system of Petals and Imperatives
has been used as an inspiration for selecting evaluation criteria in a compre-
hensive fashion. Because of the presence of many interdependent elements
influencing one another, the decision making problem of the sustainable
regeneration of Borgo Rossini can be modelled by the ANP (Saaty & Vargas,
2001). The selected criteria have been organized in a system of clusters and
elements according to the prescriptions of the ANP methodology. In this
example, elements are criteria of sustainable development, whereas clusters
represent the various dimensions of sustainability.

Figure 8. The decision-making network organized in clusters and elements, according to the
Analytic Network Process and as displayed by the software Super Decisions. (Source: adapt-
ed from Anselmino, David and Oppio, 2015)

140
 Figure 8 represents the overall structure of the decision making network
as displayed in the software Super Decisions. The box represents clus-
ters and include elements. The arrows represent the influences among the
various elements. For example, we argue that an urban area with a mix of
shops, residential buildings and other activities (cluster : “Equity”; element
: “Mixed-Use and Mixed-Income Development”) influences the identity of a
neighborhood (cluster : “Beauty” ; element : “Identity and Recognisability”)
and elicit a car-free lifestyle (cluster : “Site” ; element : “Slow Mobility
and Slow Life”). Likewise, within the cluster: “Beauty”, we claim that the
“cultural preservation” of cultural heritage influences “identity”, thus the
presence of a loop arrow on the respective cluster.
One of the most important aspect to notice in the network is the presence
of two distinct groups of clusters. The one containing “Beauty”, “Equity”,
“Health”, and “Site” (BEHS) is completely disconnected from the “Water”,
“Energy” and “Materials” (WEM) one because the two systems are in fact
overlapped. Indeed, the energy and water management of a city are very
important topics when addressing the issue of sustainability, as well as the
choice of eco-friendly materials to build the physical environment. However,
these aspects are independent from the rest of the system. Furthermore,
elements belonging to the cluster BEHS are referred to urban goals which
can be achieved at the neighborhood scale, while those of the cluster WEM
belong to a different one. “Water” and “energy” represent goals at the city
level, while “materials” belong to the scale of construction.
Because of these reason, the clusters of WEM have been excluded from
the experiment and the clusters belonging to the BEHS group have been
only considered to proceed with both the Gephi integration (see Paragraph
4.2.1) and the analyses and evaluation phases (Paragraph 4.3).

Integrating the ANP network with the Pattern Language in Gephi

The seven elements are loaded in the software as nodes, but unlike pat-
terns (design instructions) they are considered design goals. Because of this
conceptual relationship, nodes-patterns and nodes-goals can be connected
through edges if the implementation of a pattern contributes to the achieve-
ment of a certain goal.

The numerical value of the weight of edges depends on a qualitative,

personal assessment on the degree of relationship between pattern and core
value, as explained in the following table (Table 5).

141
 Value of the weight of the edge (range) Meaning
0 The pattern does not help in achieving the goal
1-5 The pattern is mildly suitable to address the goal
5 – 10 The pattern is strongly related to the goal
Table 5. Description of the meaning of the value range associated with each edge connecting
one pattern and one design goal.

For example, the pattern “#124: Activity pockets” suggests to “surround

public gathering places with […] small, partly enclosed areas at the edges,
which jut forward into the open space between the paths, and contain activi-
ties which make it natural for people to pause and get involved” (Alexander,
1977) in the attempt to make a square more lively. We argue that the adop-
tion of this instruction for the organization of public spaces brings about a
variety of usages (CV Mixed-use […] development) located in small, sepa-
rated places (CV Scattered functions), fostering a potential improvement in
the number and variety of social interactions among the public (CV Human
contacts and social cohesion). A qualitative assessment of how likely it is for
the pattern to achieve these multiple goals can be quantitatively translated
with numeric values from 1 to 10 to assign to each edge.
However subjective and subjected to changes, assigning proper weights
to edges connecting patterns and nodes is fundamental for achieving a clear
and understandable support system. In particular, we make use of another
kind of layout algorithm named “Force Atlas” for a goal-oriented rear-
rangement of the Pattern Language. In fact, unlike the Radial Axis and the
Concentric layout, Force Atlas is a force-directed Layout algorithm. That
means that it takes into account the weight of edges to proportionally attract
and/or repulse connected nodes. Once all the connections are reviewed, and
the layout algorithm “Force Atlas” is launched, we obtain the following
map, in which design choices (the patterns) are organized around the most
relevant goals they may serve to achieve (core values).
In Figure 9, patterns (small, light circles) arrange around the CVs (big,
dark circles) according to how strong their mutual connection is. Patterns
with stronger relationships with certain CVs cluster around them, enabling
a designer to have a more comprehensive overview of the Language with
respect to certain design goals, i.e. sustainability related ones. Because pat-
terns can be linked with more than one CV, like the aforementioned exam-
ple of “#124: Activity pockets”, they settle approximately in between such
core values. As a result, Force Atlas provides a sound order in the Pattern
Language based on a determined framework of goals.

142
Figure 9. Overview of the Pattern Language and the Core Values in Gephi as a result of the
Force Atlas layout. (Source: adapted from Anselmino, David and Oppio, 2015)

6.4.3. Spatial SWOT Analysis

A spatial SWOT analysis is carried out to identify the internal (strengths

and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) factors that are
favorable and unfavorable for the achievement of the sustainable redevelop-
ment of Borgo Rossini. The spatial SWOT analysis is organized on several
spatial features (sub-elements) belonging to the four broad thematic areas
(clusters) and the seven criteria within them (elements). A detailed list of this
hierarchy is displayed in the table below, in which the various sub-elements
are divided into the four categories of a SWOT analysis.

143
 Sub-elements
Clusters Elements
S W O T
Bus lines, bike Traffic
Slow mobility and paths, car/bike congested Metro stops *
slow life sharing roads
Site
Scattered functions Activity nodes * Ongoing *
projects
Health Local-scale nature Green Areas Downgraded * *
green
Mixed-use and
mixed-income
Equity Development * * Mixité Cemetery
adjacent lots
Human contacts
and social cohesion
Cultural
Preservation and Post-
Beauty Enhancement Post-industrial * * industrial
buildings, used buildings,
Identity and unused
recognisability
Table 6. List of Clusters, Elements and Sub-elements adopted as the conceptual framework
to carry out the SWOT analysis. (Source: adapted from Anselmino, David and Oppio, 2015)

The number of sub-elements analyzed is limited and the list lacks of

crucial socio-economic factors, such as income distribution, land value and
other typical indicators employed in the discipline of planning. The aim of
this research, however, is not to present a real, comprehensive strategic plan
for Borgo Rossini, but to test the potentials of a new, integrated methodolo-
gy. Therefore, we purposely limited the range of the analyses to focus on a
more methodological level.
The positive or negative impact on the neighborhood of each sub-element
is represented in raster maps with GIS, as outlined by Table 7.
There are two major advantages in developing a spatial SWOT analysis
with sub-elements related to the ANP framework: (1) data, information and
knowledge gathered for territorial analysis is organized on the same catego-
ries used for evaluation and (2) GIS allows operations of data manipulation
and merging which serve the purpose of this research (Paragraph 4.5).
Criterion map must be standardized in order to be comparable. Therefore,
each source map has been converted into a value map by the use of a value
function defined with experts’ judgments according to a linear approach.
This kind of value function establishes a linear relationship among criteria
scores and performance scores ranging from 0 (minimum performance) to
1 (best performance).
The following page contains an overview of the standardized maps.

144
Table 7. Description of each Sub-element considered for the SWOT analysis and its spatial
characterization (Source, Scale and GIS operation). (Source: adapted from Anselmino, David
and Oppio, 2015)

145
Figure 10. Raster standardized maps containing the spatial influence of sub-elements.
(Source: adapted from Anselmino, David and Oppio, 2015)

146
6.4.4. Ranking criteria and formulation of scenarios of intervention

After the criteria maps have been standardized, it is possible to proceed

with the weighting phase. This operation is divided in two parts represent-
ing the two different levels of any decision making process, and it is carried
out through a pairwise comparison through a scale of absolute numbers, the
Saaty’s Fundamental Scale (Saaty, 1980).

Absolute number value Meaning

1 Equal importance
3 Moderate importance of one over another
5 Strong or essential importance
7 Very strong or demonstrated importance
9 Extreme importance
2,4,6,8 Intermediate values
Use reciprocal for inverse comparison

Table 8. The Fundamental Scale of Saaty (Source: adapted from Saaty, 1980).

First, experts are asked to judge the importance of each element over any
others to which it is connected, with respect to a third element in the system
used as a reference. Then, decision makers are asked to judge the importance
of each cluster over any others with respect to the overall goal of the pro-
ject (in this case, the sustainability of the project). On the one hand, expert
knowledge and technical skills are required to assess the relative importance
of elements; on the other hand, clusters represent a strategic level and thus
should belong to the political domain, concerned also with resource alloca-
tions and policy making. In this phase, maps and other sources of knowledge
about the area are of fundamental importance for the project, as they provide
a solid support for decision makers in the setting of strategies of develop-
ment. Because of the experimental nature of the research, the authors acted
both as experts and as decision makers, and assessed the relative importance
of clusters twice to represent the two scenarios imagined for the redevel-
opment of Borgo Rossini. In the first round, a development triggered by
enhancing activities and functions in the area (scenario 1: mixite’) has been
envisioned. In the second one, the driver for the regeneration of the neigh-
borhood is the revitalization of green, public spaces (scenario 2: green). The
result of this process is a ranking of criteria processed by the software Super

147
Decisions according to the original theory of Saaty (2008). The table below
presents the ranking with a list of coefficients associated to each element.

Cluster Element Scenario 1: mixite' Scenario 2: green

Slow Mobility and Slow
Life 0.391363 0.397985
Site
Scattered functions 0.274036 0.058183
Health Local-scale Nature 0.047584 0.331198
Mixed-use and Mixed- 0.124994 0.02134
income Development
Equity
Human Contacts and
Social Cohesion 0.099913 0.038997

Identity and
Recognizability 0.030348 0.073862
Beauty
Cultural Preservation and 0.031762 0.078436
Enhancement

Table 9. Ranking of the various elements according to the two scenarios, obtained via Super
Decisions.

One of the main advantages of adopting a Multicriteria approach for

assessing the relative importance of different, intertwined elements is that
their mutual influences are taken into account in the final ranking. As such,
the complexity of the system is maintained in the decision-making support
model. This is evident if we consider that in both scenarios, “Slow mobility
and slow life” appears to be the top criterion for achieving a sustainable
future for Borgo Rossini. Indeed, the cluster “Health” was programmatically
weighted more generously in the second scenario, but since the many inflow
influences of the cluster “Site”, the element “Slow mobility and slow life”
performed better than “local scale nature” in the overall ranking. It is clear
that the ANP constitutes a powerful methodology for addressing complexity.
It keeps track and informs the design team about underlying, fuzzy influ-
ences between different phenomena, such as the necessity of an accessible,
human-scaled mobility infrastructure to sustain an increasing level of mixité
and thus, enhancing the quality and number of scattered, green spaces.

148
6.4.5. Transferring the weights of elements into maps and Gephi

Weighting maps
The next step is to aggregate in synthetic maps of positive and negative
spatial features the knowledge held by the several standardized maps of
sub-elements, according to their relative importance within each scenario.
In other words, the aim is to provide decision-makers with a synthesis of
the spatial distribution of the weighted positive and negative elements. The
Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) method is used to perform this task.
WLC considers the standardized scores of each factor together with their
own weight according to the following formula:

where Sj represents the overall value of pixel j, wi represents the weight of

factor i, and xi represents the standardized criterion score of factor i. The
evaluation criterion map layers are combined in order to determine the com-
posite maps of “positivities” (strengths and opportunities merged together,
Figg. 11 and 12, top left) and “negativities” (weaknesses and threads merged
together, Figg. 11 and 12, bottom left). Unlike standard map of synthesis,
the ones obtained embed the relative importance of each element in the
framework of the general strategy of development. Finally, it is possible
to overlap the maps of the “positivities” and the “negativities” through the
raster calculator function to obtain an overall weighted synthesis (Figg. 11
and 12, right).

Scenario 1: Regeneration based on mixité.

The maps of synthesis are intentionally biased towards to the topics of
sustainable mobility (weight coefficient = 0.391363) and mixed and scat-
tered functions (weight coefficient = 0.274036) as the two most significant
criteria of the considered scenario. The final map displays a description of
the reality of the district which is consistent with the heuristic knowledge
of the area. For example, the north-east blocks lack variety of functions
because of the presence of the cemetery and the strict regulations about
land-use of the nearby adjacencies. Furthermore, the broad street delimiting
the north-east part of the neighborhood is particularly congested during peak
hours and lacks a proper infrastructure of public transportation or bike paths.

149
Figure 11. Map of “positivities” (top left), map of “negativities” (bottom left) and map of
synthesis (right) for the “Regeneration based on mixitè” scenario of development. (Source:
adapted from Anselmino, David and Oppio, 2015)

This is also evident on the thematic maps of the most relevant elements
(Figure 10). On the one hand, the overall problem in the north sector seems
related to the big size of blocks hosting unused industrial pavilions. This
leads to a few varieties of functions and activities, as well as to problems of
mobility and accessibility. On the other hand, the south-west part of Borgo
Rossini has a more compact and multi-functional urban fabric, which would
require less attention from planning interventions as it seems to achieve the
programmatic goals of the scenario under investigation.

Scenario 2: Regeneration based on green spaces.

In this case, the maps inform the decision makers and the design team
about the state of the art of the area with a special attention to the key criteria
of the second scenario. “Slow mobility and slow life” (weight coefficient
= 0.397985) and “Local-scaled nature” (weight coefficient = 0.331198) are
those which impact the most on the overall map of synthesis. Because the
former is also the predominant criterion of scenario 1, the main differences of
the final maps are strongly related to natural spots, such as gardens, parks and
playgrounds. etc. Indeed, from a natural-centered perspective, the north-east
strip along the main road on the border of Borgo Rossini performs significant-
ly better than the central one, where red patches indicates a lack of green plac-
es. One last remark concerns the southern blocks along the north bank of the

150
river Dora (in black in the maps). The map of the “positivities” highlights an
overall positive situation, and indeed the neighborhood benefits from a modest
linear park that stretches further in other parts of the city. However, the map of
the sub-element “downgraded green”, as well as the map of the “negativities”,
inform us that almost every one of these natural areas are currently in a bad
state; hence, they are represented by yellow/red patches that need intervention.
The most critical situation is located in the most eastern part along the river,
where the bad maintenance is accentuated by the lack of active functions in the
whole blocks. The only exception to this not so good picture is the intersection
with Corso Regio Parco, in the proximity of the bridge, a symbolic entrance
point of Borgo Rossini. In this area, the presence of a thriving economy of
small business elicits a more accurate maintenance of the green space.

Figure 12. Map of “positivities” (top left), map of “negativities” (top right) and map of
synthesis for the “Regeneration based on green spaces” scenario of development. (Source:
adapted from Anselmino, David and Oppio, 2015)

Weighting Gephi
One of the underlying theoretical attempts of the present research is
to expand Alexander’s Theory of Patterns by integrating it with the ANP
methodology. Under this perspective, Multicriteria analysis is applied to the
Pattern Theory as a support for designing with patterns. Figure 9 (Paragraph
4.2.1) represents the first step in this direction, with the Pattern Language
organized in a digital, interactive tool within a framework of goals (or sub-
goals). It enables a designer to loosely pinpoint patterns according to how

151
pertinent they are to certain sub-goals, but it does not include the relative
importance of the various sub-goals for the achievement of the overall goal.
Thanks to the ranking obtained through the ANP, the relative impor-
tance of each sub-goal is explicit and, most importantly, it is expressed by
a numerical value. Because of this quantitative reference, it is possible to
modify the Gephi model to make it more accurate with respect to the hier-
archy of the sub-goals of each scenario. From an operative point of view,
this means to modify the value of the weight of the edges linking patterns
to sub-goals.
For the scenario 1: mixite’, the value of each edge connecting patterns
to the sub-goal “Slow Mobility and Slow Life” is multiplied by 3.9, those
linked with “Scattered functions” by 2.7, and so on. The operation strength-
ens the relationship between patterns and sub-goals proportionally to their
relative importance. Therefore, edges connected with the most relevant
sub-goals increase significantly their weight. Because Force Atlas layout
simulates an edge-weight-based attraction rule, patterns rearrange closer to
the most relevant sub-goal, providing the design team a more precise sup-
port tool.
The end result of this operation can be seen in Figure 13, in which pat-
terns have been filtered in order to be clear for further remarks.

Figura 13. Applicazione del layout “Force Atlas” al modello Gephi pesato. A destra, i
coefficienti di peso dello scenario 1. A sinistra, quelli dello scenario 2. (Fonte: adattato da
Anselmino, David and Oppio, 2015)

152
6.4.6. Results: defining two Pattern Languages

The final step of the methodology involves the choice of a series of

pattern constituting a Language for each scenario of intervention. From a
conceptual point of view, each Language chosen represents the backbone of
a project upon which further discussions and design choices can be based.
The following image displays two possible Pattern Languages for the two
proposed scenarios. The choice of the patterns is obtained thanks to the
Gephi weighted model, adopting all the techniques described in Paragraph
3.2, such as (1) filters to reduce the number of patterns to those pertinent
with the neighborhood scale; (2) filters to reduce the number of sub-goals
and consider only the three at the top of the ranking, and cross comparing
the selected patterns with the overall systems of sub-goals; (3) concentric
layout algorithm to determine a hierarchy of patterns logically connected to
selected key patterns. The result of this process is shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14. Pattern Languages identified for the two scenarios. On the left: Development
through mixitè. On the right: Development through green spaces. (Source: adapted from
Anselmino, David and Oppio, 2015)
The key patterns of scenario 1 are “#30 – Activity Nodes”, “#33 –
Shopping Street” and “#32 - Promenade”, which should bring diversity into
the urban fabric. Together, these three patterns suggest to develop a system
of streets with shops and clusters of activities along their edges (thus imple-
menting the pattern “#24 – Activity Pocket”). The project reflects the intent
to inject a more vibrant spatial structure for supporting the life and wellbeing
of the inhabitant of Borgo Rossini. Scenario 2 is centered around the key

153
patterns “#60 – Accessible Green” and “#8 – Mosaic of Subcultures”, as
the development of green, public spaces in the specific situation of Borgo
Rossini must go hand in hand with the enhancement of its social identities
(also (“#13 – Subculture Boundary”). Other patterns provide useful inputs
on fundamental elements to the physical design of green spaces, such as
“#25 – Access to Water”, “#170 – Fruit Trees” and “#72 – Local Sports”.
Maps provide further support about suitable location to implement pat-
terns and to develop a project coherent with the goal of sustainability.

6.5. Discussion and Conclusions

From the results previously described, the use of Spatial MCDA com-
bined with the Gephi model for supporting urban planning seem to be
an innovative field of research and practice since Multicriteria Decision
Support Systems are more often used for land suitability analysis than for
addressing urban regeneration interventions at district levels.
The concept of “pattern”, based on a dynamic network reflecting values at
stake, addresses design process towards a kind of continuous decision making
approach (Forte and Giuffrida, 2015), reinforcing the transparency of choic-
es. The use of the pattern methodology, as a framework for developing the
evaluation process, allows designers to consider not only the elements which
directly concur to achieve the overall goal of urban regeneration interventions,
but also those that indirectly have a great impact on the success of the initia-
tives. The possibility of considering direct and indirect objectives, their mutual
interactions and relative importance, represents a first answer to the instance
of comprehensiveness and flexibility in planning activities.
Furthermore, the Gephi model facilitates the relationship among plan-
ners/designers, decision makers, stakeholders and local communities by
giving the opportunity of developing and implementing decisions in an
adaptive way. Planners and designers are not merely experts, but their role is
empowered by the capability of giving information about the values under-
lying different development scenarios and their consequences in terms of
different functional organization.
The output of the research outlined also some limitations to the present-
ed methodology, which are due to the undeveloped state of research of the
Pattern Language as a design tool.
First, although patterns are central element of the methodology, their use
in design practices are neither widespread among practitioners, nor easy

154
to master. Second, the use of Gephi as an interactive repository of patterns
can express its full potential (e.g. the sorting power of filters and layouts)
only in the presence of a huge number of patterns, i.e. around 1000. Third,
the methodology is based on three independent software (GIS, Gephi and
Super Decisions) and may thus suffer from cumbersomeness. For example,
the eigenvectors obtained via Super Decisions have to be copied one by
one on the GIS’s raster formula as well as on Gephi, to establish the prop-
er weights. This slows down the overall procedure and may be subject to
errors. Therefore, the integration of the three tools in the view of supporting
design process from its early stages represent a crucial challenge for over-
coming the risk of a simple collection of methods. Under this perspective,
the assumption of an interdisciplinary approach seems to be a first manda-
tory step in this direction.

