Abstract:

The seismic events which recently stroked historical buildings in Italy, have demonstrated the need to re-think the strategies of seismic prevention and protection of built heritage.

The paper presents one experience of research directed to the definition of the elements of vulnerability about historical buildings, in order to identify a methodology for approaching the theme, which should be able to keep in touch different tools which usually refer to different disciplinary fields (seismic engineering, architectonic conservation and restoration, technical diagnosis, historical research, …)

The experience is developed throughout the Continuing Education Course “Preservation and Reuse Design of Historical Architecture” (PRD) – related to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DICA) – in cooperation with the “Mitigation Risk Design” Workshop (MiRiDe), activated by the School of Architecture, Urban Studies and Structural Engineering (AUIC) at the Polytechnic of Milan.

Proposed educational activities have a triple final purpose: presenting current themes of research related to the Reliability and Vulnerability of Built Heritage, providing participants operative tools for the study of the Disposition towards Damage of Built Heritage, involving participant in further designing activities.

The paper, recalling the work that has been done, is organized into three thematic areas:

Part one: “vulnerability of built heritage: the state of the art”
Research of relevant experiences, developed in past years, represents an important didactic tool to face the fact that the theme of vulnerability has been addressed in different ways through history. The paper shows some relevant steps throughout the study of buildings or paradigmatic situations of possible approaches to the definition of the Disposition towards Structural Damage after earthquakes.

Part two: “tools and methodologies”
Starting from the elements deepened in the first thematic area, here are presented tools and methodologies which can be effective and operative in order to define the level of vulnerability of the built heritage. Particular attention is focused onto the didactic aspects (learning by doing, flipped classroom) thus to develop knowledge and skills simultaneously, in order to elaborate one “rating of vulnerability”.

Part three; “case study: designing developments”
The third thematic area presents the results of the work developed throughout the PRD Course. Starting from epistemological principles, from methodology of research and from operative tools presented in the other steps of the work, the paper hereby shows the outcomes of meta-design activity, oriented to the study of the Disposition towards Seismic Damage, on which applies the case study of Cascina Cuccagna (Milan).

Special relevance is given to the relationship between Education and Research: through a kind of critical reconsideration of the results of meta-designing activity, potentialities, weaknesses and possible future developments of the research will be highlighted.

Keywords:

Built Heritage, Vulnerability, Methodologies, Tools, Strategies.