ore 10.00-12.00 | Bioarchitecture: Guidelines for building a healthy home - [Arch. Luigi Izzo]
ore 12.00-13.30 | Bioclimatology: Energy savings systems - [Prof. Arch. Francesco Bianchi]
ore 14.00-15.00 | Indoor pollution and environmental comfort - [Dott. Claudio Carboni]
ore 15.00-16.30 | Environmental certification - [Geol. Gianlorenzo Manelli]
ore 16.30-18.00 | Feng Shui: the home in harmony with the universe - [Arch. Monica Ingaglio]

The proportion of the urban population living in Europe continues to grow and will soon reach 80%. Thus urban population is becoming one of the major sources of pressure on our ecosystems, and is causing a continual deterioration in the environmental life quality situation. In this context, continuous monitoring and evaluation of elements which contribute to the quality of the environment (air, water, greenery, etc.) and pollution levels (transport, consumption, waste, etc.) is becoming essential to support the complex initiatives that the governments of these important areas undertake. Detailed, reliable and objective information also helps to promote ecologically sustainable behaviours and, more generally, it encourages the participation of citizens in making planned events successful. For these reasons the ISPRA/ARPA/APPA System of Environmental Agencies has included in its program priorities the preparation of an annual Report on the urban environment. This year it has reached its 5th edition and will be presented on the occasion of the 11th Annual Conference of the Agencies. This edition will have many new features including an increase in the number of cities being examined and a modified set of indicators in the light of methodological developments at an international level.

While building our future we must start by visualising urban life and the environment in a completely new way, as a synergetic relationship guided by new laws.

If our approach is to be rational and not solely idealistic (something that those who work in the environmental field have often been accused of) we need to start by evaluating the existing situation and studying all possible strategies for intervention, including changing our lifestyles, our daily behaviour and our choices. Over the last 10 years, AIVEP, Associazione Italiana Verde Pensile (Italian Association for hanging gardens) has found a niche for itself in this job of transformation, by producing “green roofs”. The use of hanging gardens contributes to increasing the value of property, but it also helps to save energy in buildings, aid in recovery of the urban microclimate and reduce air pollution.

This session will be focussed on how the introduction of new legislation has helped to produce a perceptible improvement in the urban environment. It gives us an idea of where further changes in Italian and International legislation could take us, thus creating “more greenery by law”.

Works of art are subject to natural deterioration, which is strongly accelerated and intensified by atmospheric pollution. When released into the atmosphere, pollutants contribute to the deterioration of external surfaces of materials that are exposed to the air, depositing on them, accumulating in a progressive and continual manner, without ever being removed. Italy is home to 60% of the world’s total artistic heritage. Most of it is preserved within our cities, where the phenomenon of atmospheric pollution is at its strongest. This morning’s meeting offers an opportunity to examine experiences which some regional agencies and ISPRA (previously APAT) working in collaboration with ISCR have gained in the field of the effect of atmospheric pollution on the cultural heritage. The aim is to identify a common ‘best practices’ procedure for safeguarding our heritage, also taking into consideration the different geographical and climatic regions in our country. The issue of the impact on heritage buildings and on building techniques to limit indoor pollution will also be examined.

What will the city of the future look like?
We know it will be large, ever larger, and more and more people will live here. They will come from different places, cultures and social and economic groups. Some think that this city will look like the gloomy “San Angeles” of Blade Runner, but others think that technology and innovation will turn it into a sort of earthly Eden.What we do know is that the time to “imagine” is over. It is time to act.

The cities are the true challenge of the future. All of humanity is called upon to participate in building a “zero emissions”community, which can ensure the satisfaction of basic human needs to all its citizens.

How can we go ahead in the daily transformation of the places we live in, to arrive at this objective? We have wanted to involve some of the most authoritative and “visionary” voices of our time in this sharing of ideas.

ore 10.00-11.30 | Electromagnetic pollution, environmental pathology and cleanup techniques - [Arch. Luigi Izzo]
ore 11.30-13.30 | Radon gas, the silent killer: cleanup techniques - [Prof. Dott. Massimo Moroni]
ore 14.00-15.30 | Energy certification and auditing: the resources available - [Arch. Gaetano Fasano]
ore 15.30-16.30 | Green housing materials - [Arch. Paola D'Incecco]
ore 16.30-18.00 | Low environmental impact heating - [Ing. Mauro Tudini]

50% of all the energy produced today is consumed in cities. 10% of the world’s energy needs are covered by renewable sources. The debate on new, future possibilities in the energy saving field and the use of renewable energies such as direct solar, water, wind as well as biomass energy starts with these two facts. What are the implications and influences of this strong concentration of energy consumption in built-up areas? How can Public Administrations facilitate and plan for increasing use of renewable energy? A meeting between Administrators, Technicians and Companies to facilitate a dialogue regarding increasingly efficient solutions, tomorrow’s technologies and today’s good behaviours.