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7. Tools and methods for evaluating and designing
the perceived landscape. 3D-GIS, viewshed
analysis, big data.
Giacomo Chiesa and Luigi La Riccia

7.1. Scenic landscape

«Why are we managing scenery? So that our children and grandchildren can
enjoy the beauty and spirit of the national forests, just as we have enjoyed them»
(USDA-FS, 1995)

The recent debate on architecture, city and territory continuously refers

to the word “landscape”. Over the past decade, cultural innovations intro-
duced by the European Landscape Convention appear to be widely shared,
systematizing a subject that has been central to the international debate
about cultural and environmental policies.
The contemporary debate on landscape is ever growing and is character-
ized by a high interest as demonstrated for example by a growing amount
of verbal and iconographic reproductions (Jakob, 2009). Furthermore,
this subject has become central in various disciplines, such as philosophy,
geography, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, and ecology. The reasons
for this new interest can be found in a reconsideration of the relationship
between man and nature (Raffestin, 2005).
The contemporary debate about urbanism seems to appreciate the aes-
thetic-perceptive dimension, as it enquires into the crisis of the landscape,
which is now considered a design resource. In the early 90’s, on the contrary,
the debate was largely focused on a strong descriptive style, intended as a
methodological approach to describing the relationships between the new
images of the cities and the emerging issues of contemporary urbanism. In
the same period, research about landscape, which was emerging from the
disciplinary field of urbanism, was suggesting that planning instruments

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needed a rethink, in favour of a greater flexibility which was more appropri-
ate to dealing with the new image of the city.
Today, this instrumental reconsideration opens up a new scenario which
appears to be quite “experimental” and where the different experiences
alternatively consider the landscape as a purely objective phenomenon (the
territory, the environment), or as being purely subjective (the perceived
landscape) while considering different complex conceptual declinations
as for example the “cultural landscape”, the “ordinary landscape” and the
“landscape of risks”. However, these declinations are not producing clear
and shared results in local planning practices, at least at present.
The landscape, which is often considered an “aesthetic fact”, has been
the subject of several academic disciplines that have tried to define it from
different angles in an attempt to underline the importance of some of its
endless facets. It is also true that most of these theories on landscape favour
a philosophical point of view, interpreting it as being intimately tied to sub-
jectivity. The aesthetic-perceptive approach has indeed permeated and influ-
enced an entire field of research on landscape. Furthermore, this approach
considers the landscape as being dual, describing at the same time both the
representation of a part of the territory (e.g. paintings, drawings or photos),
and the territory itself, not in its materiality but in the perception we have of
it, in its appearance and in its form.
Conventionally the introduction of landscape into the scientific approach
to geography has been attributed to Humboldt (1844). This was a “cultural”
operation that has transformed the solely aesthetic concept of landscape
into a new scientific concept without forgetting the essential mediation per-
formed by visions (Farinelli, 1991). The historical origin of the term “land-
scape” has meant that the real landscape was perceived and conceptualized
for a long time as “the projection in nature of what the painting has taught
us to see” (Roger, 1997).
This way of regarding the landscape, which does not consider the
involvement of the scientific community, has by no means been abandoned.
For example, Italian Law no.1497 of 1939 states that “scenic beauties are
protected as pictures”. However, even if this law belongs to another histor-
ical period, this idea is still in vogue because in the revised version of the
Italian Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code developed in 2008, the same
definition was re-affirmed.
In the international literature, Joachim Ritter (1963) has brought back,
along the lines of the work of Georg Simmel (1913), the relationship
between landscape and the pure aesthetic dimension.

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 Nature becomes Landscape when it becomes the subject of a genuinely
aesthetic contemplation. From this viewpoint, the visual arts and poetry are
perfect instruments for developing an aesthetic approach which provides
new interpretations of the natural world. In this sense, Alain Roger (1997)
not only considers the artistic origin of the landscape, but also highlights
how nature receives its definitions from art. According to this theory, it is
possible to affirm that the territory becomes a landscape only if it is artis-
tically represented. Aesthetics recognizes in the landscape the image of a
reality that is (and / or was) the territory (Raffestin, 2005) and its cultural
role derives mainly from being considered in a process of signification and
social communication.
In particular, the evaluation of formal and aesthetic aspects involves
different disciplines which are related to the multi-sensory perception of the
landscape. This perception necessarily incorporates the social background,
hence the landscape is no longer an exceptional event, but a part of everyday
life, which enhances, thanks a new sensitivity, the description of surround-
ing environments. However, the aesthetic implications of the landscape
have always been closely related to cultural, social and economic factors.
The importance accorded to economic and social phenomena has often
determined a loss of awareness of the fact that men live in environments
which are rich in perceptive and aesthetic solicitations that play a major
role in defining the quality of the landscape. The ability to read the visible
landscape becomes an imperative in order to enhance the aesthetic potential
of an environment and to control seemingly uncontrollable urban transfor-
mations. Unfortunately, in recent years research into planning tools and
intervention has principally focused on aspects which are more connected
with the administration of a plan. The urban planning of homogeneous terri-
torial areas and standards have related the control of functional morphology
and the dimensioning of urban transformations to quantitative criteria anal-
yses, using specific parameters that have gradually become more and more
detached from real urban dynamics.
In contrast, Gordon Cullen (1961) has studied the perceptual impression
of the city through visual stimuli connected with urban forms. According to
this vision, the perception becomes both an instrument for reading spaces
and a tool for designing the urban space. Three keys of interpretation of
urban spaces were developed: the serialities connected to a vision under
movement, the relationship with the local physical characteristics, and the
investigation of its content. These keys can be used for the analytical verifi-
cation of the design choices of architects and planners with regard to spatial

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transformations of the city and landscape. The concept of seriality in vision
under movement is, in particular, very interesting. It consists of a series
of drawings (sketches) arranged according to the sequence with which the
user perceives the landscape along his path. Descriptions and directions of
the picture-taking points accompany each sequence. This operation helps
identify some characteristics of the space, the most representative objects
(landmarks) and their degree of variation. Following this analysis, Cullen
proposes a synthesis of this reading methodology, through the translation of
the elements highlighted in materials and design principles, without provid-
ing unique codes, but only suggestions and examples. The ability to relate
(the art of relationship) is therefore based on the strengthening of mutual
relations among the considered elements. These items cannot be dissociated
from each other in urban planning, which in turn should set the rules (codes)
for the management of the city according to uses.
The formal perception of the landscape was also the main idea behind
Kevin Lynch’s research (1964). The concept of Imageability, as a simple and
almost measurable criterion, is the ability of a physical object to evoke in
the observer a structured and recognizable image. The contribution of Lynch
tries to go beyond the approach of the school of Cullen, by focusing on the
visual experience in a broad sense, and by avoiding functionalist reductions
through the introduction of the “mental image”. This methodology of inves-
tigation is based mainly on technical observations and interviews, using a
symbolic language which can also be used at the design stage and which
is suitable for multi-scale approaches. This method means that a complete
urban description is not necessary because only the items of interest that
contribute to the definition of landscape are selected and completely static
and univocal scenes are rejected. In this regard, we can say that the image
of the city is more representative the more the sample of the collected indi-
vidual images tends to represent the total population.
The stated intent of Lynch is to redefine the principles of a functional
tradition, founded on a direct correspondence between materials, forms
and functions. In the international scene, this issue finds a valid reference
in the contributions of Higuchi (1975) and Zube, Sell and Taylor (1983).
However, this field of research, except for a few case studies, does not
constitute the main part of the urban praxis. In fact, only in recent years,
does the morphological-perceptual-matrix approach seem to have been
rediscovered because of a new focus, which in its current forms principal-
ly refers to a larger plurality of different dimensions than those originally
expressed.

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 One aspect of this plurality certainly concerns the communicative value of
perceived images and the synthetic dimension of the vision. The introduction
of a perceptive reading approach related to landscape studies appears to be
often motivated by the desire to experience an approach that is different from
the strictly morphological description of the physical environment. This “care-
ful” approach to the visual characteristics of the context means, at different
scales, going beyond the mere description of the physical configuration and
defining an overview of the multiplicity of phenomena and materials of cities
and territories (lines, shapes, volumes, and open or built spaces).

7.2. The methodological framework

7.2.1. Aesthetic control rules for urban spaces

The need to improve the quality of the landscape from the morpholog-
ical point of view suggests that it is necessary to consider in the planning
process some rules for the aesthetic control of urban spaces. This means for
example understanding and recognizing the modalities for monitoring and
assessing the territorial transformations by identifying the scenic elements
of a landscape and their interrelationships. The fundamental aim is therefore
to overcome the simple conservative landscape approach by putting the
research focus on “active” management tools.
According to this approach, it is possible to ensure differentiation in pro-
tection and restriction. It could be possible to develop a range of “oriented
protection” levels which are able to guide urban transformations through
the use of scenic control tools. These tools are, for example, a range of
“integral protection” levels for those areas which are subject to a high risk
of “readability” (e.g. the city limits); the creation of “park” regimes (e.g.
natural Parks) for those areas with a significant presence of landscape val-
ues that can also promote landscape unity (e.g. hilly areas as a backdrop to
a city). From the morphological point of view, special attention is required
when defining targeted actions for the protection and the valorisation of
scenic landscape components, such as panoramic viewpoints, scenic routes,
landscape profiles, and landmarks. All these aspects lead to a broader strat-
egy that can, or perhaps should, already be outlined in regional landscape
planning and considered at a local level.
In this sense, it is possible to find several examples both at national and
international level. In several cases in fact, specific statements were included

163
within the ordinary planning tools relating them to the protection of land-
scape values, often by developing further detailed maps associated with reg-
ulated land usage. It would therefore be essential that the planning actions
pursue more compact volumes. For example, where there is a large presence
of tall buildings, it could be a good idea to further compact the volumes
by limiting the height of buildings to allow for a view of other landscape
elements, such as for example a backdrop or other special visual references.

Fig. 1 - Different configurations of landmarks (high buildings) compared to the urban

context. Conceptual schemes. (Re-elaborated from: J. L. Kriken, 2010, City Building. Nine
Planning Principles for the Twenty-First Century, Princeton Architectural Press, New York).

When the natural landscape is considered, it is necessary to identify, not

only specific observation points, but also the areas that will be subjected to
protection regimes. In the United States, for example, various methodolo-
gies have been developed in relation to the control of the skylines of the
most important cities and settlements especially for those areas that have a
particular scenic value. At the urban level, more detailed “zoning rules” can
be defined to set the maximum permitted height of buildings, preserving, at
the same time, the areas affected by the most significant views. In several
cases, techniques related to the control of the height of skyscrapers may also
be borrowed for use with lower heights.
At the design level, the effect specific choices, such as the colour of
building roofs (roofscape), night lighting, water usage, or the variety of
materials, have on the environment may also be considered. The roofscape
is certainly interesting in Italy where it can be declined with respect to the
different types and shapes of tiles that are often representative elements of
local Italian landscapes. This perception is homogeneous in several Italian
towns because the diversity in the building traditions depends directly on
different climatic conditions, the origins of the materials used, local techno-
logical expertise, etc. Furthermore, additional factors should also be taken
into consideration such as design choices related to building technologies
and physics, for example the reflection and absorption of solar radiation on
surfaces. In the first case, if the reflection is high, it is necessary to reduce

164
Fig. 2 - Conceptual scheme of the New York Zoning Resolution (1916) related to the zoning
of the city in different “Height Districts”, that define different local maximum in the height
of buildings and setback lines to allow a broader view of the sky (Source: New York City,
Commission on Building Districts and Restrictions, 1916, Final Report). The image recon-
structs the principle of the setback line applied to a ratio of 1 - 1 ½ based on district roads
whose width varies between 30.5 m (100 feet) and 15.25 m (50 feet).

and prevent glare. In the second the use of materials, or particular surface
treatments, can create a cool roof to reduce the overheating that characteriz-
es the major urban areas on the planet, a phenomenon also known as urban
heat island (Akbari, 2007; Akbari et al., 2001).
Therefore, landscape aesthetics play a key role in the search for harmo-
ny in the city, going beyond the idea of an urban design intended only as a
“cheap mask”, but trying to pursue actions which are able to reveal the real
value of places. It is important to be able to look for specific new rules with-
in the perceptual landscape approach. Selecting significant views towards
important landmarks and determining the criteria for their protection are
the first steps towards addressing future choices of planning to permit the
control of landscape transformations.

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7.2.2. The perceptual paradigm

The perceptual paradigm has highlighted an idea of landscape in urban-

ism that is not linked to a “universality of values”, such as a strong and
determined environmentalism, but looks at it subjectively, as a basic compo-
nent of everyday life. This is a new issue in the context of Italian planning.
Only in recent years, thanks to the contribution of the European Landscape
Convention (2000) and the accompanying Recommendation for its imple-
mentation (2008), has this theme become central to several projects at
national and international level. Recently, thanks to this change, there have
been numerous examples of projects that attempt to preserve the landscape
and to foster the relationship between it and the local population. However,
not every recent attempt has succeeded in its intent. Projects actually often
insist more on the recognition of a single place, even if only in terms of
aesthetic appreciation, than on its social dimension. According to Bauman
(2002) these places are aesthetically but not socially controlled. Generally,
new public spaces are those in which there is a dual relationship: on the one
hand, they are socially controlled while on the other hand they are visually
controlled. Aesthetic control imitates social control, but unlike the latter,
aesthetic control leaves individuals free to attribute meanings and feelings
to a space and to expand the appreciation of, or the dislike for the space.
Urban planning needs to include in its practices new forms of aesthetic
appreciation of places and, simultaneously, a social recognition of every-
day spaces. To do this, it is necessary to pay attention to the design of the
“perceived structure” of the landscape, to the sequential experiences along a
path, and to the choice of materials used in the city surfaces. Even though in
the last few years new assessment methods have been employed and tested,
it seems necessary that urban planning should consider the aesthetic dimen-
sion on a local scale. At the same time, it is clear that the outcome of urban
planning can be targeted at the construction of the future images of the city,
which have to be accompanied not only by guidelines but also by action.
Furthermore, a new emphasis on social perception, which incorporates
panoramic scenery as an element that helps define the unity and the identity
of a place, especially from a symbolic point of view is emerging. The value
of symbolic images, which result from a mental abstraction of the image
of the real landscape, can be considered an active instrument to understand
within the planning process, the complexity of relationships that underlie
urban life. As has already been pointed out, while historically, city growth
generally adhered to a specific form which contributed to the life of the city,

166
the character and problematics of the contemporary city reside in the disso-
lution of its forms, which appear to refer to some new aesthetics. However,
city forms are a mirror of the culture that created them, and the history of the
city is a matrix of such cultures, if we define culture in the Kantian sense of
living in a given space at a given time (Matteoli, 2010). Furthermore, Jakob
(2008) has pointed out that in recent times the mass media revolution has
greatly influenced the “image of the landscape” by relating it to a revived
popular dimension. The hypertrophy of the image substitutes the real spatial
alternative as described in relation to the text about “Rose-Duchamp” and
photography written by Claudio Marra (2000a). It is clear that the society
of the image tends to replace the real world with epistemological models of
representation of reality (e.g. by using photographs) thus diffusing an idea
of possession of the object of representation, which results from the image.
This naive realism (Marra, 2006; Marra, 2000b) transmits the pervasiveness
of the simulacrum concept in contemporary culture (Perniola, 1980). This
simulacrum also becomes an important aspect of the modelling action when
it is necessary to give to the model a universal value or even replace reality
with pervasive virtualities, an idea rejected by Minsky. It is possible to refer
to the recent critical discussion considered in the book Paradigmi ed ere
digitali (Chiesa, 2015) – Paradigms and different digital eras. Other refer-
ences are Milgram and Colqhoun’s ideas on augmented-reality, augment-
ed-virtuality and mixed-reality (1999) as well as Rothemberg’s studies about
modelling (1989). We also refer to the fundamental iconographic work of
Luigi Ghirri, referring in particular to his photographic research on symbolic
representation, focused on a double-representative effect, in which maps
and postcards become a substitute for reality (Ghirri, 1999; Mussini, 2001).
A similar idea can be found in the narrative book La carte et le territorie
(Houellebecq, 2010) – the Map and the Territory.
The perceptual paradigm proposes a different way of looking at the
landscape, enhancing the evasive character of contemporary society, which
is hardly reducible to conventions or codes. However, some recent experi-
ences have attempted to translate this characteristic into rules and tools in
order to develop specific strategies which are able, for example, to read and
communicate the perceptive vision of landscape values by evoking an image
or an idea for the structured development and identification of a place. In
this sense it is useful to refer to territorial biographies (Maggioli, 2011a),
considering their relationship with the iconographic-perceptual field (Chiesa
and Di Gioia, 2011), and the studies on the theme of the archives whether
cartographic, photographic, audio-visual or auditory (Maggioli, 2011b).

167
Furthermore, it is important to remember that the advent of digitization
has allowed people to access archival sources anywhere in the world, thus
overcoming physical distance (Rose, 2011). Moreover, the spread of new
data sources, which until a few years ago were not translatable into data
or information (e.g. datization processes from social networks or souve-
nir-photographs by tourists – Chiesa, 2015; Chiesa and La Riccia, 2013),
has significantly increased the number of these databases. Easy accessibility
through the World Wide Web to these territorial bibliographies implicates
several cultural effects on the theme of collective, individual and geograph-
ical memory, revealing, especially when connected with other databases, an
increase in emotional geographies (Ghirri, 1997).

7.2.3. Visual quality

The value of landscape visibility is given by visual range. This range

could be used as a prerequisite to evaluate the perceptual dimension when
operational rules of urban planning are considered. This involves a process
of accommodation that, if adequately calibrated with respect to the specific
local environment and relationships, may have effects on the transformation
of each specific place. Pursuing the visual and multi-sensorial quality of a
landscape means selecting specific objects that can define the complex local
framework, either using an expert approach, or by using computer systems.
Understanding the visual relationships between elements that characterize a
landscape, e.g. through appropriate inter-visibility analyses, should contrib-
ute to the definition of local protection actions and enhancement measures.
The main aspect when concerning this analysis is the visibility factor,
which contributes to landscape characterization. This statement implies
considering visible areas (visual basins) from a particular observation
point, or understanding how certain visual landmarks, which characterize
specific landscape scenes, are recognizable within an urban or rural con-
text, with respect to potential elements of interference. In the international
context, there are several examples that relate to this methodology (e.g. La
Riccia, 2012). In London, for example, a specific tool called “London View
Management Framework” is aimed at protecting and managing the most
significant landmarks in the city: St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Palace of
Westminster. In these cases, the protection rules are applied to safeguard
the views within the city based on three distinct planes (foreground, middle
ground and background), which are the base elements on which is conduct-

168
ed the evaluation of any future urban change. Based on this methodology,
specific “Management Plans” are defined which contain the guidelines for
the preservation of views, with particular attention being given to the con-
sistency of new buildings compared to the overall scenic quality of the urban
landscape.
Mutual visibility can be taken into consideration since the principal
viewpoints and the identified scenic paths, which can provide wide and deep
views towards urban or rural contexts, are characterized by the presence of
historic elements or special backdrops. These studies on mutual visibility
may relate to specific protection rules in urban planning that can limit the
urban development in those areas that are characterized by a high visual
value.
For this purpose, there are several techniques for the visual control from
viewpoints and scenic paths, and in general for the delimitation of visual
basins. In addition to a qualitative analysis, in which it is possible to con-
sider viewpoints, scenic paths, visual references, visual axes, and possible
inferences, as well as the inter-visibility relationship, it is also possible to
characterize and standardize the different view plans of a given scene. This
analysis can be carried out, for example, using Geographic Information
Systems (GIS). In GIS, the geometric features of the scene are organized
within a database that contains various pieces of information, such as the
proportion of the viewpoint, the difference in elevation of the observer in
relation to the ground, the height of a chosen landmark, the horizontal and
vertical angle amplitudes, and the minimum and maximum horizons of the
view. The same features are the parameters by which a specific function of
the ArcGIS software (Viewshed) automatically defines the area included
within the visual basin.
As confirmed by several experiences, the use of Geographic Information
Systems tools has great potential and can be directly applied to the recogni-
tion of the most suitable areas to both regulate preservation rules and localize
the areas which are most suitable for new transformation. The construction
of a specific visual sensitivity map, which can be produced by overlapping
and re-classifying different visual basins, is, for example, a quantitative
method to indicate the areas that are most affected by different viewpoints or
scenic values. It is then assumed that these areas are those with the highest
visual sensitivity if interested by territorial transformations. In these areas,
the impact of any transformation can be potentially greater, because they are
visible from multiple viewpoints. Furthermore, if the landmarks are chosen
according to the appropriate territorial bibliographies, such spaces will be

169
characterized by higher identity, historical, and relational characteristics and
will be the areas in which the sense of place is most evident (Augé, 1992).

