RESTART4SMART

The Project ReStart4Smart proposed by Team Sapienza has the overall objective of taking on the new challenges of contemporary society that require a different way of designing, constructing, operating and upgrading buildings.

In particular, the project goal is to achieve a Smart Home fully integrated with Middle East Climate conditions consistently with the Arab tradition and heritage (“innovate within tradition”), able to guarantee the utmost efficiency and effectiveness in the use of environmental resources and to provide an attractive, accessible, safe, comfortable and healthy built environment, competitive in terms of costs and capable of improving the life of all stakeholders involved.
ReStart4Smart literally indicates the willingness to introduce a new approach to Architecture that, taking inspiration from the traditions of the past, manages to exploit all the possibilities offered by the use of renewable energy sources and by making use of highly innovative and low environmental impact technologies and construction solutions.

In addition to the energy and environment efficiency features typical of a Zero Energy Building and a Green Building, ReStart4Smart intends to append those of intelligence, through a continuous interaction with the context and with users in order to acquire data and information useful to the optimization of its operation, and of flexibility, with the potential, thanks to an innovative construction system, to easily vary its distribution structure and dimensions in order to meet the growth requirements of the individual household and to adapt to the various types of the cities’ urban fabric of ME Region.

Architecture 4.0

According to the revolutionary model of Architecture 4.0, ReStart4Smart project of Team Sapienza aims to apply and test the most advanced tools, materials and technologies available to the construction industry in order to create a sustainable home that can meet the many needs of efficiency, comfort, safety, and affordability of the 21^st century architecture.

By leveraging the huge and unexplored capabilities of digital modeling (BIM), mixed reality (virtual reality and increased reality) and 3D printing, the project will balance typological aspects, constructive aspects and technological aspects, focusing on design and innovative materials, renewable sources and ultimate generation home automation (machine learning, virtual assistant, intelligent app).

 

 

The four pillars

To achieve the goal, the ReStart4Smart strategy will be pursued on four different levels, i.e. four pillars, explaining the term 4:

• a typological level (Smart Shape) related to the shape and orientation of the building, the positioning and sizing of the openings and the distribution of interior spaces in order to encourage natural lighting and ventilation, the use of energy renewable energy and the reduction of energy requirements;

• a technical-construction level (Smart Envelope) concerning both the characteristics of the structure, in order to maximize resiliency and flexibility and reduce construction costs and time, and the thermo-hygrometric characteristics of the building envelope in order to reduce energy needs and maximize the levels of thermal, acoustic and visual comfort;

• a technological level (Smart Systems), favoring the use of high efficiency system solutions, the integration of renewable energy sources and the use of advanced building automation systems and Internet of Things (IoT), in order to reduce consumption of primary energy from non-renewable sources and to maximize indoor comfort levels;

• a socio-cultural level (Smart People) through training and direct involvement of users who, thanks to home automation systems, will be able to better and consciously manage energy consumption and comfort levels.

A new design approach

The overall expected impact of the project is to promote a new design approach able to better harmonize the compositional, structural and technological choices according to the type of users, the complexity of the building, and the environmental, economic and cultural local context that the project will have to interact with during its entire life cycle.
Compared to the current state of the art, the project is expected to deeply affect many aspects, regarding the building design tools, the building construction method, the building envelope, the building equipment systems and the building users’ behavior.

To educate the future generations

All project impacts are expected to raise the awareness of the general public about energy efficiency and responsible energy use in buildings, and encourage the use of innovative sustainable technologies and the architecturally attractive integration of solar systems by clearly demonstrating how high performance solar homes can be comfortable, attractive and affordable.