Planning technologies are an articulated set of scientific knowledge,2deriving from various disciplines, that use and apply a patrimony of techniques, process models and planning instruments with the aim of resolving the problems that are inherent in the creation of building systems, through the optimisation of proce-dures, the rationalisation of decisions and the choice of finalised strategies.
Buildings are open systems3that enter into dialogue with their surroundings from the points of view of perception, use and thermohygrometrics, they are made up of different autonomous subsystems,4reciprocally interconnected in an organic complex following its own general rules, that interact among themselves and with the external environment and that evolve in relation to the needs of the users.
The characteristic of modifying and adapting to different situations or conditions endows it with the ability to offer a extensive possibilities of utili-sation and in different conditions of use with the intention of maximising organisational flexibility in relation to the variation in demand.
1University of Florence.
Taking part in preliminary works and in paper writing: Ilaria Sarri, Anna La Marca, Vanessa Giandonati, Sabrina Borgianni, Xinyan Liu, Francesca Nesi, Francesca Reale, Virginia Serrani.
2Esposito M.A., “Tecnologie di progetto e comunicazione. Note per una esplicitazione tematica” in Sonsini A. (edited by), Interazione e Mobilità per la ricerca. Materiali del II Seminario OsDotta, Florence University Press, 2007.
3“Systems constituted by interacting elements (territorial junctions, func-tions, services, environmental, landscape and cultural inheritance, etc.) with defin-able internal properties and needs–use frameworks, whose governance is often not determined autonomously or self–referentially, but rather in relation to its functioning in a network with other components of its system or with other superior or subordinate systems (open system)” Luca Marzi, Diletta Pellecchia (edi-tor), Processi, metodi e strumenti per la perimetrazione del tema, in La ricerca a fronte della sfida ambientale. Materiale del III seminario OsDotta, Florence University Press, Florence, 2008.
4Habraken N.J., Open Building as a condition for industrial construction.
Massimo Lauria (edited by) Produzione dell’Architettura tra tecniche e progetto. Ricerca e innovazione per il territorio = Architectural Planning between build and design techniques. Glocal oriented research and innovation, ISBN 978-88-8453-988-5 (online) ISBN 978-88-8453-990-8 (print) © 2010 Firenze University Press
The building organisms have to be modifiable and replicable to be able to respond adequately to the demands stemming from the instability of the mar-ket and the economy. Flexibility becomes the guiding thread of the project and determines its distributive and typological choices. The success of a project depends on its capacity to manage the modifications and changes during its life-cycle in relation to the objectives of quality and in respect of times and costs.
The optimal use of the totality of the most advanced techniques, proce-dures, tools, technical–scientific knowledge and, more generally, of the theoret-ical and systematic elaborations applicable to the planning of building inter-ventions contribute to the achievement of these objectives.
The PhD students developed a work of instruction and experimentation about the planning technologies; they explored, as elements to be discussed, three aspects connected with: Project Management, process models and Open Building approach5(see figure at page 170).
Project Management (see figure at page 171), from which are derived the different rationalised methodologies for managing the project, is based on the approach of processes and represents the guiding instrument for the plan-ning, organisation, control and verification of the processes aimed at the opti-mising of resources, increasing the efficiency and efficacy of the project and ensuring greater organisational flexibility. This takes shape as a system of reg-ulations and procedures the knowledge and application of which will determine the more or less satisfactory outcome of a project. This technique is charac-terised by a gathering together of reciprocal relations to which correspond dif-ferent levels of competences aimed at the objectives that, from time to time, impose themselves. It presupposes an increasingly specialised system of knowl-edge that is subject to continuous innovation that requires specific training in which education takes on a substantial importance.
The identifying elements of Project Management are:
= clearly identified responsibility for the integration of the contributions to the project;
= planning and control of the project with a predictive and integrative role of the single contributions;
5During the preparatory activity to the 5th OsDotta seminar “Architectural Production between Techniques and Project: research and innovation for the environment”, the University of Florence Phd in Architectural Technologies and Design, as sub–theme, the healthcare field since it represents a specific area of specialization of the Department of Architectural Technologies and Design “Pierluigi Spadolini” and, at the same time, it is an important exam-ple of comexam-plexity in procedures, planning and technologies.