7.2.4. The centrality of the landscape is also built on social perception

Social perception is generally considered a process of the elaboration

of the complex relationships between the different landscape elements as
perceived by the population. The European Landscape Convention, also
in this case, assumes social perception to be a structural factor, linking the
perception within the definition of the landscape itself.
It is social perception that contributes to the conceptual shift from a
“portion of the territory” to the landscape. This concept was already strongly
embedded in several territorial photography schools, such as the Italian one.
The Italian territorial “photography school” is based on the experience of
“Linea di Confine” (1989). Luigi Ghirri, one of the principal exponents of
this school, stated that the act of taking photographs has to incorporate the
concept of being on the boundary line between what is known and what
is unknown, thus turning the act of watching into distinguishing” (Ghirri,
1997, p. 134).
In fact, to get a complete description of spaces, the phenomenology
of a territory on the margins between two places cannot be forgotten As
Ghirri said the anonymous and lost spaces “that constitute the road where
I lived, the streets that I walked every day (...) seemed to be waiting for
someone who could confer on them an identity. What I did between 1970
and 1975 by photographing the outskirts of ancient cities, the suburbs, or
mainly those places with no historical or geographical dignity, was a kind
of re-composition of a family album” (Lupano, 1989, pp. 10- 12; Ghirri,
1989). Moreover, contemporary and postmodern territory is characterized,
in the action of becoming a landscape, by a reduction in a sense of belonging
which is replaced by a new “changing landscape” vision, as was described
by Paolo Costantini.
The experience of Linea di Confine deviates from the traditional iconic
and symbolic archives, such as those created by the Alinari brothers, to deal
with a landscape where natural and artificial aspects mix into new hybrids
(Chiesa, 2006; Rhomer, 1964). This kind of photographic research can be
linked with “Environmental photography”, a field of “Territorial photogra-
phy” defined and introduced in previous essays (Chiesa and Di Gioia, 2011;
Chiesa and La Riccia, 2011; Chiesa, 2006).

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 The perception that people express of their own landscape goes beyond
the mere visual or physical dimension and helps to look into urban plan-
ning practices for its cultural expression. Even in this case, the recognition
of social values related to the landscape does not generally constitute an
ordinary practice for Italian urban planning. Only in a few cases, in fact,
has special importance been given to the recognition of a level of “land-
scape sensitivity”, related to the degree of transformation and the level of
integrity of a landscape, compared with a hypothetical natural condition and
considering the visibility of symbolic places. These places can be identified
not only by using quantitative methods (e.g. indicators of the number of
citations within tourist guide books and travel literature), but also by using
qualitative tools (e.g. the analysis of visual preferences). Furthermore, the
assessment of these points of interest can lead to the recognition of specific
levels of symbolic value which characterize the collective imagination.
In addition, in this case, it is possible to underline the importance of
photographic research in representing the sense of place expressed by
the inhabitants. It is possible to remember, for example, the research of
Francesco Jodice, e.g. “Secret Traces” (urban tailings) and “What we
want” (2004), the work “without pose” (2004) by Alessandra Chemollo and
Fulvio Orsenigo, which defines through images a specific perception of
Venice, and the research of Massimo Vitali about figures in the landscape
(2004). Furthermore, the work “notsofareast” by Olivo Barbieri (2002), the
researches of Edward Burtynsky on manufactured landscapes (2007; 2003)
and other studies (Barth, 2008) are linked to this attempt to represent the
contemporary landscape, by trying to interpret the loss of identity of spaces
in transformation. Furthermore, the sense of a landscape is strongly con-
nected with its literary descriptions, such as those of Claudio Magris and
Andrei Platonov.
Focusing on urban planning, it is certainly possible to include within
the planning process the recognition of those preferential criteria that can
guide aesthetic appreciation, not only of a specific portion of the landscape
which is recognized as being very valuable, but also of every ordinary
landscape. In this sense, the choice of reference values can be a critical step
in defining planning decisions. A critical point concerns the interpretative
relations between expert knowledge and the common vision. From the point
of view of expert knowledge, it is clear that it is necessary to develop inter-
disciplinary approaches within the planning process, in order to pursue the
effectiveness of different analytical modes. As regards the common vision,
it is necessary that the planning approach be directed to the possibility of

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preserving the common recognition of places by focusing on the perception
and values identified by communities, in order to achieve a comprehensive
synthesis in the operational phase. From this point of view, it is important to
consider social perception as a discriminating factor in the different stages
of the evaluation of a planning process.
Therefore, it is necessary that urban planning determine the operating
conditions to develop specific shared images, by following not only an
approach which is devoted to the protection of a few monumental points, but
also a vision which is able to drive social perception toward a shared con-
struction process of landscape recognition. At the operational level, the role
of the landscape should be connected to the construction of design scenarios
to deal with some problematic situations in the contemporary city, including
forms and planning processes, which are often weakly encrypted. These
different scenarios help to identify a common image of future landscapes.

7.2.5. Datization of the perceived landscapes

Recent innovations in ICT are significantly changing the technology-so-

ciety relationship. At the same time, the procedures used to conduct scien-
tific research are being revolutionized by the exponential increase in the
amount of available data (Nielsen, 2012). The big data revolution is having
a profound influence on methodologies which are used to analyze, study
and develop scientific research related to urban planning. This revolution
primarily concerns data usage methods and for this reason it is independent
from the method used for data processing (Mayer-Schönberger & Cukier,
2013). A specific example is the case of the manholes of the electrical
company of New York, which was brilliantly summarized in the book Big
Data (Mayer-Schönberger & Cukier, 2013). In the era of “small data”, the
maintenance of manholes is organized according to standard protocols based
on ordinary and extraordinary actions that are planned following specific
timelines. These techniques, however, are often not sufficient to significant-
ly reduce the occurrence of accidents or the request for extraordinary and
expensive measures. Furthermore, “traditional” maintenance techniques
may include avoidable costs due to the replacement or the inspection of
objects that have not yet reached the end of their life span or the need for an
intervention. In this regard, the research team led by Cynthia Rudin, at that
time a professor at Columbia University and now an associate professor at
MIT, analysed the available historical data to identify statistical correlations

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between the need for an action (explosion of the manhole) and 106 differ-
ent descriptive parameters of every individual manhole (Rudin et al., 2012;
Rudin et al., 2011; Rudin et al., 2010). The first analysis was able to identify
a number of factors which, when connected together, led to a higher risk
of rupture of the object, thus requiring preventive maintenance. Secondly,
they identified the main factors in order to bring the analysis from “what is
expected to happen” to “why this happens.”
The example here presented concerns only one of the countless applica-
tions of this technological innovation. Big data are, in fact, directly connect-
ed with the possibility to include in the used databases data and information
that previously could not be treated as data. This information, as well as
providing the necessary databases for the development of statistical high
correspondence analyses, also interacts with new kinds of data basins, thus
increasing the range of possible applications.
It is possible, for example, to build and to obtain geo-information regard-
ing flows (people, things and information), perceptions and personal eval-
uations of specific places and landscapes. This information, extracted for
example from social networks and other “databases” in daily use, concerns
some specific datization aspects that can be directly used in the perception
analysis of landscape, which is the subject of this chapter. Depending on the
source (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, ...), the number of data made avail-
able and the amount of metadata attached to them vary considerably. For
example, each tweet is accompanied by no less than 33 pieces of meta-in-
formation including the ID of the writer and his/her geographical location,
making this data a rich source of information. Facebook also collects numer-
ous metadata, but only a small part of this is easily accessible. The accessi-
bility and the amount of information collected may vary quickly in time for
all the different sources, be they social networks, search engines, or others.
Considering the theme of this chapter, an application of such techniques
that can be easily integrated and connected with the viewshed analysis
developed in the GIS environment is here presented. Geo-referred informa-
tion, resulting from social networks, contains, at least theoretically, a series
of data, generally unstructured, which can be used for the construction
of specific mental maps and / or for the identification of points of view,
landmarks and other relevant points, “ as perceived by people”. These data
can be elaborated for use in viewshed analyses and for the identification
of safeguard zones. It is possible, for example, to use and map the flow of
photographs taken with mobile phones and shared on the network by people
to study the movements of tourists, whether national or international, within

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specific territories (Girardin, 2014; Girardin et al., 2008 ). This study can
be used to optimize the distribution of services, through the organization
of specialized structures, the planning of territorial actions of promotion
and the identification and quantification (amount of people, influence
range, …) of the perception of places. These are only some of the possible
implications of this analysis. From a temporal point of view, the possibility
to ensure a data stream of this nature in time, allows us to study, at least
indirectly, the influence of promotional policies and strategies on tourist
flows. Furthermore, the same stream of data can help to identify and study
the relationship between certain factors and the value of the attractiveness of
an area by defining very innovative strategies and analyses. In other studies,
the use of geo-referred mobile phones permits the analysis of movements
and phenomena on different scales that until a few years ago were very dif-
ficult to map (Senseable City Lab; UrbanScope). These examples are useful
to highlight the potential, often unexpressed, which is associated with such
instruments. A growing amount of information, especially if structured into
knowledge, can allow us to integrate and increase the responsiveness of
models to the real world by means of two-way flows between modelling and
materialization. This vision is defined in more detail in the study of the third
digital era of Design (Chiesa, 2015; 2014).

7.3. Viewshed analysis

The determination of the “visible” portion of a landscape is a procedure

that landscape architects have tried to optimise since the XVIII century
(Smardon et al. 1986). With the advent of information technologies, the
computerization of spatial data and the creation of DEMs (Digital Elevation
Models) and DSM (Digital Surface Models), the development and imple-
mentation of new algorithms helps to determine the visible areas in a more
precise and automatic way (Travis, 1975; Yoeli 1985). The understanding
of visual relationships between every element that characterizes a landscape
can indeed be pursued in an automated way using GIS. This family of soft-
ware can provide a cartographic representation of these relationships, study
the inter-visibility between points which are more or less distant from each
other, and define overall landscape sensitivity. The aim of these instruments
is to contribute to the field of regional and urban planning, by creating ade-
quate protection measures for those elements that, if taken together, make a
landscape recognizable. This can be done by taking into account the objec-

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tive conditions and geometries of several points of analysis (formal features
of the landscape scene, observation points, range and depth of vision,
perceptual landmarks), assuming that they are predictive of a “subjective”
landscape experience.
Viewshed analysis simulates the relationship between the morphology
of the landscape and settlement systems. This technique helps to calculate
the coverage (the so-called “visual space”) with respect to the location and
the visual horizon of a given observer. On the basis of a Digital Terrain
Model, which has already been prepared, it is in fact possible to determine
the relative visibility from predetermined viewpoints with respect to each
cell through which the area of study is discretized. The analysis can be
performed from individual positions (viewsheds), paths (incremental views-
heds) or areas (cumulative viewsheds). In all cases, the viewshed instrument
defines the “visual space”, assumed as the portion of the landscape that
appears to the observer. This operation is not only based on the three-dimen-
sional aspects of the space (the digital model), but also on other conditions
such as the observer’s position (altitude, proximity, etc.), the view direction,
and atmospheric conditions (radius of visibility). The visible area is deter-
mined by defining an observation point (or point of recovery) and then by
computing the so-called “line-of-sight”. The result is based on a concept of
Boolean visibility and reported in binary code (1 = visible; 0 = not visible).
A binary viewshed responds to a basic question: what portion of a landscape
is visible from a given observation point? In performing this analysis it is
important to include all kinds of information about, for example, other scenic
items or special points of interest (buildings, landmarks and natural environ-
mental values) in order to evaluate the different intervisibility relationships.
Several conditions can influence the readability of a landscape, such as
the position of the observer, the observation time, the movement and the
speed (with consequences on the alternation of different sequences and the
definition of the rhythm of the vision). In general, the physical forms of
landscapes are those that primarily affect the syntax of this reading, although
they may involve other culturally conditioning elements (social functions
of the places, symbolic meanings, place names, etc.). In addition, the depth
of the visual field also seriously affects perception together with the texture
and the appearance of materials, the effects of light / shade and colour, the
presence or absence of a foreground. Several American and Dutch studies1

1. In American context, Visual Resource Management System (USDI-BLM, United States

Department of Interior – Bureau of Land Management (2009) and Scenery Management
System (USDA-FS).

175
have investigated the possibility of defining the “distance indexes” for the
characterization of the visible landscape. This refers to the distance that sep-
arates the observer from the observed landscape and which affects the per-
ception of details and of the whole scene. Distances are functional to control
the quality of the visual and to adopt different behaviours. For example, the
same volume, in the immediate foreground is seen with clarity, in the middle
ground is a factor to be considered in the whole scene and in the background
may possibly generate a skyline effect.
The use of GIS significantly speeds up the whole process of the individ-
uation of the areas which are visible from a point or a predetermined scenic
path, an operation that was previously done by hand requiring skilled sen-
sitivity on the part of the territorial analyst.

Fig. 3 - Schematic illustration of the parameters used by the ESRI ArcGIS software v. 9.3 for
the viewshed analysis (elaboration based on ESRI schemes, 2010).

The geometric characteristics of each selected scene are organized within

a geographic database that includes several elements: altitude of the chosen
viewpoint, height of the observer relative to the ground, height of a second
visual reference (landmark) or another point of visual interest, amplitude
of horizontal and vertical angles, depth (radius) of the horizon of the view
(Figure 3). These parameters are also the ones required by the viewshed
function of the software, used for calculating the visual basin of each select-
ed viewpoint. The operation returns a raster image, i.e. an image discretized

176
in size cells (e.g. 10x10 or 5x5 meters), which keep the same properties of
the digital terrain model (DTM), but that are classified, according to the
already mentioned Boolean code, in visible (1) or not visible (0). When dif-
ferent visual analyses are obtained from several points, it can be possible to
overlap them and create a map of “absolute visibility” of the landscape. The
result can be a Boolean image, or even be characterized by a more complex
subdivision by incorporating the different viewshed analyses in a map gen-
erated by superposition of different raster through the “combine” function
included in the software. The same type of analysis can be conducted for
the assessment of the visibility of scenic paths. Each path can be, in fact,
decomposed into a succession of points, that can be associated to a respec-
tive visual analysis.
The set of parameters that can be implemented by the software is report-
ed below:

• Geographical coordinates of the analysis points;

• SPOT: altitude of the viewpoint;
• OFFSET A: height of the observer with respect to the ground;
• OFFSET B: height of a different landmark or another point to be sighted;
• AZIMUTH 1 and 2: the width of the horizontal angle;
• VERT 1 and 2: the width of the vertical angle;
• RADIUS 1 and 2: the minimum and maximum distances (radius) of
vision.

7.4. Datization and social networks

In this paragraph, a new methodology for supporting landscape-percep-

tive analysis is presented. This methodology aims at integrating different
information, which originates from social media datization, and in particular
from Flickr, through the use of a GIS/CAD environment. The use of plug-
ins, such as Mosquito for GrasshopperTM and Rhinoceros®, enables the
building of geographically referred data sets that can be implemented in
shapefiles. The following examples show how these shapefiles can be inte-
grated into tools for landscape and spatial analysis, such as the viewshed
instrument presented before.
The presented process of datization is based on the data flow that is illus-
trated in Figure 4. This flow requires different kinds of tools (open source
and proprietary ones) that could undergo little or substantial changes over

177
time. Possible changes can be due, for example, to a new serial release, to
new organization of the companies producing software (e.g. purchases or
merging), to different policies of data access, or even to a variation in the
interoperability of the saved file extensions. However, these changes do not
affect the substance of the methodology here introduced, which is independ-
ent from the specific software that is used in the examples reported in this
chapter.

Fig. 4 - Schematic representation of the dataflow used in the datization process described in
this chapter.

The users of social networks, according to voluntary or involuntary pro-

cesses, yield, using the same tools, a large amount of data and information of
different kinds. In the proposed examples, a series of photographs deposited
in the social Flickr are used. These photos are related to a large amount of
metadata that can be freely accessed. This metadatization is sufficient to
enable a focused query on specific tags / keywords and a geo-location of the
data uploaded to the social.
Furthermore, when a single image is considered, it is possible to access
a large amount of information concerning, for example, authorship, geo-
graphic positioning, image license, potential description, date of shooting,
tags, social incidence (number of views, comments, favourites), different
shooting data (camera, aperture and shutter speed, focal length, flash, ISO)
and some format information (EXIF). However, not all information is avail-
able for each image. Furthermore, the use of different software for the data
mining process could change the amount of information that is accessible.
Focusing on geographical placement, some images are devoid of
localization or are incorrectly positioned. In the first case it is possible to
eliminate their records from the database, while in the second case it is
possible to limit the error by geographically narrowing down the research
or by increasing the number of data points. As reflected in the proposed

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examples, the precision of the collected data, when potential homonyms
in different locations are avoided, is very high. In the case of the “Sacra
di San Michele”, for example, a query on Mosquito performed via Flickr
with a narrow geographic radius of datization creates a qualitative database.
Nevertheless, when the search radius is increased several data points are
included relating to other sites connected with the cult of San Michele (e.g.
Monte Sant’Angelo, in the province of Foggia) and for this reason the results
are connected to more than one landmark (see par. 4.1).
In the following examples the plug-in Mosquito, developed by Carson
Smuts for Grasshopper and Rhinoceros is used. This software provides
access to data extrapolated from several sources for example Flickr,
Facebook, Twitter and Topsy. Table 1 shows a list of the inputs and out-
puts that are admitted by the plug-in as a function of the data source. In the
case of Twitter, it is also available a tool for analysing the users in order to
report his/her used language, location, basic profile information, number of
followers and ID.
The examples presented in this chapter refer to searches in Flickr, never-
theless a short comparison between outputs from different sources (Flickr
and Twitter) is presented in Ref. (Chiesa, 2015).
By using Mosquito, it is possible to extrapolate a maximum number of
geo-referred images equal to 500 for each search. Nevertheless, it is possi-
ble to affirm that, on the basis of a series of reiterated analyses, the average
number of results is about 250 for each query. It is possible to increase this
number by changing the starting and ending date of the search thus repeat-
ing the datization procedure . A huge amount of data helps to increase the
“statistical” validity of the sample.
The correct definition of the geographic coordinates of the object under
analysis enables, if the investigation radius has been correctly dimensioned,
the analysis of the regional influence of the chosen landscape landmark –sin-
gle or multiple ones- and to check for any dispersion (e.g. errors of geo-po-
sitioning, usually due to perceptual confusion). This analysis can be linked
to a tool, which is included in the Mosquito plug-in and that works within
the Grasshopper environment, for downloading the identified photographs
from Flickr through a list of URLs obtained from the survey. Photos are
automatically stored on the hard disk and can be used to check at a glance
“compliance” with the iconographic landscape point chosen for the survey.
Considering the specific topic of this chapter, the main results of the
survey are contained in the list of geotags associated with the images iden-
tified by the software. Such a list of coordinates must be translated into a

179
 Input list Output list
Flickr Search (keyword) User
No. Results (return) Image title
Start and end date Date
Geographic coordinates Geographic coordinates
Search radius (geographical) Image information
Presence of geo-data (Boolean) URL
Search through image tags or in URL to a small image version
both tag and photo description Image ID (useful for identifying
No. of research pages (iteration) duplicates)
User ID No. of available pages
Date of uploading
Facebook Search (keyword) Author
No. results Post title
Message
Date of creation
Type of post
Link
Twitter Search (keyword) Message
No. results User (writer)
Geographic coordinates User (receiving)
Search radius (geographical) Date
Date definition (Boolean) User location
Presence of geo-data (Boolean)
URL profile pic
No. follower
Message ID
Topsy Search (keyword) Author
No. results Nick name
No. result pages Title
Date (latest to search back from) Content
Tweet Only (Boolean) Post date
No. hits
Post score (influence)
Post type
URL
Table 1. List of the inputs and outputs allowed by Mosquito for different data sources con-
nected with social networks.
format which is compatible with a spreadsheet in order to be able to be
imported and translated into a shapefile through the aid of GIS software. In
Rhinoceros and Grasshopper there are various GIS tools. However, for the
purpose of this example, the software QGis Desktop 2.4.0 and the plug-in
“XY to point” were used.
The figure 5 shows the script developed in Grasshopper that incorporates
components from the plug-in Mosquito and from one of the several plug-
ins for data read / write from / to Excel, specifically the “ExcelReadWrite”.
With a series of components it is possible to divide the coordinates into
latitude and longitude (passing from the geometric definition of a point –

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e.g. 7.394678, 45.118145, 0.0 – to two coordinates – e.g. 7.394678 and
45.118145) to prepare a file that can be used in QGis to be translated into a
shapefile (see figure 6b).
As already described in Figure 4, the proposed method aims to create a
database of information which is related to landscape and landscape per-
ception from social networks, for the purpose of using their geolocation to
support the identification / evaluation of elements of landscape interest. In
the used methodology, different specific software is used, even if the same
methodology could be applied to other data flows. The method here present-
ed is articulated in the following steps:

1. definition of the point or the object of investigation and its transposi-

tion in keywords;
2. geolocation of the element(s) and identification of the analysis radius;
3. extrapolation of data from social networks (in this case from Flickr
via the plug-in for Grasshopper named Mosquito developed by
Smuts);

Fig. 5 - The script elaborated by using Grasshopper.