The recent 2008 Eurobarometer survey by the European Commission found that over 80% of EU citizens associate the quality of life with environmental factors. In Italy this percentage rises to 86%. Managing the health risk caused by environmental factors is a complex undertaking. On the one hand it is necessary to ensure an adequate level of knowledge of the relationship between exposure and illness, and on the other, it is necessary to correctly plan vigilance and intervention. Particular attention should be paid to emerging risks caused by changing environmental scenarios such as climate change. This new situation requires intervention of growing complexity by institutions. To start with they must be characterised by a strong integration component, in the more strictly technical aspects, as well as in relation to the need to develop a close synergy between the different sectors of the public administration, especially between the environmental and health sectors.

The growing complexity of environmental management in urban systems requires solutions that stand out by virtue of their multidisciplinary approach, developing integrated models of sustainable planning, within which the processes and methodologies of work can interact efficiently with the complex reality of the social, environmental and economic system.

Urban waste management, in particular, can be identified as a symbol of this type of complexity: the need to orient public policy towards the objectives of reduction, recovery and recycling of waste, the fear of not managing to influence bad habits that citizens have unfortunately reinforced over time, increasing social conflicts linked to the management of waste collection and incinerators make it a hot current theme.

Public decision makers therefore are very worried about meeting the challenge of governing complex processes such as setting up systems for door-to-door rubbish collection, the only system recognised as achieving significant results in waste separation today.

This session will also discuss successful experiences, both in the planning stages and those which are presently functioning in cities in northern and southern Italy (Turin, Foggia, etc.). The discussion will concentrate on positive results in environmental, financial and social terms, problems encountered and the correct responses to them. The working method is the determining factor in getting substantial and clearly visible results.

Today 50% (3.3 billion people) of the world’s population lives in an urban environment. By 2030 the forecast is that there will be more than 5 billion “urbanised people”, 80% of them in developing countries. To this strong demographic pressure, add the issue of climate change. These two critical factors are destined to impact the organisation of cities politically, socially and culturally. They will also influence urban planning tools and strategies. New methods of interdisciplinary design must come up with innovative action and urban planning models.

They should offer possibilities to experiment with the role of public and private sectors, the involvement of communities, the question of safety and social identity in an increasingly globalised world. Economic processes too will be heavily impacted. Important changes in the economy, which will need to be governed and directed, as far as possible, towards harmonious development will be a result of localisation of productive activities, commercial and financial flows, labour availability and the migration of masses of people from rural to urban zones, both within and across national borders.

ore 10.00-11.00 | Underground storage system for heating and cooling - [Arch. Alberto Coletti Conti]
ore 11.00-12.30 | Basic elements of bioclimatic planning: shielding and fixtures - [Prof. Arch. Antonio Ciolfi]
ore 12.30-13.30 | Biocompatible materials for a healthy home - [Arch. Luigi Izzo]
ore 14.00-15.00 | The aware use of indoor colours - [Arch. Monica Ingaglio]
ore 15.00-16.30 | Solar energy: from energy savings to economic savings - [Ing. Pierfrancesco Pagliazzi]
ore 16.30-18.00 | Thermal solar energy, cogeneration and biomass techniques - [Ing. Luca Rubini]

Urban areas will be have to face enormous transformations. The challenges of globalization and climate change will engage businesses and industries increasingly in providing methods, processes, innovative technologies and combinations of these, to local administrations. Even now,but more so in the future, great new opportunities are opening up for companies of all sizes. This is prompted by epochal changes, which are beginning to take place in some sectors including energy, waste management, transport, water management, environmental health and urban design. But which of the great international strategies can influence economic development that is a result of the changes taking place in cities? Which study groups will decide the direction of this development? What are the rules at a global level? Which resources are available? What are the possible real repercussions on different economies, especially ours?