177 Planning technologies for flexible buildings
= forming, management and leading of the project team as the site for the integration of the single contributions.6
In the context of such an approach aimed at the control of the planning complexity, collaborative planning and innovative support instruments for the project 7take on a fundamental role.
In terms of process models and instruments of a planning nature, the planning technologies, on the other hand, manage the procedural complexity implicit in the modalities of management and control of the project and tech-nological complexity intended as planning flexibility.
The process,8 a field of multidisciplinary experimentation, is an ordered sequence of activities followed in determined circumstances to achieve defined objectives. The process models (see figure at page 172) relate principally to the procedural aspects (management and control of the project); relational and organisational of the various groups of participants: the phases (from plan-ning to establishing the site, maintenance and the handing over of the project);
the operators in the sector of the industry and the systems of certification.9The research focused on innovative modalities10of entrusting the planning and real-isation with the intention of pursuing the overall quality of interventions
Problems of a different sort are related to the instruments of a planning nature. The Open Building approach is assumed as methodological proposal (see figure at page 173).
This approach, which takes the form of a support instrument to the plan-ning process, proposes a vision of the systemic and open sort, characterised by a
6Archibald R.D., Project Management. La gestione di progetti e programmi complessi, Franco Angeli, Milan, 2009.
7Collaboration Support: Virtual communities, web–services for dynamic vir-tual teams, inter–enterprise, workflow support, model–based collaboration plat-forms and tools, virtual workspaces, dynamic interfaces to enterprise systems, security and trust technologies, etc.
8Defined by the Norm UNI 10838:1999 as “organised sequence of operative phases that set out from the surveying of needs to their satisfaction in terms of building production”
9Cucurnia A., Giofrè F., “Innovazione di processo: strumenti e metodi di progetto” in O. De Paoli, E. Mantacchini (edited by), L’innovazione nella tecnica. La sfida nell’at-tività in corso, Florence University Press, Florence, 2009.
10In 1934, Schumpeter defined process innovation as “The introduction of a new method of production, that is one not yet tested by experience in the branch of manufacture concerned, which need by no means to be founded upon a discov-ery scientifically new, and can also exist in a new way of handling a commodity commercially”.
particular adaptability to the conditions of operation and context and that allows the welcoming and integration of new scenarios that, over the course of time, can prefigure in relation to the changing needs of the end user.11Buildings are not static entities, and so to maintain their functionality during their lifecy-cle they require continual modifications and adjustments. The method has as its primary objectives in the process of transformation of the built environment:
= acknowledging the changes in the models of use in relation to the modifications in the needs framework;
= contemplating in the planning process the decisional contribution of the users;
= introducing flexibility into planning solutions.
In line with these objectives the Open Building approach complies with the principle of the organisation of the process by spatial–environmental levels.12 The levels13(land use level, tissue level, support, base building, infill) describe the correlated configurations of the physical elements in the widest hierarchical subordination. Each level is correlated to a superior and an inferior one in relation to precise rules. Each operator, according to specific competences, roles and responsibilities, intervenes at a determined level in respect of multidiscipli-nary principles and participation.
This instrument pursues a twofold strategy. On the one hand, from a socio–economic perspective it attempts to satisfy the needs of users through the requisite of flexibility, a necessary condition for adapting buildings over the course of time. On the other, from a technical perspective, it investigates the operative modalities for modifying or removing subsystems, thus minimising interface problems.
11 Kendall S., Open Building: A Systematic Approach to Designing Change–Ready Hospitals.
12By Habraken N.J., “The formulation of the principle of the levels was introduced”, in The Structure of The Ordinary: Form and Control in the Built Environment, Habraken, MIT Press, 1998.
13Kendall S., Open Building Concepts.
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