181
Fig. 6 - Geopoints extrapolated by social networks and moved from Grasshopper to other
software platforms (a) Rhinoceros with Google map; (b) QGIS; (c) Google Earth.

4. checking of data quality through the use of samples (iconographic

/ descriptive quality, e.g. by downloading the set of images and
checking for their correspondence to the analysis element/s) and of
geographical compliance by overlapping in Rhinoceros the results
of the datization with a Google map - Figure 6a - (via Mosquito it is
also possible, for specific points, to check the corresponding image on
Google street view);
5. translation of geopoints into coordinates and organization on a data-
sheet to be imported into the GIS environment;
6. shift of the obtained coordinates (Lat. Long.) into a specific coordi-
nate system (e.g. WGS84, ED50, Gauss Boaga Rome 40);
7. saving of the shapefile in order to be used in GIS environment for
further landscape analyses (e.g. Viewshed).

Different ways of using the obtained data are of course possible, as for
example the ones based on other GIS-based plug-ins including Rhinoceros
or Grasshopper. Furthermore, it is possible to visualize the results obtained
in QGis on Google Earth by overlapping the results and a satellite map or
other georeferenced information (Figure 6c).

7.4.1. Examples and discussion

The previously described method was applied to the four examples

described below. Each example refers to a specific point of landscape inter-
est. A series of geo-referenced pictures was collected from Flickr according
to a survey based on image tags related to the specific point of interest. Table
2 reports the keywords used in the surveys, the points of interest and the
geo-localization of landmarks.

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 Landmark Tag Coordinates No. Results
Sacra di San Michele sacra san michele 45.098 – 7.343 1616
Monte Musiné musine 45.114 – 7.454 104

Mole Antonelliana mole antonelliana 45.069 – 7.693 1701

Monte dei Cappuccini monte cappuccini 45.059 – 7.697 606
(piazzale)

Table 2. The table shows the input parameters used for the researches that were carried out
by the plug-in Mosquito. In order to increase the number of results, multiple searches were
performed on different time frames.

For each point of interest, a viewshed analysis in GIS was performed

according to the list of parameters reported in table 3 .

Table 3. In this table the parameters used for the viewshed analysis by using the GIS software
ArchGis are reported.

Here below the outputs of the four examples and the obtained results are
discussed. These examples help us to investigate some critical aspects and
possible applications of the presented tools.

The “Sacra di San Michele” is a symbol of the Piedmont territory. The

survey that was carried out by using the plug-in Mosquito and Grasshopper
identified 1,616 geo-localized photographs. The collected geo-points, referring
to the shooting points marked on Flickr, were translated into coordinates and
imported into QGis for the construction of a shapefile. The shapefile was then
exported and overlapped on Google Earth and CTR maps, as shown in Figure
7. The photographs report several images of the Sacra, taken in its immediate
vicinity, and from points where the image of the monument is visible in the
middle distance. Such geo-points can be used for the identification of points
of landscape interest and visual cones on the landmark. Hypothetically, it is
possible to use the images which refer to these points to make a first evalua-
tion of the quality of the identified points of interest, before proceeding with
further studies aimed at preparing maps of perception or determining possible
landscape protective restrictions.
In the case of the Sacra di San Michele, it was necessary to properly set
the search radius in the tool Mosquito. A first analysis conducted over a wide
search radius showed, in fact, not only the images related to the Sacra di San

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Fig. 7 - Overlapping of the obtained geopoints with the CTR, and tridimensional view in GIS.

Michele, which is located on the Mount Pirchiriano (Piedmont Region), but

also photographs related to the sanctuary of San Michele that is located in
Monte Sant’Angelo in the province of Foggia. This second landmark is close-
ly linked with the Sacra di San Michele from a toponymic point of view, since
together with Mont Saint Michel (Normandy, France) they represent the three
main sacred places devoted to this saint in Europe. The analysis of the geo-lo-
calization of photos on the social network shows not only the position of the
second shrine dedicated to St. Michael, but also it details part of the path of the
“Via Francigena”, a pilgrimage route, which passes through the mentioned
territory. This path represents with good accuracy steps 20a, 21a and 22a of
the pilgrimage route as designated by the official website. Figure 8 shows the
points obtained in the territory of the Apulia Region. The data gathered from
social networks can help in identifying latent information and contribute to

184
Fig. 8 - Geopoints of images downloaded from social network related to the Sanctuary of
Saint Michael, Monte Sant’Angelo, Foggia, Apulia.

the construction of a perceptual-territorial palimpsest which is related to the

search tags. However, it is important to pay particular attention to the setting
of survey parameters, as toponymic similarities can affect the quality of the
collected dataset. This problem must be taken into consideration especially in
the case in which analyses are automated.
Figure 9 overlaps the viewshed analysis which was carried out at the
point where the Sacra di San Michele is located and which aims to identify
the mutual visibility to and from the surrounding area with the location of
photos from social networks, which are able to show the perceptive value of

Fig. 9 - Overlapping of the vieshed analysis (visibility is red coloured) with the geopoints
derived from the Flockr’s analysis.

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Fig. 10 - Overlapping map of the further three vieshed analyses from the three identified
points towards the Sacra.

Fig. 11 - Visibility towards the Sacra di San Michele from the points identified by social net-
work. Above point 1, below point 2 (on the left) and point 3 (on the right).

186
the monument. This overlapping shows a good correspondence between the
identified points and the viewshed results, even if some areas identified by
the viewshed are unable to reach a corresponding iconographic coverage to
those of social networks. Hence, these areas probably have a low perceptual
impact. On the contrary, there are some points, where mutual visibility with
the Sacra is not signalled by the viewshed analysis, but that was identified
by users of the socials as territorial areas where the monument is perceived,
by having one or more corresponding tagged and geo-referenced images. To
better define the landscape value of these points, we have made three further
viewshed analyses, reported in figures 10 and 11, in order to verify the visibil-
ity towards Mount Pirchiriano from these locations which are identified only
by the datization from social networks. This verification process is useful to
investigate, at least partially, the quality of the identified points. The three ana-
lysed points, from which the new viewshed analyses where carried out, were
chosen in areas characterized by a high concentration of images not included
in the visibility areas to avoid incurring individual geolocation errors.
As can be seen from figures 10 and 11, these points identified 3 additional
areas of mutual visibility from / to the Sacra that were not identified in the first
viewshed analysis – the one from the Sacra di San Michele. Nevertheless, it
is important to remember that this three-dimensional analysis carried out in
GIS may be influenced by possible local obstructions, dictated by the specific
points chosen for the study, that can vary by moving the chosen points for
the viewshed by only a few meters. The synergistic use of visibility and per-
ceptive analysis from social networks allows, at least in theory, to overcome
these problems. The accuracy of the visibility study could also be increased
by making a series of viewshed analyses from a different analysis point in the
area surrounding the landmark.

The research carried out on Mount Musiné, which is the first mountain
you see as you enter the Val Susa and which is clearly visible from the
surrounding areas and from Turin, reported a small number of results. This
dataset, which is compatible with what is also reported by the new map
functionality of Flickr, collects only images with geolocation. From the
map, some panoramic points and the mutual visibility of Mount Musiné
with the Sacra di San Michele, Monte dei Cappuccini and the Basilica of
Superga can be highlighted. Results are shown in figure 12, while they are
overlapped with the viewshed analysis in figure 13. This example shows
that this method is also applicable to points whose landscape value is less
symbolic or of minor tourist interest.

187
Fig. 12 - Results of the datization analysis Fig. 13 - Viewshed analysis from the top of
from Flickr. Tag: Monte Musiné the Monte Musiné

The “Mole Antonelliana” with 1,701 georeferenced photographs is the

analysed monument with the largest number of collected points. Therefore,
this analysis is based on a large sample which means an increase in the
perceptual capacity of results. Figure 14 illustrates the identified points,
while figure 16YYYY shows the overlapping of this perceptual map
from social networks with the visibility map derived from the viewshed
analysis. The viewshed analysis studies geometrically, using a three-di-
mensional database, the visibility of a point from its surroundings, but
does not take into account the quality of this geometric visibility, defined
as the real representative recognition of a point compared to the visual
context. In fact, the geometric analysis alone does not take into account
the size of the object related to the surrounding elements or the possible
presence of other elements that determine the recognisability of the land-
mark (e.g. colour, shape, brightness). For this reason, it is necessary to
calibrate carefully the analysis radius. Furthermore, some recent studies
on the viewshed tool (Garnero and Fabrizio, 2015; Garnero and Fabrizio,
2014) show that the presence of particulates and air pollution greatly affect
visibility and reduce the visual influence radius of the considered land-
mark in relation to its surroundings. Analyses based on the datization of
information shared in the social networks can help to correctly assess the
perceptual areas of influence of an element in its surroundings by avoiding
mistakes or considerations that rarely find correspondence in reality. For
example, the visibility of the Mole Antonelliana from the Colletta Park
-sited in the Northern part of Turin-, even if highlighted by the viewshed
analysis (figure 15), is not reflected in reality, because of the presence of

188
Fig. 14 - Results of the analysis by datization from Flickr. Tag: Mole Antonellliana

Fig. 15 - Vieshed analysis of the visibility of the Mole Antonelliana

189
tree-lined barriers which are not mapped in the 3d-Gis database (unless
you use a DSM base), and because of the reduced size of the pinnacle of
the monument compared to the other elements in the surroundings (figure
16). Similarly, it is possible that the incorrect definition of the analysis
point tends to exclude or include in the viewshed certain territorial areas,
thus affecting the quality of any derived scenic protective restriction. The
viewshed tool is essential to quantify and scientifically study the areas
of visual impact. Nevertheless, this instrument should be properly used,
by checking, especially in some specific contexts, its representativeness
through further supporting analyses. These analyses may be based, as well
as on information derived from social networks, on territorial and envi-
ronmental photographic campaigns conducted by professionals (see for
example the papers of Chiesa and Di Gioia, 2011; Chiesa and La Riccia,
2011), on questionnaires and interviews, or on population involvement
instruments. In the case of the Mole Antonelliana, the overlap between
the geometric-visibility map and the perceptual one derived from socials
enables a classification of the detected points from the most to the least
perceived. These less popular points may be the objects of a strategy of
valorisation or intervention (e.g. for tourist reasons) after further specific
analyses.

Fig. 16 - The visibility of the Mole Antonelliana from the Colletta park. Photographic lens:
70mm

190
Fig. 17 - Datization from social network. Fig. 18 - Viewshed analysis from the Monte
Tag: “Monte dei Cappuccini” dei Cappuccini

“Monte dei Cappuccini” represents a consolidated viewpoint overlook-

ing the city of Turin. The datization process from social networks highlights
its visibility and recognition from the walk that is dislocated along the axis
of the Po River and the nearby Vittorio Veneto square (see Figure 17). Some
collected points identify specific visual cones on the Monte dei Cappuccini
from the hills near Turin. Figure 18 overlaps the perceptual mapping derived
from social networks with the viewshed analysis of visibility made by using
three-dimensional GIS software. The overlapping of these two layers of
investigation permits, at least in theory, the construction of a landscape-per-
ceptual classification of visual areas of fruition of Monte dei Cappuccini.

7.5. Conclusions

In this chapter an innovative operational methodology to identify, thanks

to a multidisciplinary approach, areas and points of interest (either Boolean
or categorised) by considering landscape perception is presented. These
points and areas can be, in future, the objects of preservation, conscious
transformation, and/or valorisation. The reported tools can be applied to
evaluate framework and sometimes very different local contexts including
those affected by socio-economic transformations related to urban and
territorial forms. These transformations are related to several factors such
as the dissolution of the relationship of proximity, uncertain and constant
variation in the city limits, the severe crisis affecting local and global
economies as well as social and environmental risks. These factors have
created in recent years specific dynamics that are energizing new urban-
ization in small towns and the rapid transformation of urban contexts all

191
over the world. Furthermore, this specific phenomenon is linked with the
crisis of traditional agriculture along with the loss of traditions and cultural
references at a regional level (Zanfi , 2008; Cohen, 2002; Donadieu, 1998).
The sprawl phenomenon (e.g. Dal Pozzolo, 2002; Haag, 2002; Guérois and
Pumain, 2002; Champion, 2002) is becoming more complex, including not
only a diffusion of the city, but also a diffusion of international shapes and
building technologies which is creating a universal, standardized city profile
that is far removed from any concept of regionalism (see Basilico, 2005).
Furthermore, it is essential to remember that the diffusion of the city is now
giving way to a spread city, in which diffused phenomena of densification
can be highlighted. All these aspects are transforming the landscapes into
realities which are more and more difficult to read and interpret.
This new lack of references in urban spaces and everyday contact with
anonymous, interstitial places has motivated the interest, perhaps the desire,
to identify and take care of the landscape as a sort of natural response to
these faster and pervasive territorial changes. Furthermore, the preservation
(or in some critical cases the recreation) of the local landscape is a central
theme within urban and territorial promotion to incentivize tourist flow.
Territorial planning, urban policies and environmental design are affected
by new approaches, and instruments are being brought into play to cater for
the need for smartness and environmental quality in a continuously changing
framework condition. These instruments can be used for the identification
and the protection of landscape values and for their consistent redesign and
enhancement. Furthermore, they are also suitable for defining quantitative
tools which are able to classify the areas according to the possible level of
intervention as regards technological, energetic and environmental impli-
cations. For example, these tools can be used to identify the most suitable
areas, from the landscape preservation point of view, or to localize specific
elements or visible network infrastructures for the production of renewable
energy (wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, ...). Moreover, they can also be
used to define the most suitable typologies and classes of invasiveness for
the local energy retrofitting of building stocks.
The methodology here presented, based on both the viewshed analysis,
and the analysis based on datization of social network information, aims at
understanding if, in a continuously changing territory, technological frame-
work and society, it is possible to use innovative analytical tools , which are
normally far removed from ordinary environmental, urban planning, and
political decision-making practices, for landscape preservation. These items
can be widely interpreted and applied by the institution of a specific plan

192
(energy, urban, territorial, landscape, ...) and for specific projects.
Social perception can support the mere regulatory approach to find new
scenarios of transformation and the definition of re-design and re-engineer-
ing tools for design practices.
However, the tools and the methodological approach here presented
need to be implemented in future processes (planning, design, analysis).
It is essential that these reflections remain open to innovation in order to
overcome the discontinuity that often occurs between instances of the “strat-
egy” and those of the “control”. Big data, as well as 3D-GIS analysis tools
can find ample space for use in future urban design practice. However, it is
now necessary to fully understand the capabilities and limitations of these
instruments, as evidenced in the comments on the application examples,
including, where necessary, additional application tools (e.g. territorial
photography, atmospheric visibility – analysis of pollutants , social network
datization, questionnaires, participatory tools). The implications of digital
practices in urban areas, which is the subject of this book, can, in real terms
introduce new ways of thinking about urban and territorial projects, by inte-
grating different scales and various components. The possibility of using
large amounts of real-time data inside the latest generation of analytical and
modelling tools allows us at present only to perceive the really incredible
potential of this innovation. It is necessary, however, as noted in Chapter 3,
to develop the necessary interpretative skills and technological capabilities
in order to prepare professionals to face this change.
Returning to the theme of visibility and scenic-landscape values, the
viewshed analysis tool and big data interpretations can help to solve dif-
ferent problems in the urban and landscape planning fields. These two
methodologies, which are fully complementary, strengthen the idea that the
landscape can become a privileged instrument to create future images of
cities which are compatible with population perception. In order to increase
the consensus on landscape design action, rigid rules and project have to
be supported by less codified tools which are easily understandable by the
public, such as strategies for the virtual foreshadowing of future scenarios.
These techniques allow us on the one hand to find innovative applications
for the planning of operational tool management interventions and prescrip-
tions and on the other hand to hypothesize totally new planning scenarios,
based on models and data. These visions look at the plan as a methodolog-
ical framework, in which content can constantly change or modify in real
time depending on the demands and needs of the smart or resilient cities of
the future. This scenario can be used by a generation of professionals and

193
policy makers who are able to interpret and drive the construction of the
cities of the future. As was pointed out by Wiener (1950), it is fundamental
to carefully delegate to machines any strategic choice because even if they
can be provided with decision-making capacities, these will not necessarily
match with human interests.
It is necessary to supplement urban planning with other disciplines that
affect territorial government, from the process of knowledge to that of plan-
ning and implementation of the plan. Otherwise there is a risk of attributing
to the plan objectives which are entirely generic and which impede adequate
understanding at the operational level, because of lack of tools or an insuf-
ficient sharing of intervention modalities.
The “discrete” approach, like the one generally used in traditional urban
planning strategies, has often demonstrated discrepancies between the
expected results and the achieved issues, for example because of changes
in demographics or economic variables not included in the previous idea of
local urban transformation (think of New Orleans – Chiesa, 2010; Schwartz,
2007). Nevertheless, innovative tools, such as those related to big data and
parametric urban issues, can support an innovative “active” approach which
is oriented to the use of computerized systems and continuously implement-
ed scenarios which are able to deal with the fluidity of the contemporary
urban context. However, the development of these new scenarios requires
the definition of methods and tools to extrapolate trends from a multitude
of different data sources, to collect and upload databases, and clarify and
articulate the assumptions and the models which are used for predictions
and analyses. Furthermore, in an algorithmic city, traditional geographical
boundaries can result outdated. These boundaries are, however, the current
field of reference, but they can barely satisfy the needs of society and peo-
ple. A huge effort has to be made in future in order to fix boundaries which
are essential to create databases that can be uploaded in time (e.g. censuses)
and especially to organize political actions in a territory. It is possible to
think that in future, data collected from social networks, resulting from a set
of questions, needs, problems and opportunities, together with other sources
of data, could be used to define – and redefine – the “boundaries” of public
action.
In modern society urban planning is facing important changes. Certainly,
the means of intervention have changed. Hence, it is necessary that urban
planning and design practices address the new problems of the city with
new procedures, new tools, and new approaches which are able to handle
contemporary complexity.

