The University of Naples, with PhD Programs in Architectural Technology and Building and Environmental Recovery has deepened the topic of Governance, quality and eco–compatibility in the processes of building and urban conservation and transformation, through semi-nars on Techniques, Processes, Design. The examination of the theses, carried out from the XVII to the XXIII cycle, has allowed to outline research guidelines, achievements and open issues.
The European Construction Technology Platform, divided into different Focus Areas, was chosen as the cultural reference of the PhD theses, in consideration of the role recognized to research in decision support making.
The research and development activity aims to promote innovation to support government, professionals and enterprises, enhancing their potential through larger investment dedicated to research, to increase the quality in the construc-tion segment interested by radical legislative, economic and social changes, that affect the European Community.
The actual transformation processes reflect the multiple and unpredictable variables involved.
The need to control these processes requires a strategic–creative dimension of the research in Architectural Technology and the ability to adapt constant-ly to contexts that change rapidconstant-ly according to the different scales variables that characterize them.
In this scenario, the project assumes a central role as a governance tool on the basis of a future perspective, with repercussions on the phases of the build-ing and urban conservation and transformation processes. The contribution of innovation research in technology can establish the ability to build, from time to time, this project based on a system of problems, resources, values, needs,
1Federico II University of Naples.
Taking part in preliminary works and in paper writing: Bianchi Sara, Buoninconti Luca, Girardi Carolina, Leone Flavia, Napolitano Teresa, Parenti Amelia, Tessitore Monica.
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
expectations to which answers are necessary according to the scales involved and the impacts that will be produced.
The complexity of processes requires the development of methods and gover-nance tools that can handle multiple variables – in evolution – that characterize the interventions to reach a balance between conservation and transformation.
In the preliminary phases of the process, knowledge assumes a strategic role in terms of innovation, contributing to prefigure the quality of the outcomes of the choices. The possibility of promoting information and the ability to systematize it affects profitability of the processes and represents one of the main factors of suc-cess and competitive advantage expressed from different actors of the prosuc-cess.
Communication between operators represents an important element for the effectiveness of governance together with the spreading of knowledge in the market. The information exchange between stakeholders, seen as nodes in a network system, must be ensured.
The variety of subjects, the frequent lack of coordination, fragmentation of actions highlight the need to improve internal communication and enhance teamwork stages of decision making.
Indeed, in the construction sector, the ability to produce innovation is heav-ily dependent on supportive behavior between different actors involved in the process: governments, professionals, businesses, industries, universities and cen-ters that develop research.
The need to encourage supportive behavior, that can guarantee the out-comes quality of the intervention and reduce the critical points within the process, requires the establishment of closer relationships with end users, pro-moting a new approach of the research that considers human needs capable of producing major changes in society.
This goal requires to split up an offer of operative research in the techno-logical area that can use different languages and provide different products for the partners involved, represented, on one hand, by the institutional and pro-fessional subjects and, second, by the civil society and the enterprises world.
In relation to this framework, the research theses developed within the University of Naples have been examined through the drafting of a data sheet in order to define type and scope of research, aims, methods and tools, results and expected impacts on the market.
The outcome of this survey showed that the PhD theses developed from the XVII to the XXIII cycle identified as prevailing field the governance of building and urban conservation and transformation processes (67% of the theses), providing decision support–making tools for the programming and intervention management.
The researches have been oriented to guarantee quality housing – in par-ticular in relation to comfort and safety requirements of users – only margin-ally addressing the issue of overall quality of the conservation and transfor-mation processes in the natural and built environment.
This issue requires a clear identification of beneficiaries, the roles of actors and activities of which they are responsible, so that the results can pro-duce a tangible improvement of living conditions.
In line with these objectives, the research will have to be oriented to devel-op the project as an innovation factor for competitiveness in the construction sec-tor and as a governance tool for building processes.
Compared with the eco–compatibility theme, the theses aimed at the improvement of energy efficiency in public buildings and the design of alterna-tive sustainable solutions for peri–urban areas, with limited indepth studies of planning and management phases of conservation and transformation process-es in urban areas in a sustainable approach. In this case, a strategic role must be given to research in the field of Architectural Technology through its abili-ty to demonstrate responsibiliabili-ty in the comparisons of the built environment interacting with human and socio–economic sciences in order to reflect the diver-sity and equalization of opportunities.
The new approach in conservation and transformation actions comes from a constant evolution, highlighting new and diversified requirements of the users in terms of social equity, comfort, safety, health and mobility. Finally, in rela-tion to the topic of the process governance, the activities of young researchers should be directed towards outcomes that can affect actions of institutions, con-sidering the strategic role in the control and evaluation of processes and designs, which crucially effect land transformation in an urban and building scale.
167 Sustainable management of organizational processes
ALESSANDRACUCURNIA1