Palme, Massimo

Technological imagination and innovation processes have always been at the basis of economic growth and the expansion of human domination over other species. Nevertheless, something seems to have got stuck. Can the leaps in technological development that make it possible to “reset” the clock to start growing again in a sustained form really be infinite? Or are we facing something different, a limit in the structural stability of the ecosystem itself? The worsening of the polycrisis – certainly also energetic – will require drastic solutions but should also finally allow the (re)emergence of radical ideas of renewal and transformation, as well as concrete proposals for spatial organisation associated with the new lifestyles they prefigure.

Technological imagination has been, until now, a stronger driver of development and has permitted to scale economy and even to obtain increasing returns of investments. However, times are a changing. Humanity faces now societal and environmental changes that are pushing the planet Earth toward a danger zone, overpassing recommended limits for several critical processes, such as bio-geochemical fluxes of nitrogen and phosphorus, greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere, biodiversity loss and land use change. The role of technology applied to built environment design should be redefined to stay within the so-called safe operation space for humanity, considering the limited resources we have and the need of low-energy solutions for buildings and cities. This chapter introduces the key concepts for the understanding the new role that we must assign to technological imagination to face the challenge of the Anthropocene epoch and discusses how to achieve the seven transitions objectives for transforming our world in a sustainable way.

The concept of urban metabolism was introduced by Wolman in 1965 [1], following insights and suggestions coming from ancient Marxism and the early ecologist theories.

Este artículo trata acerca de la caracterización de la tecnología de un cielo raso de paja y barro denominada en lengua aymara como “caruna”. El estudio se realizó en viviendas Aymaras a más de 4.000 metros sobre el nivel del mar en la localidad de Tacora, en la región de Arica y Parinacota, Chile. El estudio forma parte del proyecto 49204 financiado por el Servicio Nacional del Patrimonio Cultural. Su objetivo es rescatar esta técnica vernácula como alternativa a los materiales industrializados que han modificado la vivienda andina y la calidad de vida en climas extremos durante los últimos 25 años. Se recogieron muestras de los materiales utilizados en esta técnica, reproducida por un cultor local, y se analizaron en laboratorio para determinar sus propiedades térmicas y de trabajabilidad. Además, se monitoreó el desempeño energético de tres viviendas en el poblado de Tacora para comparar los resultados obtenidos con los de los laboratorios. Los hallazgos revelaron que la matriz de barro utilizada en esta técnica de encielado es predominantemente arcillosa con mediana compresibilidad y baja conductividad térmica, lo que la hace adecuada como aislante en climas desérticos fríos. El cielo de barro y paja alivianado se destacó por su presencia en la cultura local, la disponibilidad de recursos materiales y su facilidad de instalación. Este estudio subraya la importancia de preservar el conocimiento tradicional, respetando los saberes ancestrales y mejorando el desempeño térmico de las viviendas en la cordillera norte de Chile, Perú y Bolivia, destacando su relevancia para el desarrollo de soluciones habitacionales sostenibles y culturalmente pertinentes.

This paper compares the potential for building energy saving of various passive and active strategies and on-site power generation through a grid-connected solar photovoltaic system (SPVS). The case study is a student welfare unit from a university campus located in the tropical climate (Aw) of Guayaquil, Ecuador. The proposed approach aims to identify the most effective energy saving strategy for building retrofit in this climate. For this purpose, we modeled the base line of the building and proposed energy saving scenarios that were evaluated independently. All building simulations were done in OpenStudio-EnergyPlus, while the on-site power generation was carried out using the Homer PRO software. Results indicated that the incorporation of daylighting controls accounted for the highest energy savings of around 20% and 14% in total building energy consumption, and cooling loads, respectively. Also, this strategy provided a reduction of about 35% and 43% in total building energy consumption, and cooling loads, respectively, when combined with triple low-e coating glazing and active measures. On the other hand, the total annual electric energy delivered by the SPVS (output power converter) was 66,590 kWh, from where 48,497 kWh was supplied to the building while the remaining electricity was injected into the grid.