194
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8. Analysis of extensive information concerning
the real estate market of Turin (Italy) managed
by a Land Information System: relevance for
territorial policies and urban decision-making
procedures
Rocco Curto and Elena Fregonara

8.1. Introduction

An extensive amount of data concerning the urban real estate market,

managed by a Land Information System, can certainly be a fundamental
tool for the territory’s preservation, development and governmental policies,
also in accordance with a smart city logic and with the European Research
and Innovation Framework - “Horizon 2020”. In fact, a database containing
temporal and geographical referenced data, if processed with proper models
and methodologies, can help public administrations and private investors –
that constantly refer to regulatory and economic measures – in structuring
decision-making procedures on the basis of the market’s conditions.
As a matter of fact, a managed knowledge of the market can help opera-
tors or private citizens in their real estate investment choices, as well as pub-
lic/private subjects in their planning and programming interventions. It can
help Municipalities in pursuing territorial marketing policies centred also on
big interventions, modulating public or private financing in the presence of
an offer as much as possible adequate to the actual absorption capacity of
the real estate markets and in the view of risk containment. Moreover, it can
help solve the equity tax system issue – currently one of the most debated
topics in our Country – and answer the need to view local finance from a
different perspective, that is to consider fiscal imposition for its potentiality
to support building, territorial and environmental policies.
At the same time, city development can be carried out properly only on
the basis of balanced conditions in the real estate market, as well as build-
ing and territorial conditions based on retrofit interventions of the existing

199
patrimony and sustainable urban regeneration, more than on big expansion
projects that subtract land. Concomitantly, also fiscal and building policies
need to view equity and equalization as tools for social balance, economic
growth and territorial/environmental requalification. On the basis of these
preliminary remarks, the case of the Osservatorio Immobiliare della Città
di Torino (OICT/Turin Real Estate Market Observatory)1 is hereby present-
ed as an example of a permanent structure for monitoring and analyzing
the real estate market, on the basis of the experience matured in identifying
a methodology for defining cadastral Microzones in the city of Turin –
approved by the City’s Municipal Council in 1999 – and following boundary
identification, in accordance with Presidential Decree 138/1998 and the
Regulation issued by the Ministry of Finance.
The OICT operates through databases referenced by territory (and time)
and managed through proper technologies. In fact, said databases are pro-
cessed by analysis tools chosen from a selection of models available taking
into consideration on the one hand the project’s aims, and on the other hand
the spatial and georeference requisites of the data (which in the case of
prices concerns the “value spatial component”). The use of alphanumeric/
cartographic databases and the possibility to georeference the market’s
observations enables to overcome the consolidated applications of descrip-
tive statistics, enabling to experiment advanced statistical models even with
multi-varied and spatial characteristics.
The structure of the OICT’s data-warehouse, based on cartographic and
alphanumeric databases, is the result of a work carried out in time which
has led to relevant accurate historic price observations. It is the result of
a constant verification of integrability with databases from other sources
according to the principle of interoperability.
Currently, the “procedure” for monitoring the residential real estate
market is organized according to a workflow based on a consolidated meth-
odological path. The solidity of the analyses is guaranteed by the relevance
of the data used subject to a strict “quality control process” which verifies

1. The Osservatorio Immobiliare della Città di Torino (Turin Real Estate Market Obser-
vatory) has been active since year 2000 owing to the collaboration between the Politecnico di
Torino (Department of Architecture and Design) and the Municipality of Turin (Directorate
for taxes, cadastre and public land – Municipal cadastral services) and, since 2007, with the
Chamber of Commerce, Agriculture and Handicrafts of Turin (Market protection and pub-
lic confidence Department). The OICT is supported by category Associations, Real estate
agencies and ANCE, within the ambit of the Agreement Protocol signed with institutional
partners (Politecnico, Municipality, Chamber of Commerce), in 2006. The scientific person
in charge for the Politecnico di Torino is Prof. Rocco Curto; Vice-person in charge is Prof.
Elena Fregonara.

200
the numerousness and spatial distribution of the data collected. It is also
guaranteed by sampling modalities, by the processing of outliers and the
representativeness of the prevalent building categories in each Microzone,
keeping into account heterogeneity and building characteristics with respect
to the randomness of the data sampled.
With reference to the model-making, international literature provides a
solid background on which the OICT’s workgroup based its scientific pro-
duction. Special attention, supported by empirical evidence, was paid to the
spatial component of prices that led to the introduction of spatial statistical
models in the Real Estate and the development of hedonic models, capable
of including the spatial component by sub-segmenting the real estate market
in geographical areas2.
These being the main aspects of the structure, it is possible to describe
several experiences carried out owing to OICT’s data, often originated from
practical requests made by institutional partners. In fact, the latter were able
to carry out specific projects, detailed studies and researches employing
each time the most fit databases and suitable processing tools, depending
on the nature of the data. Among the most relevant experiences it is worth
mentioning:

• experimentations for the real estate tax system within the ambit of the
cadastre reform, on the assumption that cadastral values are totally
disconnected from the transaction real estate market values, and
therefore from their characteristics and qualities. The estimate of the
real estate values is a fundamental step in a methodology that also
includes specific technological infrastructures and databases;
• specific projects supporting the local tax system, such as those aimed at
defining the value of the city’s building areas, starting from the incidence
of positional factors – the location variable – in determining values;
• analysis of the determinants of asking/transaction prices, of the
dynamics of transactions, of supply and demand behaviours;
• studies on the relevance of the energy performance of buildings on prices;
• study on behaviour dynamics at the basis of choices and house
mobility, by analyzing the characteristics of buyers and of the real
estate;

2. Cf. S. Basu, T.G. Thibodeau 1998, Analysis of Spatial Autocorrelation in House Prices,
Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 17,1, 61-85; R.K. Pace, R. Barry, C.F. Sirmans
1998, Spatial Statistics and Real Estate, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 17, 1,
5-13; S.C .Bourassa, E. Cantoni, M. Hoesli 2007, Spatial Dependence, Housing Submarkets,
and House Prices, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 35,143-160.

201
 • studies on the gentrification phenomena in act/occurred, spontaneous
or induced, through multi-varied and spatial statistical models.

From a scientific viewpoint, the relevance of experiences is based not

only on the direct connection with the city’s actual problems (sometimes
extensible at national level), but also on the specific aspects of the context
in which the analyses are carried out, when keeping into consideration the
actual availability of data and information. It is worth reminding that it has
always been difficult to collect reliable data in the Italian context, given the
opacity of the information available; what is even more lacking is a true
“information organization” with analyses based on updated databases con-
nected among each other. This is also at the basis of the delay in studying
the economic consequences of the various phenomena in the urban ambit. A
delay that triggered the considerations offered in this paper.

8.2. Organized data on the real estate market: a support for

decision-making procedures and the definition of
governmental policies

A Territorial Information System for observing and analyzing the real

estate market – if designed as a tool aimed at supporting the management
of the urban territory and policies – involves delicate and complex matters
to be placed within a methodological framework capable of facing broader
issues such as, for example, those related to databases and technological
infrastructures. In fact, first of all administrative procedures need to be
simplified in view of interoperability pursuant to the European Directive
INSPIRE (INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe), which estab-
lishes the creation of an infrastructure for territorial information in the
European Community, in force as of 15 May 2007 (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/
LexUriServ/site/it/oj/2007/l_108/l_10820070425it00010014.pdf).
In the view of interoperability, it is fundamental to carry out a prelim-
inary investigation on databases, in particular to verify the current state
of cadastral, municipal and Finance databases. It is also fundamental to
select the Italian databases that are usable considering the actual level of
interoperability offered by the same. This is carried out through an accurate
conceptual, logical and physical project that keeps into account the various
scales of databases to be connected, identifying misalignments, strategies
and solutions in accordance with the principles of the INSPIRE Directive

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concerning, among other things, the non duplicability of the data when
passing among the various scales. This concept is particularly delicate, as
it implies the possibility to propose a hierarchy of the information to be
processed: information often provided by different Bodies according to prin-
ciples sometimes conflicting. This also affects indirectly possible proposals
at legislative and regulatory level required from central governments when
implementing the INSPIRE Directive.

Moreover, it is important to highlight that the complexity of the work

to be carried out – in the specific case in the real estate sector – is even
greater due to the fact that in Italy the real estate market not only presents
a remarkable degree of differentiation of the housing units exchanged in
objective terms (that is due to the characteristics of the housing units), but
also at subjective level and as regards the economic, income, symbolic and
property value that real estate represents for buyers. In fact, the demand
mostly consists of single individuals that behave according to preferences
often influenced by cultural, social, psychological factors, while the supply
in turn is not that dissimilar from the demand, as it is made only in minimum
part of enterprises and economic subjects. On the one hand, the interaction
of all these conditions affects the level of variability of the real estate values
making it very high, and on the other hand it produces an effect of further
amplification of the stochastic components already typical of all the mar-
kets. In other words, the overlapping of meanings and of the use, income,
property, symbolic and cultural values has a non-marginal role in affecting
the mechanisms that form the real estate values.
The OICT’s experience is based on all of the above conditions, as
explained in detail hereafter.

8.3. Experience: the Turin Real Estate Market Observatory

The Osservatorio Immobiliare della Città di Torino (Turin Real Estate

Market Observatory) was created with the aim to identify a methodology
for defining Municipal Microzones in Turin and related boundaries, pursu-
ant to Presidential Decree 138/1998 “Regulation providing measures aimed
at the general review of census zones, of the urban real estate assessable
values and related criteria, and of census commissions implementing article
3, paragraphs 154 and 155, of Law n. 662 dated 23 December 1996” and
the Regulation of the Ministry of Finance (Figure 1). A series of continu-

203
ously renewed contracts and agreement protocols formalize the activities
and relationships among the institutional partners - Politecnico di Torino
(Department of Architecture and Design), the Chamber of Commerce of
Turin, the Municipality of Turin – as well as ANCE, category Associations
and other parties that signed the Agreement Protocol.

Fig. 1 − The forty census Microzones of the city of Turin (Source: OICT’s data processing)

In order to define the Microzones, the Politecnico di Torino used a

Territorial Information System organized in databases, and structured from
the very outset in such a way to be progressively integrated and broadened.
After a prototypal phase, the information system evolved into the OICT
undertaking aims that go beyond the strictly fiscal purposes for which it was
established. Currently, the OICT is a Territorial Information System that
observes the real estate market systematically and continuously with the aim
to support urban land registry offices in managing the territory.
Its structure, based on observation and monitoring, is designed as an inte-
gral part of a broader and more complex Land Information System (LIS), so
as to involve all the public and private subjects interested in a higher market
transparency. In fact, the OICT is meant as a tool aimed at monitoring, ana-
lyzing and providing knowledge concerning the dynamics, the structure and

204
the characteristics of the real estate market so as to support the management
and planning of the territory/services, capable of satisfying also the needs of
the operators of the sector. The OICT as public service constantly monitors
the values and the dynamics of the real estate market and building activity
with diversified purposes, such as:

• to provide an overall knowledge of the real estate values with refer-

ence to specific territorial ambits (the 40 Microzones) for the residen-
tial segment;
• to support operators and private citizens in choosing their real estate
investments;
• to support the public and private subjects in their planning and pro-
gramming of interventions;
• to support the economic assessments of the projects;
• to experiment advanced statistical methodologies and models for ana-
lyzing the real estate market.

The institutional subjects involved in the project regularly enter into

agreements concerning the above mentioned purposes and other specific
aims mentioned hereafter.

8.3.1. Databases of the Land Information System and their sources

The OICT’s extensive information is organized in cartographic and

alphanumeric databases stored and managed, as mentioned, by a Land
Information System (LIS) and related Geographical Information System
(GIS). The structure of the LIS is the result of the creation and implemen-
tation of databases over the years, also verifying – on LIS bases –possible
integrations with databases from other sources, according to the principle of
interoperability. Figure 2 schematizes the organization of the OICT’s data
warehouse, indicating its sources.
The schematization also shows several alphanumeric databases activated
in time through the contribution of external sources by means of accurate
downloads, or implemented for limited periods of time and then suspend-
ed or closed. Moreover, it shows the cartographic databases acquired and
updated in time, including the broadening of the LIS to the neighbouring
municipalities.

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8.3.2. The “quality process”

The robustness of the analysis is guaranteed by the meaningfulness of

the data used exposed to a rigid quality control process as regards their
collection and analysis. The “quality process,” launched in 2008, is based
on two phases. Before describing said phases, it is important to highlight
that the process is the result of a brainstorming that preceded and directed a
more general review process of the OICT’s activities; the brainstorming was
carried out according to the following (main) steps:

Fig. 2 −The organization of OICT’s extensive information. Cartographic and alphanumeric

databases and related sources (Source: OICT’s data processing)

206
 1. hypothesis of reviewing the OICT;
2. detection of negative effects;
3. identification of causes and solutions;
4. identification of the relationship between solutions and production
phases;
5. identification of the criticalities and operational steps;
6. definition of the process outcome: phases of the analysis procedure on
the OICT’s data.

Figure 3 shows an example of a graph produced to support the brain-

storming, structured on the basis of the “Ishikawa Diagram”.

Fig. 3 − Example: step for identifying the relationship between solutions and the production
phases (Source: OICT’s data processing)

“Quality process:” the first phase

The quality process was developed on the basis of a main aim: to progres-
sively improve the methodologies used for observing the real estate market
and strengthen the statistical data processing carried out on the OICT’s
databases, improving the qualitative level of the service. Therefore, the first

207
step consisted in verifying the numerousness and spatial distribution of the
data collected. In fact, this process enabled to shorten the time necessary for
collecting and processing data, guaranteeing a higher coverage of the terri-
tory and a greater homogeneity of the surveys in the 40 Microzones, thus
ensuring a stronger control on the quality of the results. The review process
enabled to remarkably reduce the number of Microzones with an insufficient
statistical numerousness of sampling data (assuming that statistical reliabili-
ty is guaranteed when the sample presents at least seven surveys).
In addition to the above, the first phase is also characterized on the one
hand by the identification and implementation of more refined sampling
modalities, also so as to produce stratified samples on the basis of different
relevant characteristics of the real estate observed and in compliance with
the postulate of ordinariness, at the basis of the Assessment; and on the other
hand, it is characterized by the implementation of automated methodologies
to identify and select outliers.
From an operational viewpoint, this introduced more solid data collec-
tion procedures and related sampling investigations, besides statistics for
controlling and verifying the reliability and relevance of the data and results
of the methodological applications produced. Moreover, for each Microzone
(and related sub-sampling) the Error Profile calculation was introduced
which - besides the elementary descriptive statistics which already in them-
selves offer a good reading of the market even if through simple indicators
to be calculated - is aimed at identifying possible sampling errors (outliers)
and highlighting anomalous values as regards the ordinariness of the market.
This second level of verification implies for each Microzone, for example,
the calculation of confidence intervals (when necessary and possible for the
numerousness of the data), the creation of Boxplots, besides the implemen-
tation of the normality hypothesis test. The first phase of the process is based
on several fundamental theoretical elements briefly mentioned hereafter3.

Descriptive statistics

Usually, in order to investigate the characteristics of a population, at least

during the preliminary phases of the analysis, concise statistical indexes are
employed (positional, variability and form indexes), referred to one or more
quantitative variables (characters) as well as qualitative variables present in
the population.

3. What mentioned in the rest of this paragraph represents the theoretical-methodological

basis for various experimentation phases that led to the final structure of the process.

208
 As regards the OICT’s databases, created and implemented for an ordi-
nary monitoring activity (cf. Figure 2), descriptive statistical analyses were
carried out systematically during the first phase with various aims, among
which: to acquire and strengthen the knowledge of market value dynamics
in the residential sector; to identify possible concentrations in the real estate
value variation phenomena; to verify the entity of said variations and the
possible effect on the current boundaries of the 40 municipal Microzones;
to facilitate the sub-segmentation operations of Microzones particularly rel-
evant for territorial extension, etc.
In our case, the variable (or character) under analysis was the asking
price; within the ambit of the “Real Estate Agents” database, also the trans-
action price was analyzed, as well as the time of permanence of the housing
unit on the market and the difference between the average asking price and
the average transaction price (delta prices).
In particular, the following was calculated4:

• the main concise statistical indexes expressed in Euro/sqm (minimum

value, mean value, maximum value, standard deviation and median)
for each Microzone;
• the main concise statistical indexes expressed in Euro/sqm (minimum
value, mean value, maximum value, standard deviation and median)
on the sample concerning the whole city.

Statistical in-depth analysis of the sampling data collected

Further statistical analyses and processing were carried out as explorative

analyses of the data and inferential estimate.
The statistical analyses on the data collected through random sampling
for each Microzone had a “classic” organization, schematized in the follow-
ing steps:

1. choice of parameters for assessing and defining the sampling numer-

ousness;
2. identification of the sampling distribution of the data and inference on
the population distribution;

4. For a definition of the statistical indexes, refer to the following texts: L. Perrone, Meto-
di quantitativi della ricerca sociale, Feltrinelli, Milano 1978; F. Pellerey, Elementi di statistica
per le applicazioni, Celid, Torino 1998; G. Vicario, R. Levi, Calcolo delle proba- bilità e
statistica per ingegneri , Esculapio, Bologna 1997.

209
 3. identification of anomalous values (outliers);
4. accurate estimate of the parameters;
5. interval estimate of the parameters;
6. comparison among the results obtained in various Microzones, in
different years.

The sampling statistical investigation follows the typical organization

divided in phases: that is, planning, collection, filing, review and codification,
processing, validation and spreading5. The overall analysis is based on the
comparison among sampling investigations repeated in different years, with
variable populations for each year considered; it is worth highlighting that
the inter-temporal comparison of the sampling investigations is what gives a
strong connotation to the structure of the work. On the basis of the analyses
carried out on the sampling observations – extracted from a finite population
– conclusions are made, by induction, from sampling to population.
The results of the statistical investigation are supported by the production
of various hierarchic output documents; they are presented in the form of
tables, graphs, concise indexes, comments and statistical conclusions with
reference to the methodologies employed, or still under the form of first con-
siderations on the Error profile of the investigation.

