Abstract
Almost a century ago Modernism challenged the structure of the city and reshaped its physical space in order to, amongst other things, accommodate new transportation infrastructure and road networks proclaiming the, nowadays much-debated ‘scientificated’ pursuit of efficiency for the city. This transformation has had a great impact on the way humans still design, move in, occupy and experience the city. Today major cities in Europe, such as Paris and London, are considering banning vehicles from their historic centers. In parallel, significant effort is currently underway internationally by designers, architects, and engineers to integrate innovative technologies and sophisticated solutions for energy production, management, and storage, as well as for efficient energy consumption, into the architecture of buildings. In general, this effort seeks for new technologies and design methods (e.g., DesignBuilder with EnergyPlus simulation engine; Rhicoceros3D with Grasshopper plugin and Ecotect, Radiance and EnergyPlus tools) that would enable a holistic approach to the spatial design of Near-Zero Energy buildings, so that their ecological benefits are an added value to the architectural design and a building’s visual, and material, impact on its surrounding space. The paper inquires how the integration of such technological infrastructure and performance-orientated interfaces changes yet again the structure and form of cities, and to what extent it safeguards social rights and enables equal access to common resources. Drawing from preliminary results and initial considerations of ongoing research that involve the construction of four innovative NZE settlements across Europe, in the context of the EU-funded ZERO-PLUS project, this paper discusses the integration of novel infrastructure in communal spaces of these settlements. In doing so, it contributes to the debate about smart communities and their role in the sustainable management of housing developments and settlements that are designed and developed with the concept of smart territories.
Highlights
This article reflects on the impact that the integration of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in the operation and management of urban environment has on accessing common resources for citizens and its users
The article starts with a brief reference to the historical context of this relationship, and it moves on to present a contemporary example of integrated systems design that provides access to common resources through appropriate solutions of data management
An important key enabling technology for smart cities is the Internet of Things (IoT)
Summary
This article reflects on the impact that the integration of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in the operation and management of urban environment has on accessing common resources for citizens and its users. Drawing from preliminary results of ongoing research in the context of the ZERO-PLUS project,[42,43] this article attempts to highlight the potential impact that i) the integration of novel optimization methodologies, ii) simulation technologies, and iii) smart-infrastructure in the design, management, and access to operation data of communal spaces in housing settlements might have for the holistic sustainability of our cities.[44] The research project ZEROPLUS (acronym of ‘Achieving Near Zero and Positive Energy Settlements in Europe using Advanced Energy Technology’), funded by the EU under the Horizon 2020 framework, responds to the pressing need for more resilient models of housing and sustainable built environment through the development of a comprehensive model of Net Zero Energy settlements that is currently underway in four areas across Europe: i) Peyia Village, Paphos, Cyprus;[45] ii) Echirolles, Grenoble, France; iii) Granarolo dell’Emilia, Bologna, Italy; and iv) Derwenthorpe Community, York, UK.[46] The four innovative residential NZE settlements (Figure 1) are an example of integrated systems design that provides access to common recourses through appropriate solutions of data. Secure transfer protocols are used to perform the communication protocol between: i) the local data acquisition unit and the Cloud Server, ii) the front end and the end user to select specific information tailored for each targeted
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