architecture – Progress in Research

Artificial intelligence for accessibility in historic centres

Posted on 20/12/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

Using Artificial Intelligence systems to identify, especially in historic city centres, the most accessible routes for elderly people and people with motor disabilities: this is the aim of the research work of Daniele Treccani, a young researcher at the Unesco Research Lab in Mantua of Politecnico di Milano.

The research, published in the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, used a mobile mapping system (in this specific case, a car equipped with instrument provided by Leica Geosystems Italia) for surveying and mapping the small town of Sabbioneta, which has been, together with Mantua, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008 and is an emblematic example of a Renaissance village enclosed within historic walls.

Machine Learning was used to automatically detect the differences between streets and pavements made of pebbles, cobblestones and bricks, with widely varying heights and widths, which on the one hand distinguish and are typical of historical cities and on the other hand make moving difficult for people with motor disabilities. The good reliability rate of the data obtained (89%) was verified on site; this allowed using it for designing a map of the most accessible routes.

Starting from the collected data or point clouds, namely millions and millions of points distributed in the surveyed space that allow us to obtain measures and three-dimensional representations of what surrounds us, for instance houses, streets, squares, pavements and various objects, it is possible to identify, with the help of Machine Learning, the most accessible trajectories and paths in a historical urban context. The work on Sabbioneta made it possible to test and demonstrate the importance of AI methods for managing accessibility in historic city centres.
Daniele Treccani, researcher of the Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering

The automatic extraction of geometric and space georeferenced information can be extended to other urban elements and be used for tourism accessibility and navigation applications, as well as for the creation of map bases for Plans for the Elimination of Architectural Barriers (PEBA) or Urban Accessibility Plans. More in general, the data collected and processed can be useful for the construction of City Models and digital models of historic city centres.

Daniele Treccani is currently working on extending his research to data from other urban survey systems, such as UAS (drone) photogrammetry, laser scanner survey systems from aircrafts or with portable systems (backpacks or handheld), and continues his collaboration with the University of Vigo (Spain), with which he carried out part of the research.

Machine Learning (ML) allows a complex neural network attempting to simulate the functioning of the human brain, to “learn” from a large amount of data previously structured by an operator. After the learning phase, it is possible, through a combination of inputs, to recognise and classify objects within the data, automatically and with no human intervention.
Andrea Adami, Professor of Topography and Cartography

Futura: Politecnico’s strategic master plan for Salsomaggiore

Posted on 31/05/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Salsomaggiore spa,the international conference “Le città di Igiea, luoghi termali fra memoria e progetto” (The Cities of Igiea, Spa Places between Memory and Design) took place, bringing dozens of experts including architects, urban planners and historians from all over Europe to Salsomaggiore.

After World War I, Palazzo Berzieri set the artistic trend of Art Deco spa buildings. These two days discusses the time, form and place of that cultural context

explains Emilio Faroldi, Executive Vice Rector of Politecnico di Milano and scientific coordinator of the conference.

The strategic master plan signed by the Politecnico di Milano, was also illustrated which will shape the form and new destiny of Salsomaggiore. It is a project by the Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, implemented in synergy with the Municipality of Salsomaggiore and the operational tools of the new General Urban Plan (“PUG”).

We called it Futura

explains Maria Pilar Vettori, professor at our School of Architecture. A Lucio Dalla quote, certainly, but also, after Igiea, another feminine noun for the creative energy that will give new life to Salsomaggiore.

“Futura is the acronym for ‘Forme urbane termali fra urbanistica, rigenerazione ed architettura’ (Spa Urban Forms between urban planning, regeneration and architecture), and is above all something new and far-reaching: we started in 2017 interviewing residents and an open debate with the city and its representatives, imagining a polycentric place capable of offering that physical and functional fusion that European cities today demand”.

The master plan focuses on a number of places in Salsomaggiore to be ‘taken care of’ and regenerated, such as the train station, the Platani arena, the market square, the parks, in the name of a multifunctionality and polycentric dimension of the city.

In the Renaissance, ideal cities were planned, calling upon the best artists of the time: after years of waiting and uncertainty, Salsomaggiore has done the same, entrusting the anxieties of a complex, stratified, lively and sometimes wounded city to the visionary knowledge of architects and planners. All this to make it concrete and real that utopia in which humans has always tried to merge their idea of yesterday with their drive towards tomorrow.

PALIMPSEST – Creative Drivers for Sustainable Heritage Landscapes

Posted on 21/02/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The Politecnico di Milano continues to affirm its leading role in European research with new projects in the context of the New European Bauhaus initiative, launched by the European Union to spread the culture of the European Green Deal among citizens.

PALIMPSEST activities are coordinated by the group of prof. Grazia Concilio of the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies.

Inspired by the idea that territories are “palimpsests” shaped by the stratification of projects and practices that have acted on the natural environment, the project looks at landscapes that make this stratification visible, focusing in particular on three agricultural and urban landscapes called to face significant environmental and climatic challenges.

PALIMPSEST, whose activities will be carried out in Milan, Jerez de la Frontera and Lodz, aims to reconnect to a lost “wisdom” by triggering co-creation processes in which architecture, design and artistic practices are in dialogue with technical-scientific knowledge, specific needs of places and the great systemic challenges, to imagine new scenarios and experiment with innovative practices capable of combining human actions, landscape heritage and sustainability goals.