“Error profile” of the investigation

In order to produce a reliable investigation (reminding that “reliability”

and “adequacy” represent the target properties of a sampling investigation6),
it is necessary to limit the statistical errors that can arise in each phase of
the statistical investigation. Statistical error means the discrepancy between
the actual value of a population and the value available from the investiga-
tion. Statistical errors are divided in sampling and non-sampling: the former
depend on the sampling level chosen and the sampling numerousness, and

5. It is the organization in seven phases carried out frequently when planning multipur-
pose analyses in case of investigations with more variables referred to the population and on
various sub-populations. An example at national level is given by ISTAT’s investigations,
accompanied by the planning of tasks, time, costs and responsibility of each operation. Cf. B.
Frosini, M. Montanaro, G. Nicolini (1999), Il campionamento da popolazioni finite, UTET
Università, Torino.
6. “Reliability” means the level of accuracy of the estimate, in terms of approximation of
the estimate to the real value; “adequacy” refers to the presence of requisites with reference
to the defined aims and the diffusion of the results of the investigation. These properties are
guaranteed by the modalities for defining and presenting elements such as the population, the
variables (characters) to analyze, the parameters to estimate, the estimators used, the graphic
outputs produced and the indexes calculated

210
occur even if all the sampling data were measured without error; the latter
can occur in any moment of the investigation and are distinguished in cov-
ering errors, errors due to lack of answers, and measure errors7.
Of course, non-sampling errors are the most difficult to manage.
Sampling errors need to be particularly controlled. Although they can be
limited by increasing the numerousness of the sampling, with consequent
decrease in the confidence intervals of the estimates, the increase of the
sampling numerousness usually causes an increase in non-sampling errors:
a situation that can be obviated by analyzing the effects on the estimates
generated by non sampling errors.
This being said, it is advisable to associate the sampling investigation
with an error profile or more correctly a quality profile, that is an error
profile of the investigation. This operation provides for the description of
all the analysis operations and possible error sources so as to identify them
and describe them. Moreover, by implementing more complex statistical
procedures, the error profile aims at analyzing the effect of the error of each
operation not only in terms of sampling and non-sampling error, but also on
the overall error.
The error profile in a sampling investigation takes into consideration the
presence of the statistical error, which can be defined in terms of discrep-
ancy between the real value and the value observed (or value acquired, or
value available). If we refer to synthesis statistics (that is, in our case, to data
collected through a sampling investigation), reference is made to the sum of
sampling errors and non-sampling errors; the latter can be found in all of the
types and in all of the phases of investigation.
Clearly the concept of statistical error is closely connected to that of data
quality; moreover, the latter affects the actual definition of error profile.
Even more in particular, the concept of non-sampling error heavily affects
the quality of the data produced.
The error profile of the investigation is produced by identifying and
analyzing:

• estimators for the interval estimate of the parameters. In order to

obviate the uncertainty caused by the randomness of the sampling,
it is possible to associate the accurate estimate of a parameter with
a “confidence interval”. This enables to state that, with a pre-estab-
lished degree of confidence (for example 95%), the unknown value of

7. In literature various possible classifications are provided on the basis of various criteria.

211
 the parameter belongs to a defined interval, called fork value. In other
words, according to the inferential theory it is possible to identify a
confidence interval straddling the estimated value, interval to which
with a certain confidence the expected value belongs. The width of
the interval is function, of course, of the sampling considered. The
confidence interval can be calculated through classic inferential
statistics or through the Bootstrap method. The choice between the
two methods depends on several specific elements of the analysis,
such as the nature and numerousness of the input data, the population
distribution, the possible presence of anomalous values, etc. Usually,
the classic inferential statistics is employed (possibly calculating
the truncated or trimmed mean) when working in the presence of
a high sampling numerousness, of data distributed normally and in
the absence of anomalous values. The Bootstrap method instead is
applied when it is necessary to use more solid estimators, without bur-
dening the analysis with passages of inferential statistics that would
result exceedingly complex;
• sampling distributions. Sampling distributions are analyzed by read-
ing the histogram or density diagram. In fact, by reading the graph it
is possible to infer considerations on the distribution of the population
under exam. Moreover, through non-parametric tests (such as Chi-
square, Kolmogorov, etc.) it is possible to verify the hypothesis that
the empirical distribution is ascribable to a specific theoretical distri-
bution, for example a normal distribution. This enables to verify also
if the histogram can provide information on the sampling population;
• anomalous values. It is possible for anomalous values - that can be
found within the sampling for various reasons - to affect estimate
operations in particular when using procedures with non solid esti-
mators, that is sensitive to variations even of a single sampling value.
Examples of non solid estimators are the mean sampling, the sam-
pling standard deviation or the sampling minimum and maximum
values. Anomalous values are identified through specific analyses
among which the calculation of Box-plots;
• graphs and indexes. Besides frequency histograms, other graphic out-
puts are available enabling a more in-depth reading of the behavior of
the data of the population under analysis:
- Box-plots. Box-plots provide more complete indications compared
to other graphic outputs normally produced (for example the fre-
quency histogram); besides, they are particularly effective when,

212
 as in our case, it is necessary to compare various sampling among
each other (because referred to different Microzones or because
referred to the same Microzone but in different years). In fact,
they indicate the sampling minimum, mean and maximum value,
as well as the interquartile distances. They are particularly suggest-
ed when the mean and median values of a distribution are distant.
Therefore, they enable to synthesize the sampling distribution and
especially to identify the values that behave in a different way com-
pared to the rest of the sampling, and thus proceed with considera-
tions on their origin. Once the outliers are identified it is possible to
operate in different ways depending on the following cases:
- the anomalous values can be eliminated from the sampling upon
verification that they are actually the result of errors committed
during the analysis phases and are not ascribable, instead, to an
actual market behaviour;
- more solid estimators are used (for example, the trimmed mean);
- in alternative to traditional statistical methods, the interval esti-
mate is used calculated through the Bootstrap method if operat-
ing in the presence of small or not normal sampling.
Lastly, Box-plots enable to infer considerations on the level of the
distribution symmetry;
- Error-bar (confidence intervals). The “estimate for confidence inter-
vals,” mentioned above, implies passing from an accurate estimate
to an interval estimate; it envisages the identification of an interval
of values whose extremes depend on the estimate and on the var-
iance of the estimator. This interval, with appointed confidence,
includes the parameter object of estimate. In graphic form, the con-
fidence interval is expressed through Error-bars.

Figure 4 illustrates a synthesis of several analysis graphic outputs pro-

duced for the entire city of Turin on the basis of the above mentioned theo-
retical-methodological considerations.
In particular, taking year 2014 as an example, Figure 4 shows the the-
matization of the data territorial covering with reference to the residential
segment used (number of surveys), the graph concerning the numerousness
of surveys carried out in the 40 Microzones with reference to the residential
segment used, the thematization concerning the distribution of the mean
unitary prices per Microzone (residential segment, asking prices), the box
plots concerning price distribution for each Microzone.

213
 At the same time, further accurate analyses are produced for every six-
month period, also with the support of graphs (density distribution of sam-
pling prices, price distribution curve as regards the theoretical normal, etc.),
in order to produce the Error profile and the analysis of the outliers.

“Quality process:” the second phase

The second phase of the “quality process” was centred on the sampling
stratification of each Microzone having as aim the residential market analy-
sis through asking prices, keeping into account the territorial heterogeneity
and the building characterization typical of each Microzone. In fact, the

Fig. 4 − Example of graphic outputs: analysis of the city of Turin, year 2014 (Source: OICT’s
data processing)

214
strong differentiation of the real estate category reflected in identify for each
Microzone possible historic territorial portions and the prevailing “building
category,” a historic-urban analysis was carried out, followed by the appli-
cation of a methodology based on the sampling concept, considered as a key
moment for a correct statistical analysis.
To define the optimal sampling criteria it is necessary to characterize the
real estate market formed by sub-segments – well defined from a territorial
viewpoint – which operate as non-correlated markets. For example, when
considering that the city of Turin is divided in 40 cadastral Microzones, a
mean estimate of the average prices of Turin used for assessing two prop-
erties belonging to different Microzones would give the same value for
properties belonging to different sub-markets with different rules. To be
able to analyse correctly the city’s market it is therefore necessary to repre-
sent the main sub-segments in which it is composed, also within the single
Microzones. Moreover, it is necessary to consider that, since the dynamicity
of each market is different, clearly a random sampling on the entire city of
Turin may not provide sufficient data for covering the territory.

Stratified sampling methodology

Stratified sampling is a methodology that enables to examine all sub-seg-

ments while producing inferential analysis. The procedure consists in divid-
ing the population in sub-populations (defined by market segments) and in
forming a random sampling for each sub-population. In this way, should the
sampling numerousness allow it, it is possible to make inference in every
sub-population and describe the entire population highlighting its heteroge-
neity. The only limit is the difficulty in obtaining a single and forecasting
result on the entire population.
The methodological passages carried out for the residential segment used
(database “Old Buildings – Stratified Samples per Microzones”) – preced-
ed as mentioned by the historic-urban analysis for identifying the historic
territorial portions in which each Microzone can be divided and the related
prevailing building category – consists in the following aspects:

1. the definition of the complete sampling for each Microzone, through

the systematic collection of real estate offers;
2. the definition of the ordinary sampling for each Microzone, through
the stratification of the complete sampling with reference to the
“building category” characteristic;
3. the determination and comparison of the main statistical indicators on

215
 the complete and ordinary sampling;
4. the accurate analysis of the extreme values of the complete sampling
and the report of the minimum and maximum values not belonging to
the ordinary sampling.

A further aspect of the quality process consists in the stratification of

the complete sampling in every Microzone with reference to the prevailing
building category, so as to enable the observation of the market behaviour in
the presence of economic units or units of particular value and, possibly, to
identify ordinary sub-sampling with reference to the prevailing categories.
The cleaning of the sampling from the outliers (reminding that the same rep-
resent anomalous data) continues to be carried out, while the non-ordinary
units are included in the complete sampling.
Moreover, it is useful to read the market starting from a non-ordinary
sampling (complete sampling), for the following reasons:

• the complete sampling provides an overall view of the Microzone

market avoiding to exclude portions of market;
• the complete sampling presents a higher numerousness and, therefore,
a greater statistical relevance.

It is worth highlighting that the second phase of the process – centered

on the improvement of the sampling stratification modalities – was designed
for the used residential segment to then continue with reference to the new/
completely restructured residential segment. Among the peculiarities and the
factors characterizing this segment it is important to mention the influence
of the floor allocation of the housing units on the asking price of said units.
This aspect is widely analyzed also in literature. In fact, it is known that the
floor allocation is among the characteristics that mostly condition prices;
this condition, even if valid both for the used segment and for the new/com-
pletely restructured segment, is particularly relevant when analyzing new
buildings, since it is one of the main factors on which developers base their
economic-financial plans and their commercial logics.
For example, analyzing prices and surfaces of housing units belonging
to the same work site it is easy to trace the unitary prices and notice how
the same differ, often, only on the basis of the floor allocation (clearly with
lower unitary values for units located on ground/mezzanine floors or first
floors and values progressively higher, the higher the floor).

216
 It is possible to state that once the price of a typical unit in a work site is
established, the differences among the units are defined mainly on the basis
of the floors. In fact, observing the distribution of the values related to each
Microzone (database “New buildings – Stratified samples per Microzones”),
it is clear that in many cases the tail values refer to units located on ground/
mezzanine floors and first floor (inferior tails) or on the last floor/attic (high-
er tails), thus significantly moving away from the mean values. Therefore,
sometimes the minimum and maximum values can result not very relevant
for defining the general tendency of the value trend in each Microzone.
Hence, it is necessary to stratify the sampling surveyed as regards the
characteristics of “floor allocation,” of course with reference also to the total
number of floors and the building typology, so as to obtain an ordinary sam-
pling more representative of the sub-markets that each Microzone identifies.
Synthetically, the methodological steps for the second phase of the pro-
cess with reference to new/completely restructured segments are as follows:

1. the definition of the complete sampling for each Microzone, a system-

atic survey of the real estate offers;
2. the definition of the ordinary sampling for each Microzone, through
the stratification of the complete sampling:
1.1 stratification with reference to the “building typology;”
1.2 stratification with reference to the floor of the housing unit and the
number of floors of the building;
3. the determination and comparison of the main statistical indicators on
the complete and ordinary sampling;
4. the accurate analysis of the extreme values of the complete sampling
and the report of the minimum and maximum values not belonging to
the ordinary sampling.

The methodology defined in the second phase enables to carry out an

accurate analysis of the housing units for each Microzone, refining the val-
ues for the new/completely restructured residential segment; certainly, in
addition it is useful to monitor not only the housing units but also the work
sites in their wholeness so as to provide data on the characteristics of the
new/completely refurbished buildings and, more in general, on the building
activity of the city of Turin.

217
8.3.3. The current monitoring process of the residential real estate
market

AOn the basis of the principles described above, at the end of every
six-month period and every year the OICT updates the reading of the real
estate market trend of the city of Turin according to a process illustrated in
Figure 5.
It is important to consider that the schematization produced in the Figure
below refers to the residential segment; considerations must be made sepa-
rately as regards the other sectors, with reference to which databases were
implemented for aims connected to specific projects.
The schematized process is the result of the systematization work and the
updating of the real estate market monitoring modalities, made practical in the
various phases of the quality process, on the basis of which OICT’s Territorial
Information System is constantly broadened and made solid.

Fig. 5 – Monitoring process of the residential real estate market (Source: OICT’s data pro-
cessing)

218
8.3.4. The OICT’s website: a communication and multimedia
integration channel with various users

The data processed and analyzed by the OICT are periodically published
on the website www.oict.polito.it/en, accessible to all users. The website was
designed with the aim to enable the divulgation of the results of the various
activities and researches confirming the aim to support the knowledge and
transparency of the dynamics connected to the real estate market.
The three main sections of the website are as follows:

• “Microzones and values” devoted to the publication of reports updat-

ed every six months on the values of the 40 Microzones with related
datasheet (Figure 7). The datasheet of each Microzone shows the
main concise statistical indexes (mean value, minimum value, maxi-
mum value, median, standard deviation), expressed in Euro/sqm, for
each used and new/completely restructured residential segment, for a
period of 11 years.
• “La Tua Casa”, devoted to a multimedia questionnaire organized and
put on line with the aim to support the knowledge of the elements that

Fig. 6 − Screenshot of the home page of OICT’s website

219
 determine the creation of the real estate values with the direct involve-
ment of the website’s users (Figure 8). The online procedure is aimed
at the self-assessment of real estate located in the various Microzones
of the city; it is organized on the basis of multiple-choice questions,
according to the contents and guidelines provided by the OICT; it pro-
vides qualitative opinions (and not estimates), useful to guide potential
buyers/sellers describing the characteristics that mostly contribute in
enhancing a real estate (or vice versa).
• “Geoportal” (Figure 9). The database “Real Estate Agents”, men-
tioned above, was structured within the ambit of a specific pro-
ject carried out with the Chamber of Commerce of Turin and in
collaboration with the Real Estate Agencies/Sector Associations
participating in the mentioned Agreement Protocol; the database is
implemented by the real estate Agents that periodically provide the
OICT with data concerning the housing units sold. The Geoportal
enables, also from a geographic viewpoint, to consult the data and
the elaborations produced by the OICT with reference to the asking
and transaction values of the housing units in each Microzone of the
city.

Fig. 7 − Example of a value datasheet: Microzone 31 – San Paolo

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Fig. 8 − Multimedia questionnaire: excerpt

Fig. 9 − Work-flow of the Geoportal implementation process and excerpt showing the proce-
dure for providing information online

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Fig. 10 −Data processing concerning asking/transaction prices: examples of graphic outputs
for Turin and the Microzone 29 – Santa Rita

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8.4. Methodologies and models for analyzing the georeferenced
information

The evolution of the OICT’s applications is directly related to the limits

and potentialities of the various databases mentioned; in particular, to the
availability of the transaction prices besides the asking prices, and to the
presence (or not) of the requirement of “spatiality” for the data collected.
The availability of databases concerning the transaction prices enables
to analyze the real prices as well as the asking prices. By way of example,
several analyses carried out recently on the data “Real Estate Agents” are
as follows:

• spatial data analysis of the sales in Turin in specific periods of time

(series of annuities);
• data analysis of the correlation between the variables “Asking Price-
Transaction Price” and “Transaction Time” concerning a series of
annuities;
• comparison between the databases “Residential-Used” and “Real
Estate Agents” for specific periods;
• comparison, for the single annuities, of a sampling extracted from the
database “Real Estate Agents” containing apartments actually sold,
with a sampling extracted from the database “Residential-Used” with
apartments on sale (which therefore also includes the shares of the
unsold);
• analysis of the relationship between the lowering of prices in the
negotiation phase - measured on the difference between the asking
prices and the transaction prices (Delta Prices - DP) - and the liquidity
of the market - measured on the days of permanence on the market
(Time On Market - TOM) - starting from the sampling of housing
units sold in a series of annuities contained in the database “Real
Estate Agents”;
• analysis of the impact of the characteristics of the building/housing
unit on price formation and the sale time on a sampling extracted from
the database “Real Estate Agents” for a series of annuities.

By way of example, figure 10 shows a synthesis of several analysis out-

puts produced on the entire city and on an exemplifying Microzone.
At the same time, OICT’s alphanumeric and cartographic databases are
the basis for implementing both descriptive and advanced statistical analy-

223
ses, in particular for experimenting multi-varied and spatial statistical mod-
els. In fact, as mentioned, the spatial component of the datum (that is, the
value) and its georeferencing constitute the main discriminant in choosing
among descriptive statistics, multi-varied or spatial analysis methods. In the
view of the real estate value assessment, the spatial models go hand in hand
with the advanced statistical models, with which they represent tools capa-
ble of improving the estimate of the market prices.
On the basis of the aims of the analysis, of the possible spatiality of the
datum and the possibility to have georeferenced databases, it is possible
to reach a classic or advanced classification of the main models available
(Figure 11).
The research carried out starting from OICT’s databases is concentrated on
the development of spatial statistical models that enable to measure the spatial
component of the price. It is worth mentioning, for example, the experimen-
tations with hedonic models, which enable to measure the price component
that the Microzones can explain, so as to quantify the role of the cadastral
Microzones in price formation and, consequently, on the real estate value.
Or, the experimentations with Kriging models and grid models such as
the Geographical Weighted Regression (GWR), spatial econometric tech-
niques that derive from hedonic models and that are based on the assumption
that the object of the consumers’ preferences is made by the characteristics
of the property and not by the property itself. The choice to apply the GWR
enables, in fact, to test the usefulness of the georeferenced data on the terri-
tory, enabling to estimate the real estate with good results, regardless of the
territorial sub-segmentation in Microzones that reduces errors deriving from
spatial multicollinearity and self-correlation.
The comparison between the forecasting of prices by using spatial statis-
tical techniques and the geographic segments approach enables – for exam-
ple – to verify if the Microzones can explain the spatial variation of prices
and, therefore, identify value correctives depending on the position, aimed
also at principles of fiscal equity, as in the examples provided hereafter.

8.5. Examples of data processing: specific projects, studies,

experimentations

As mentioned, the ordinary activity was enhanced with specific pro-

jects and studies aimed at facing issues related to the real estate market.
Considering their importance, the following are worth mentioning.

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Fig. 11 − Identification of support models and databases (Source: OICT’s data processing)

Specific projects supporting the local real estate fiscal system in view of
the cadastral reform

The OICT provides a support to the local fiscal system, in particular

when defining the values of the building areas (and related updating) in
compliance with Legislative Decree n. 504 dated 30 December 1992 on the
Imposta Comunale degli Immobili (ICI/Municipal Real Estate Tax), with
a specific activity based on the prior identification of the cadastral census
Microzones. The project entailed the definition and implementation of oper-
ational modalities, updated each time also on the basis of possible integra-
tions of existing databases.
Always within the ambit of the real estate fiscal system, it is worth to
mention the project “Classification and fiscal system” aimed at identify-
ing the anomalies, iniquities and distortions of the current revenue system
referred to the city of Turin. In particular, the project analyzed the non-corre-
spondence between the values and the characteristics of the properties, that
is the values established on the basis of the reassessed cadastral revenues

225
and the actual real estate market values. The data were analyzed starting
from the general acknowledgement of the scarce impositive transparency
of the cadastral system and considering that rates developed fiscal iniquity
phenomena not finding corroboration in the actual real estate market values.
Starting from the need to continue the research and analyses carried out
within the ambit of this specific study, considering the complexity of the
themes and keeping into account also the legislative provisions in the finan-
cial ambit, the study continued with the project “Classification and fiscal
system: operational proposals”, which was based on the experimentation
of the actual corrective effects of passing from rooms to square metres as
unit of measure of the consistencies. Passing from rooms to square metres,
pursuant to Presidential Decree 138/1998, represents a first intervention on
the actual cadastral values so as to eliminate the iniquity produced by using
the cadastral room. This leads to passing from a system based on classes and
tariffs to a system based on real estate values. More recently, always in the
ambit of the activities directly connected with the issue of the real estate fis-
cal system, an experimentation was carried out aimed at defining a method-
ology, of rather quick implementation, aimed at making cadastral revenues
more fair while waiting for the review of the estimates. Specifically, the
methodology envisages the possibility to intervene on the actual cadastral
revenues by applying position corrective coefficients, to be multiplied by the
value of the actual cadastral revenues. The verification carried out up to now
has led to solid results, besides providing empirical evidence of the inequali-
ty produced by the current real estate tax system which is based on defining
the taxable base and the values currently registered in the land register which
gave origin to a clear iniquity. All this in line with what expressed by Law
n. 23 dated 11 March 2014 on fiscal proxy and in view of the reform for
which the same provides also through guidelines for the review of Building
Cadastre and the definition of new cadastral revenues in relation with the
more general reform of the land registry office.

Analysis on the determinants of the asking/transaction prices, on trans-

action dynamics, on supply and demand behaviours

Among the many characteristics that literature acknowledges as relevant

in forming prices, special attention has always been paid to the location
variable. The most recent studies carried out on the OICT data have concen-
trated on analyzing the relevance of the effect of location on values, through
price spatial analysis models and, at the same time, on property liquidity.

226
Location is expressed with reference to the city’s geographic submarkets
carried out in the Microzone census of the same. The data analysis provides
empirical evidence of the impact of sub-markets on housing prices while,
on the contrary, it enables to show that liquidity, expressed through the time
of permanence on the market and the discount rate, is not associated to geo-
graphic sub-markets.
Other studies are concentrated on the relevance of the energy perfor-
mance of buildings on prices, measured through the Attestato di Prestazione
Energetica (APE/Energy Performance Certificate). According to Directive
2002/91/EC and following 2010/31/EU (EPBD Recast) “the energy per-
formance of buildings should be calculated on the basis of a methodology,
which may be differentiated at national and regional level, that includes, in
addition to thermal characteristics, other factors that play an increasingly
important role such as heating and air-conditioning installations, application
of energy from renewable sources, passive heating and cooling elements,
shading, indoor air-quality, adequate natural light and design of the building
[…]”. In Italy APE has become mandatory in deeds of sale as of 2010 and in
real estate advertisements as of 2012 (implementing the European Directive
2010/31/EU- EPBD Recast). In fact, as highlighted in article 12 “Members
States shall require [...] the energy performance indicator of the energy
performance certificate of the building or the building unit, as applicable, is
stated in the advertisements in commercial media”.
According to what has emerged from operators (real estate Agents) and
from the preliminary analysis carried out since 2012 on the first data sam-
pling, the level of energy performance of a building does not seem to be an
important factor in real estate market dynamics.
This condition stimulated the interest to investigate on the concomitant
contribution of the location with the building energy performance on asking
prices, transaction prices, on the time of permanence on the market and
on the outcome of real estate intermediations on data sampling of more
than 1,000 transactions, occurred in Turin in the years 2011-2014. Hedonic
regression analyses have shown that the characteristics that influence asking
prices and transaction prices are capable of influencing also the outcome
of negotiations, although with different impacts. On the contrary, these do
not seem to influence the liquidity of property, represented by the time of
permanence on the market. The level of energy performance does not seem
to markedly influence prices or the liquidity of property or the outcome of
negotiations; however, there are differences among the various levels of
energy performance, from the highest to the lowest.

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 Further contributions to literature, still scarce on the theme, are in
course of development, in the direction of making the analysis of historic
territorial portions possible on the basis of homogeneity criteria with refer-
ence to building typologies, building periods, building characteristics, etc.
Therefore, analyses that can help shape retrofit interventions also with ref-
erence to policies for the city.

Studies on the Gentrification phenomena and on housing mobility

As mentioned, the availability of georeferenced databases enables an

in-depth knowledge of the city and of its transformations in terms of dyna-
micity, market values, social-economic changes. The city of Turin in the
past decades dealt with urban policies introduced with PRGC of 1995, with
projects for the 2006 Olympic games, with those of the underground railway
link and the underground, up to the perspectives introduced by the Variante
200. All interventions that have left urban signs on the city both as regards
building and environmental quality.
Among other specific studies, the OICT’s data warehouse enabled to try
and understand if and in what measure several spontaneous processes and
policies were able to trigger effects on the market of housing units located
in the interested zones, mentioning the possible enhancement effects in
patrimonial terms. More in particular, several analyses verified – within
the ambit of issues concerning the development of the urban territory – if
and where the phenomena of recovery and enhancement of existing/disused
real estate can be traced back to forms of spontaneous and non spontaneous
gentrification; this with reference to the more general market dynamics and
to demand behaviours as regards housing matters and with reference to
behaviors connected to housing mobility on the territory.
Instead, the specific project “Housing strategies in the Centre-West area
of Turin” is an example of a study aimed at grasping the behaviours of buy-
ers with reference to choices connected to urban territory mobility, based on
the analysis of social-personal data and economic-professional characteris-
tics as well as patrimonial aspects of building unit buyers. The portion of the
territory analyzed referred to several Microzones neighbouring transforma-
tion urban areas placed in comparison with Spina 1 and Spina 2. Following,
the specific project “Housing choices: analyses on the characteristics of buy-
ers and the real estate in Turin” analyzed the market and housing mobility
dynamics through the multi-varied and spatial statistical models mentioned
above. The study of the behaviour dynamics at the basis of housing choices

228
was carried out by analyzing the characteristics of buyers and real estate, the
relationship between the built fabric – specifically in several Microzones in
the centre and to the South of the city – and housing strategies, represented
by the social-economic, professional, personal characteristics and by pur-
chasing modalities, with reference to the buyers’ patrimonial components.

8.6. Bibliography

Basu S. and Thibodeau T.G. (1998), “Analysis of Spatial Autocorrelation in House

Prices”, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 17,1: 61-85.
Bourassa S.C., Cantoni E. and Hoesli M. (2007), “Spatial Dependence, Housing
Submarkets, and House Prices”, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics,
35: 143-160.
Brunauer W.A., Lang S., Wechselberger P. and Bienert S. (2010), “Additive hedo-
nic regression models with spatial scaling factors: an application for rents in
Vienna”, The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 41, 4: 390-411.
Curto R. e Fregonara E. (2002), “Un sistema informativo territoriale per l’osserva-
zione del mercato immobiliare a supporto dei catasti urbani e della gestione del
territorio”, Quaderni CeSET, Aestimum, 1: 24-60.
Curto R., Coscia C., Fregonara E. e Grella S. (2008), L’osservatorio immobiliare
della città di Torino: un patrimonio informativo per la conoscenza e l’analisi
delle dinamiche urbane e di mercato, in Murgante B., a cura di, L’informazione
geografica a supporto della pianificazione territoriale, FrancoAngeli, Milano,
pp. 110-133.
Curto R., Brondino G., Coscia C., Fregonara E. e Grella S. (2009), “Dinamiche
di mercato, mobilità abitativa e Gentrification: una lettura attraverso i modelli
di statistica multivariata e spaziale”, in Diappi L., a cura di, Rigenerazione
urbana e ricambio sociale. Gentrification in atto nei quartieri storici italiani,
FrancoAngeli/DIAP, pp. 163-179.
Curto R., Brondino G., Coscia C., Fregonara E. e Grella S. (2009), Dinamiche
di mercato e gentrification in Torino, in Diappi L., a cura di, Rigenerazione
urbana e ricambio sociale. Gentrification in atto nei quartieri storici italiani,
FrancoAngeli/DIAP, pp. 43-79.
Curto R., Fregonara E. e Semeraro P. (2012), “Prezzi di offerta vs prezzi di merca-
to: un’analisi empirica”, Territorio Italia, 1: 55-72 (“Asking Prices vs Market
Prices: An Empirical Analysis”, Land Administration, Cadastre, Real Estate, 1:
53-69).
Curto R., Fregonara E. e Semeraro P. (2014), “Come rendere più eque le rendite
catastali in attesa della revisione degli estimi?”, Territorio Italia, 1: 61-84 (“How
to adjust cadastral rents for fiscal fairness?”, Land Administration, Cadastre,
Real Estate, 1: 59-82).

229
Curto R., Fregonara E. and Semeraro P. (2015), “Listing behaviour in the Italian
real estate market”, International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, 8,
1: 87-117.
Fregonara E., Rolando D. and Semeraro P. (2012), “The Value Spatial Component in
the Real Estate Market: the Turin Case Study”, Aestimum, 60: 85-113.
Fregonara E. and Semeraro P. (2013), “The impact of house characteristics on the
bargaining outcome”, Journal of European Real Estate Research, 6, 3: 262-278.
Fregonara E., Rolando D., Semeraro P. and Vella M. (2014), “The impact of Energy
Performance Certificate level on house listing prices. First evidence from Italian
real estate”, Aestimum, 65: 143-163.
Frosini B., Montanaro M. e Nicolini G. (1999), Il campionamento da popolazioni
finite, UTET Università, Torino.
Pace R.K., Barry R. and Sirmans C.F. (1998), “Spatial Statistics and Real Estate”,
Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 17, 1: 5-13.
Pellerey F. (1998), Elementi di statistica per le applicazioni, Celid, Torino.
Perrone L. (1978), Metodi quantitativi della ricerca sociale, Feltrinelli, Milano.
Ruppert D., Wand M.P. and Carroll R.J. (2003), Semiparametric regressions,
Cambridge University Press.
Vicario G. e Levi R. (1997), Calcolo delle probabilità e statistica per ingegneri,
Esculapio, Bologna.

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9. District Information Models. The DIMMER
project: BIM tools for the urban scale
Anna Osello, Andrea Acquaviva, Matteo Del Giudice, Edoardo Patti,
Niccolò Rapetti

9.1. Introduction

To transform an existing district in a smart district in the field of energy

reduction, according to Horizon 2020 program, it is necessary to understand
the complex phenomena typical of a city and to know how to manage a large
amount of data. For this reason, Information Communication Technology
(ICT) is becoming a key factor to enhance energy optimization in cities. As
a matter of fact, thanks to ICT it is possible to access real-time information
about building environmental characteristics and energy consumption (at
building scale) as well as about district heating/cooling and electricity grid
(at district/city scale).
Despite the availability of mature technologies for monitoring energy
in buildings, at the moment these technologies are not of widespread use
by energy and facility managers and in private households. Nevertheless,
tools like middleware and Building Information Modelling (BIM) can help
to change this because of their ability to create a data infrastructure where
different systems are able to interact each other. In fact, middleware enables
the use of an interface able to monitor and control heterogeneous devices
because these sources of information can be put together in a centralized
decision system; on the other side, BIM enables digital management of
building characteristics and parameters storing them in a database.
The DIMMER (District Information Modelling and Management for
Energy Reduction) project (October 2013 – September 2016) represents
an E-volution of the use of BIM, extending its use from buildings (build-
ing scale) to district (urban scale), simultaneously expanding the areas of
study thanks an interdisciplinary use of ICT based on interoperability. The

231
project started from the results of the SEEMPubS (Smart Energy Efficient
Middleware for Public Spaces – September 2010 – August 2013) project, in
which, different technologies for energy monitoring and control have been
tested/developed, in conjunction with specific activities aiming to raise
end-users’ awareness of energy-related issues.
The basic concept behind District Information Model (DIM), introduced
for the first time by the DIMMER project, is to implement the BIM philoso-
phy and extend it to a district level, using common data at both building and
district scale, involving a plurality of users, starting from both technical and
social aspects. The goal is to create a web-oriented interface able to collect
data and information on the single buildings and the district as a whole,
including data and information on their energy requirements.
The aim of this chapter is to show a possible way to connect BIM and
GIS (Geographic Information System) focusing on alphanumeric informa-
tion, developing a DIM starting from data modelled at different LODs (as
Level of Development) for both BIM and GIS, and using a middleware to
query several kind of information for different users. For this reason, differ-
ent tools are considered to visualize data about public and private buildings
(such as schools, university campuses or municipal buildings as well as
residential) in different ways for different users/stakeholders using Virtual
and Augmented Reality (V&AR). Furthermore, within the DIMMER pro-
ject, APPs like a dashboard and a benchmarking tool are under developing
to visualize real-time energy consumption, in order to lead a considerable
educational impact for the citizens.

9.2. Reason of a research: towards a District Information Model

Nowadays, there are several researches and industry efforts aiming at

developing new technologies and platforms able to handle large amounts
of data from multiple buildings in order to perform energy simulation using
environmental monitoring and its digital visualization. One of the major
challenges concerns the interoperability between heterogeneous devices as
well as between different software.
Due to this, nowadays, the interaction between different domains is one of
the major challenges required to Architecture, Engineering and Construction
(AEC) industry, using correctly ICT. Of course, the integration of different
dataset such as Building Information Model (BIM), Geographic Information
System (GIS), System Information Model (SIM) and Building Automation

232
System (BAS) requires a common platform able to visualize different kind
of data at different scale, focusing on both geometrical and alphanumerical
information. In this context, within the DIMMER project:

• BIM is a 3D parametric model of buildings, enriched with semantic

information such as measures, materials and costs;
• GIS provides geographical location of buildings, energy distribution
networks and/or other elements and it is used for data automation
and compilation, management, analysis and modelling of advanced
cartography;
• SIM collects dynamic and static information from district energy net-
work, such as substation heating temperature, geometrical data about
pipes and connection with the systems of the buildings;
• BAS consists of a temperature and humidity sensor framework aim-
ing to collect data, improve occupant comfort and efficient operation
of building systems, reduce energy consumption and operating costs.

Obviously, parametric models created in different domains have different

characteristics because they refer to different information. For example, GIS
is adopted at urban scale while BIM at building scale and for both of them it
is requested the ability to exploit geometric and alphanumeric information.
Unfortunately, the data sharing between these two domains is not easy and
interoperability plays a key role.
The DIMMER project is investigating a chance to evaluate the value of
interoperability creating a new information model: the District Information
Model (DIM), that can be compared with a Unified Building Model (UBM)
[EMOS12].
In UBM, CityGML and IFC models are encapsulated, thus avoiding
translations between the models and loss of information. All classes and
related concepts has been collected from both models, concepts has been
merged, new objects have been created to ensure the capturing of both
indoor and outdoor objects, and finally, spatial relationships between the
objects has been redefined.
According to UBM, the DIM provides heterogeneous data from different
data sources (BIM, GIS, SIM and BAS). The main difference is the devel-
opment of a multi-service platform able to receive data coming from both
real-time monitoring and digital models, and not only by the overlap of
geometric information.

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9.3. Methodology

One of the main innovation introduced by the DIMMER project is the

middleware able to simultaneously handle data from different heterogeneous
domains, focusing on:

• Analysis of environmental condition due to geographic and morpho-

logic characteristics at both building and urban scale.
• Interoperability between different data sources.
• Integration of real time data from building scale (BIM) to urban scale
(DIM).
• Use of web-based interface to improve people’s awareness on energy
saving/efficiency, using virtual and augmented reality.

Potential users of the DIMMER technology have been identified (Public

administrators, Energy utility professionals and Estate managers) in order to
guarantee different information based on a well-defined multi-scale geomet-
ric data usage (from building scale to urban scale and vice-versa). In fact, for

Fig. 1 − A possible usage of the DIMMER middleware by different users (for both, data input
and output).

234
each user different kind of information have been identified/modelled and
different visualization tools are under test/development.
At this stage of the research, district data are stored in different databases
that can share information through the DIMMER Middleware, exploiting the
web services provided by both BIM and GIS Service Providers. Information
is extracted using different DIM Levels of Detail (DIM-LOD) based on the
users’ needs, as detailed below in this chapter and as summarized in Fig. 1.

9.3.1 . District knowledge: working with representative and replicable

case studies

In order to guarantee the replicability of the results, for the DIMMER

project two demonstrators were selected in Turin (Italy) and in Manchester
(UK). In this paper the attention is focused on the Italian one (named
“Politecnico district” because is the area around the main campus of
Politecnico), composed by public and private buildings mainly connected
to district heating.
In terms of energy resources, the selected area in Turin features a low
emission thanks the presence of the district heating. From the electricity grid
point of view, although small renewable plants are present, they are used
only for dedicated building electricity production, with little impact on the
electricity grid balancing.
Concerning building types, the selected district in Turin includes hetero-
geneous buildings in terms of dimension, construction period (end of 1800
to 2013), orientation, usage (offices, laboratories, private houses, etc.) and
users (students, private owners, workers, etc.) as shown in Fig. 2.
To better explain this, a DIMMER Matrix has been created to highlight
the heterogeneity of the representative case studies selected.
At present the matrix is composed by four areas, and each part is organ-
ized in several fields coming from different data sourceqs: BIM, GIS, SIM
and Measurement of energy using sensors (MEA). In this way, heteroge-
neous data coming from building scale to urban scale (and vice versa) are
collected, starting from the fact that usually these data are stored in different
ways on each country (see Fig. 3).

Going in deep, the field Case Type is a link to another matrix that
describes the building typology of each case study. In this way, it is possible
to visualize each component of the building envelope, related to the selected
building typology. Each component is described with the name, the U-value,

235
Fig. 2 − The selected buildings for the demonstrator in Turin.

Fig. 3 – The DIMMER matrix of the selected case studies in Turin and in Manchester.

236
etc., starting from the data available from the IEE Project TABULA, where
residential building typologies have been developed for 13 European coun-
tries. The U-value in the matrix is reported following the TABULA U-value,
matching each case study with the reference values (see Fig. 4).

Adding to this data, specific information of each case study are available
in a DIMMER Schedule, where it is possible to find geometrical data such as

Fig. 4 − The DIMMER Schedule containing the description of the building components based
on the TABULA methodology.

237
S/V value and physics/thermal information about the different components
of the buildings. In this way it is possible to synthetize all the selected infor-
mation about the buildings. Starting from the identification of the building
components, such as roof type, external wall, transparent shell, window
type, etc., it is possible to suppose the stratigraphy of each components and
consequently to obtain the U-value necessary to proceed with the energy
simulation of the buildings using specific software (that for the DIMMER
project is Energy Plus).

Each field in the DIMMER Matrix is characterized by a colour that

depends on the availability (or not) of the data. This visualization highlights
the heterogeneity of the information collected and underlines the difficulty
that characterize the work with existing buildings. Based on preliminary
results of the project, the graph below (see Fig. 5) shows that 59% of data
are reliable or assumed while the 41% of data is not available (assuming no
costs for technical analysis).

Fig. 5 – The data reliability source within the DIMMER case studies.

From an operational point of view, linking the buildings and the district
heating characteristics, the project provides a graphic model of the district
through BIM parametric applications, whose database are able to contain
data and information about architecture, structure and HVAC (Heating,
Ventilation and Air Conditioning) systems of the selected buildings. The

238
direct applicability of the DIMMER strategy on the buildings depends on
the shape of their thermal request for all the selected buildings as shown in
Fig. 6 below.

Fig. 6 – The shape of the thermal request for the selected buildings in Turin.

In the case where the time of utilization of the heating system was not
compatible with the application of peak shifting, an indirect application of
the DIMMER strategy is possible through the installation of a local thermal
storage systems. In this case, it is worth stressing that the direct applicabil-
ity depends on the time delay, caused by the water velocity in the district
heating network, between thermal request of the buildings and thermal load
of the plants.
It is also worth considering that time shifting is applied with the aim of
guaranteeing that internal temperature set-points are reached at the same
time or before the base case (i.e. scenario without time shifting). Therefore
heating schedule should not be considered as a constraint to keep, but one
of the criteria to be considered while examining the suitability of a building
for the application of the DIMMER strategy.

9.3.2. The DIMMER platform/framework

Following the Smart City view, the DIMMER platform was devel-
oped where one of the key elements is the decentralized data management
approach of microservices. The services use their own views or concept of
the Internet of Things (IoT) devices as well as storage backends to store their
meta-data (decentralized data storage), building a hierarchical abstraction
model. The core of DIMMER platform is the Middleware, that integrates

239
heterogeneous IoT devices and ICT system in the platform. The tasks of
the middleware include the following: (i) providing modeling abstractions
of real-world IoT devices and sensor systems, (ii) enabling search and dis-
covery of these devices and their resources by applications and services,
(iii) providing unified APIs and protocols for historical and (near) real-time
sensor data access.
The microservice architecture is necessary to ease the management and
simulation of energy consumption at urban district level exploiting middle-
ware technologies to integrate heterogeneous data-sources. It aims at pro-
viding a common and open digital repository for energy-related information
of the district itself. To achieve this, the LinkSmart middleware has been
extended with specific modules for addressing the requirements to manage
and correlate information coming from the whole district. As shown in Fig.
07, it is a three-layered architecture consisting of (i) Data-sources integra-
tion layer, (ii) Services layer and (iii) Application layer.

Fig. 7 − The three-layered architecture of the DIMMER Middleware.

240
 The Data-sources integration layer, the lower layer, is in charge of
integrating heterogeneous technologies, both hardware and software, by
abstracting their features into Web Services. Hence, it acts as a bridge
between the middleware network and the underlying technology, translat-
ing whatever kind of language the low-level technology speaks into Web
Services. In this layer, we integrated different standards for devices to
monitor and manage buildings and energy distribution networks, such as
Spirit and SCADA. In addition, we also integrated data-sources that provide
geo-referenced information (GIS) and parametric models of buildings and
energy distribution networks (BIM and SIM respectively) exploiting the
concept of LinkSmart Service Provider.
The Services layer is the core of the proposed infrastructure. It provides
features in forms of Web Services to manage all the entities in the district for
developing Smart Environment applications. Its main features are:

• Secure and Scalable Communication. The proposed middleware

offers a peer-to-peer approach to share resources and enable the inter-
operability across the peers playing in a district scenario. In addition,
it implements the publish/subscribe approach for giving to the whole
infrastructure an asynchronous communication, which increases the
scalability. Indeed, this paradigm removes the interdependencies
between producer and consumer of the information allowing the
development of system-independent applications. It is worth noting
that only trusted peers can communicate with each other and the infor-
mation flow is encrypted.
• Semantic Knowledge. The Services Layer includes a specific mod-
ule for providing a semantic description of the entities in the district
enriched with additional attributes and relations to other entities
exploiting ontologies and semantic web technologies.
• Historical Data Management. This module collects data coming from
pervasive devices deployed across the district and provides them to
other middleware components or applications.
• Simulation engine. It exploits data from other middleware compo-
nents and from the Data-source integration layer for simulating ener-
gy optimization policies at district level. In addition, it implements
features to estimate the energy production of renewables that might
be deployed in the district. Finally, the Application layer provides a
set of tools, API and Web Services to develop applications for post-
processing energy-related information of the district and increasing

241
 user-awareness exploiting for instances virtual and augmented reality
or web platforms and dashboards.

9.3.3. Data communication based on interoperability

As described above, the DIMMER Platform provides an easy way to

access different kind of data, fostering different scenarios and demonstra-
tors. At the moment the Platform integrates mainly two different types
of data sources related to (i) Building Information Models, Geographic
Information Systems, and System Information Models; (ii) Sensors and
Energy Measurements (Device Connectors).
This means that the interoperability that characterize the DIMMER
Platform, consists in creating a dataflow that involves heterogeneous data
coming from different domains, as shown in Fig. 8 below.
This approach aims at providing a high degree of flexibility and replicabil-
ity of the methodology as well as of the technology. This is because current-
ly, commercial software simulate only specific parts, and interoperability

Fig. 8 – The DIMMER data flow based on interoperability between different domains.

242
Fig. 9 – Software and tools used in the DIMMER project.

243
between different tools often is limited. In fact, the use of different software
that have to communicate each other reproduces the typical workflow in
the building industry and can be considered one of the main objectives of
DIMMER, aiming at innovate this process following the work sharing idea.
Based on the different domains identified, software and tools used in the
project differ from urban scale to building scale, to better fit the needs of the
specific users, as visible in Fig. 9 and data at urban scale become input for
the analysis at building scale and vice versa.

9.3.4. DIM data

Through the definition of DIM data, heterogeneous data are visualized

coming from different data sources. The aim is obtaining a 3D city model
composed by different domains such as architectural, structural, electrical,
HVAC and so on, at both building and district level. DIM model selects
information stored in several service providers, thus it is possible to visual-
ize the data in different ways for different users. This is essential because a
city can be considered a complex system, composed by a dense network of
relationship, where several stakeholders are engaged.

Fig. 10 – The 3D city model able to consider the different domains.

244
 The approach adopted is shown in Fig. 10: the 3D city model is described
through different scale where information can be managed with different
kind of data e.g. BIM, DIM, SIM. Adding to this, each level can be split into
different parts related to the discipline e.g. Urban, Architectural, Structural,
Utilities, Real Estate. The added value of this representation is the easiness
to visualize different kind of information establishing a data hierarchy based
on both the discipline and the level of detail.

Based on this concept, the 3D city model can be synthetized as a proper

City Information Model (CIM) composed by a series of information that
is organized in various disciplines and grouped into different developing
domains such SIM, DIM and BIM that represent the reality.Concerning
DIM, it can be described by the chart visible in Fig. 11 below.

Fig. 11 – The DIM chart.

L’area sottesa ai campi della Geomatica e dell’Architettura rappreseThe

area under Geomatics and Architecture fields ideally represents different
levels of information of the district model. The junction of both curves
represents the DIM concept where all the information is shared between the
two systems working on the “smart interoperability” exploiting DIMMER
Middleware.

245
 In this way, different actors playing in a Smart City scenario (e.g. public
administrator, energy utility professional and estate manager) can access
several kinds of information that will be described ahead.
Therefore, DIM should not be regarded as a fixed 3D model but rather a
dynamic model where, relating to the users, it can be reached with different
data.
A DIM model is not just an overlay of the different 3D models described
below, but it is mainly a common platform where many information (coming
from different datasets and with different data format) are linked each other.

9.3.4.1 Building Information Modelling (BIM) data domain

BIM aims at the improvement of the building process and, as innovative

methodology, is focused on the information management of all technical
resources that are able/essential to represent the complexity of a building. It
focuses on the data management optimization in order to get the right infor-
mation to the right place at the right time.

Fig. 12 – The BIM data domain.

246
 Within the DIMMER project, BIM data domain represents all informa-
tion about the building scale and it can be used to perform all the simula-
tions needed for its design and operation like lighting and thermal analysis,
without the need to remodel the geometry in any application, avoiding the
data duplication and the error generation. At present, the model setup for the
DIMMER project follows five step, as visible in the Fig. 13 below.

Fig. 13 – The BIM domain within the DIMMER project.

The first step is based on the BIM (as modelling, namely as process) and
must be organized into different domain (architectural, mechanical, electri-
cal, etc.) based on well-defined rules.
The second step concerns the creation of a simplified parametric model
which collects geometric and alphanumeric information that can be used to
analyze the main aspects of the building’s performance, with a particular
emphasis to energy efficient and sustainable design and management. For
instance, using the sun’s path, it is possible to create solar studies by placing
the sun at any point along its daily path, and at any point along its analemma.
After the generation of a simplified parametric model, the third step (that

247
is based on a speed survey) is focused on a preliminary model development,
using simple objects like roof, wall, floors and opening, enriching with other
information such as material and stratigraphy of wall, floor, roof, openings,
etc.
The fourth step deepens interoperability which has a key role in the
DIMMER project. The choice of the tools is related to the information life
cycle. All domains, that work stand alone to create an iterative process,
require a data flow. Although hypothetically this phase should be guarantee
from standard formats exchange (e.g. IFC, .gbXML), there are still many
problems due to loss of data rather than the failure to import data.
The fifth step concerns the development of a method for continual data
cross-check and update in order to assure that the integrated model (archi-
tecture, structure, HVAC and lighting systems) is as accurate as possible for
any use (energy performance, thermal comfort, lighting and management).
In the fifth step the integration of the model must consolidate the data
flow in order to guarantee an iterative process, where the different domains
exchange data in a loop, which static and dynamic data update themselves
into an algorithmic process. Such as an example, if data sensors could influ-
ence on data coming from parametric model used for energy analysis, on
the other hand, results coming from energy analysis could interact with par-
ametric model in order to generate changes. This step is strictly linked with
the previous one and it is continuously evolving, because knowing exactly
what kind of data and among which software tools they can be exchanged.
This brings about interesting considerations on the standards to be used in
the integrated model in order to optimize the BIM process.

9.3.4.2 Geographic Information System (GIS) data domain

The GIS data domain in the DIMMER project is used to manage urban
and district data for the collection of a large amount of information use-
ful to permit the integration and the elaboration of various information
related to “energy”, that are crucial for decision making on energy issues.
Furthermore, GIS data domain is essential to collect data about district
heating network and energy demand, useful to analyze at district scale the
energy consumption. The GIS domain allows public administrator, energy
manager and other decision maker to enrich their knowledge giving the
opportunity to activate energetic policies to improve energy efficiency at
urban ant district scale.

248
 Concerning the Turin pilot, the use of GIS data domain highlighted that
the major of houses were built between the year 1945-1970. These build-
ings mostly correspond to the low energy efficiency class. Furthermore, it
provides information, about gross volume, gross area, number of floor, etc.
All these data are used in the BIM domain as input for the creation of the
parametric model.

Fig. 14 – The GIS data about the heating consumption of the buildings for a selected block.

9.3.4.3 Energy Analysis Model (EAM) data domain

L’obiettivo del dominio dell’ Energy Analysis Model (EAM) è legata con
le The aim of the Energy Analysis Model (EAM) domain is linked with the
energy simulation needs at building and at district scale. The virtual models
are approximation of real world and they are used to simulate the build-
ings and the district behaviour. Obviously, although they are very close to
reality, gaps are always present comparing them with the real case studies.
Therefore it is necessary validate the EAM model through the calibration’s
model using sensor data. This means that thanks to the iterative process,
the validation model takes place comparing the model to actual energy
behaviour in order to tune the model step by step. At present EAM model

249
was developed through the interoperable process between Revit and Design
Builder that provides advanced modelling tools enabling energy simulation
starting from a 3D parametric model as shown in Fig. 15 below.

Fig. 15 – The EAM and the interoperable process between Revit and Design Builder.
The EAM domain is generated from a 3D parametric model through
interoperability that can “filter” the energy model. In this way it is possible
to highlight data, including for example temperature and humidity that can
be taken into account and compared with real data monitored (in the differ-
ent case studies) in order to achieve energy saving through the use of the
DIMMER platform.

9.3.4.4 Building Automation System (BAS) data domain

The Building Automation System (BAS) domain in DIMMER is rep-

resented by static and dynamic data of commercial Building Management
Systems (BMS), sensor platforms and monitoring systems deployed in the
demonstrator districts, and ICT hardware developed as a part of the project.
Static data provide information about the domain model to the services
and applications has been integrated with the data of District and Building
domain models and available to populate representations of these models in
the end-user applications.

250
 Dynamic or operational data generated by BMS, as well as custom sensor
platforms and ICT developed in the project will be integrated in DIMMER
through the middleware. Depending on the technical capabilities of the inte-
grated systems and the needs of DIMMER applications and services, several
APIs for accessing dynamic data will be provided by the middleware.
To provide a unified access to the dynamic data and APIs based on open
standards, the middleware integrates different industrial and proprietary pro-
tocols employed by the integrated systems, where it is required

Fig. 16 – The link between GIS and SIM data.

9.3.4.5 System Information Modelling (SIM) data domain

The SIM data domain aims at calculating the primary energy savings
that can be achieved by applying the DIMMER strategies to the selected
districts. The model receives the thermal request profiles of the buildings as
the input. The model of the district heating network is composed by:

251
 • Thermal Substation model. This model includes the building model
and the exchanger model. It allows one to check the possible effects
of variations in the thermal request profiles of the buildings on the
average international temperature. The proposed thermal request pro-
file is acceptable if the internal temperature is kept at the same level
as that in the initial profile.
• Network at thermal barycenter level. This model considers full fluid
dynamic and thermal model of the district heating network of a ther-
mal barycenter. This is the distribution network from the main pipe-
line (also called the “transport network”) to the various users located
in an area.
• Network model. This model considers the main pipeline. It receives
the input from distribution networks as the boundary conditions and
allows one to calculate the thermal load of the power plants. Thermal
load is obtained on the basis of the mass flow rate in each plant and
the difference between supply and return temperature. The latter is
calculate by the thermal model considering mixing, heat transport,
heat losses and transient effects.
• Plant model. This model considers the various thermal plants and
allows one to obtain the primary energy consumption associated with
heat generation. In the case of boilers, the model only accounts for
their efficiencies. In the case of cogeneration plants the model is more
complex, since the separate contribution of fuel consumptions due to
heat and electricity is calculated.

9.3.5. The Level of Development (LOD) value

Concerning each domain, the amount and the quality of data is one of
the most important things for the development of the different DIMMER
datasets. Before the modeling step, referring to the American Institute of
Architects (A.I.A.), particular attention has been given to the choice of the
Level of Development and the Level of Detail because the meaning of two
types of levels are different:

• Level of Detail is essentially how much detail is included in the model

element;
• Level of Development is the degree to which the element’s geome-
try and attached information has been thought through the degree to

252
 which project team members may rely on the information when using
the model.

Summarizing, Level of Detail can be thought as input to the element,

while Level of Development is reliable output (LOD Specification 2013).
Adding to this, ISO PAS 1192-2:2013 proposes the definition of Levels of
Model Information (LOI) that refers to the Description of non-graphical
content of models at each of the stages.
For the DIMMER project, LOD means Level of Development composed
by graphical and non-graphical information and for each domain they are
explained below.

9.3.6. BIM LOD

BIM (as Model) has been set up at different LODs to manage all infor-
mation at building scale.
Three LODs have been used, as shown in Fig. 17:

Fig. 17 – The BIM LODs.

• LOD2 is realized using masses (that can be visualized in wireframe or

surface/solids), containing data needed to estimate per square meter
rates and other similar metrics.
• LOD3 is realized using generic components (for both objects and
systems) with detailed form and function, defining all components in
terms of overall size, typical detail, performance and outline specifi-
cation (if available, working on existing/historical buildings).

253
 • LOD4 is realized using specific components (for both objects and
systems) detailing assemblies accurate in terms of specification, size,
form, function and location (if avail- able, working on existing/his-
torical buildings).

LOD1 and LOD 5 are not necessary for the DIMMER project because
they refer respectively to landscape and as-built documents. It is evident
that such information is not always available for existing (and historical)
buildings and for this reason each case study contains different information.

9.3.7. GIS and SIM LOD

Currently, in DIMMER, only the first three LODs for GIS (GIS-LOD)
are under test for the purpose of the district building modeling: GIS-LOD1
is the extruded view in height of the public cadastre, GIS-LOD2 is made of
a simplified geometry derived from the BIM model (if available), and GIS-
LOD3 is a simplified representation where BIM materials are in place of the
common photographic textures.

Fig. 18 – Rappresentazione dello shapefile del GIS e del SIM.

254
 In addition, in DIMMER also the System Information Model (SIM) is
under test in order to outline and integrate the structure of energy distribution
networks with the 3D building parametric models and with measurements
databases that store data collected by sensors deployed in the whole district.
At present GIS and SIM information are stored as shapefile composed by
graphical and alphanumerical data.

9.4. Results

As shown before, during the first two years of the project, several results
have been achieved on data modelling and management, integrating differ-
ent domains at both building and district scale.

9.4.1. The interoperability/querying of the data using the DIMMER

Middleware

The DIMMER Middleware provides a suite of data collection, pre-pro-

cessing, storage, and querying services. Integrating heterogeneous ICT
data sources by the means of system-specific integration components, the
DIMMER Middleware offers unified APIs for querying meta-data and
operational (sensor measurements) data of the integrated systems. The ICT
integration is mainly implemented through two kinds of integration compo-
nents: Device Connectors and Historical Datastore APIs. Device Connectors
offer APIs for querying meta-data and accessing the latest values of the
integrated sensors in SenML format. The Historical Datastore API exposed
by the integration components enables querying of historical data from the
integrated heterogeneous systems in a unified fashion.
Leveraging the Linked Data capabilities incorporated in the SenML, all
sensor measurements obtained through the DIMMER Middleware carry
identifiers which can be referenced and are unique to the respective data
sources. These identifiers can be dereferenced using HTTP requests served
by the integration components to retrieve meta-information about the corre-
sponding data sources. Furthermore, these identifiers can be used to create
higher-level abstraction models to create reference to other modeling entities
managed by other services of the DIMMER Platform.
For example, these identifiers can be exploited with the DIMMER BIM
Web Services. The Web Service interface to BIM models is based on REST
conventions, and uses the HTTP command GET. It is used to provide a

255
uniform interface to the different building models in the district, in this way
creating a virtual district model. Such model can be queried as a whole by
using the REST API.
With different REST invocations it is possible: to download several
resources for a set of building models (IFC, gbXML and RVT files); to get
the full JSON dump of a set of building models; to query a set of building
models.
In all these different invocations, the “district” parameter is mandatory,
and it is used by the Web Service to define the districts from which the
buildings models data is retrieved and integrated.

Fig. 19 – The query of the DIMMER Middleware using JSON.

9.4.2. Interoperability issues

At present the interoperable step is not error free and for this reason the
3D models need to be implemented before being processed for the energy
simulation. In fact, as visible in Fig. 20 several geometrical and alphanumer-
ic errors are produced during the interoperable process.

256
Fig. 20 – Examples of errors during the interoperable process.

9.4.3. Virtual and Augmented Reality

During the life cycle of a building it is very important that all the
involved actors understand, participate, communicate, and collaborate with
each other to obtain a high quality outcome of the process. The improve-
ment of the communication between different stakeholders is one of the key
factor that have to be considered in order to optimize the data flow in the
construction industry.
Fortunately, during the last years, the real time visualization became
more accessible, and within the DIMMER project the immersive visualiza-
tion has been investigated as innovative and integrated part of the current
building management process, for the improvement of the people awareness.

Fig. 21 – The data visualization using Oculus Rift starting from the BIM model.

257
It is based on three main components:

• The Oculus Rift, a new type of Head Mounted Display (HMD) direct-
ed at the consumer market;
• Unity 3D, a real time rendering engine supporting large building
information models (BIMs);
• Autodesk Revit for the development of 3D parametric models.

In this way, starting from the BIM model, data can be exported as shown
in Fig. 21, and thanks a free navigation inside the model, it is possible to
present and communicate results regarding different policies and scenarios
tested with the DIMMER approach.

9.4.4. DIM-LOD

Referring to figures above, DIM should not be regarded as a fixed 3D

model but rather a dynamic model where, relating to the users, it can be
reached with different data, arriving to establish different levels of detail
such as the DIM LODs. Figure below represents a synthesis between the
GIS and BIM LODs.
At first, the district parameters were identified, taking into account the
difference between the district and the building scale and considering the
heterogeneous data sources. Each DIM-LOD combines several attributes in
different percentages starting from DIM-LOD1 where it is possible to find
more parameters from GIS than BIM, to DIM-LOD3 where data is close to
BIM domain. Of course, this table must be implemented with SIM, EAM
and BAS domains.
A preliminary test of this process was then performed in order to vali-
date these kind of LODs, taking into account the role of the estate manager
importing the different BIM models into a Database Management System
such as PostgreSQL and SQL Server. The import/export process is complex
because a direct way to share information among several domains is cur-
rently unavailable. The tests highlighted that geometrical data was missed
whereas alphanumerical information was preserved.
Following the interoperability concept, sharing information among the
different domains is performed through exploiting a web-service approach.
The Service Providers export the information stored exploiting RESTful
Web Services.

258
Fig. 22 – The contents of the DIM LODs as dynamic model.

9.5. Conclusion and future work

At present, innovative technologies allow users to visualize a city in a

digital way, translating different kind of information that can be processed
using several algorithms, in order to provide new solutions for the develop-
ment of a smart city. These data are analyzed and processed according to the
proper urban scale based on scenarios able to promote new policies, aiming
energy saving.
Starting from the SEEMPubS project that investigated the theoretical
and operational possibility to use a network of sensors to monitor energy
consumption and to raise people awareness, the DIMMER project aims at
investigate the data management based on interoperability between data at
urban and building scale, integrating different domains (BIM, GIS, EAM,
SIM) into the DIMMER Middleware. In this way it will be possible to
define the contents of a District Information Modelling (DIM) able to allow
different stakeholders to query the middleware extracting information about

259
energy efficiency and consumption at both building and district scale. The
goal is to give/receive real time data (thanks a web service interface) that can
be used for different strategies to improve the buildings energy behaviour.
Future work will focus on the optimization of both interoperability
between data using commercial software and data visualization using virtual
and augmented reality.

9.6. Acknowledgments

The DIMMER project has received funding from the European Union’s
Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development
and demonstration under grant agreement n° 609084.
All the authors are pleased to thank the PhD Amos Ronzino for his ener-
gy contribute, the Building Engineering students Pamela Scaramozzi, Paolo
Marcia, Enrico Osello, Francesco Semeraro, Federico Magnea, Michela
Giori, Arianna Fonsati, Caterina Tamburino and Stefano Dellarole for the
authorization to expose their bachelor and master’s degree thesis works
obtained on the different case studies and on the master’s degree exam of
“Cartografia Numerica e GIS”.

9.7. Bibliography
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Del Giudice M., Osello A., Patti E. (2014), Bim and gis for district modeling, in eWork
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Eastman C., Teicholz P., Sacks R. and Liston K. (2008), Bim handbook: A guide to
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Osello A. (2012) The future of drawing with BIM for engineers and architects/
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Palermo.
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261
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co di Torino. Scientific responsible and
coordinator of numerous demonstrati-
ve research projects founded by EU.
Since 2003, he has developed an intensi-
ve collaboration with China, and he is
Academic Advisor of the Jiangsu Pro-
vince, professor at the Harbin Institute
of Technology and at the Luoyang Nor-
mal University. He was the European
co-director of EC2 EU-China Clean
Energy Centre at Pechino (2012-15).
Giacomo Chiesa, Ph.D. in Technolo-
gical Innovation for the Built Environ-
ment, is a fixed term assistant professor
in Architectural Technology at the Po-
litecnico di Torino. He studies the im-
pact that digital technologies have on
the design practice. Other research
fields are the relation between nature
and artefacts, the environmental desi-
gn, and the development of passive coo-
ling strategies for buildings.