ALBERT

Description: Capodimonte was the first Palace of Neapolitan Dinasty “Borbone”, but it was neglected due to the rise of Portici and Caserta’s Royal Palaces, therefore, it was built very slowly. It was completed only a century after the laying of the foundation stone (1738). After so long times, which saw the succession of several architects aiming the leadership to the royal site, some of them were quite famous among the most representative figures of Architecture and Art History in Naples, across Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries. The Royal Site was originally meant as Hunting reserve nearby the Capital and significant place of rest for the young Carlo di Borbone (Charles of Bourbon), who two years later decided to build a Royal Palace too. That decision was intended to amend the territorial aspects of Neapolitan northern hill, also to influence the urban layout before the unification of Italy. This study, based on a careful documentary and iconographic research, highlights the complex development of the palace and its park which are still paying a high price for the most controversial aspects of the project and its execution, emerged since the beginnings.

Description: heories about the origins and developments of modern cities seem to agree, without exception, to a point: the city is the place of maximum concentration of exchange. Activities, in fact, are located into urban and metropolitan agglomerations to minimize the resources needed to meet the growing need for relationships and exchanges with other activities. In recent years, the concentration and specialization of these activities have led to an extraordinary increase in intensity and quality of exchange needs, with the obvious consequence of congestion in most metropolitan areas with predictable consequences on the sustainability of urban areas, on the quality of life of its inhabitants and on the energy consumption associated with the growing demand for mobility. As a result, in recent years, several authors have argued for greater integration between urban planning policies, mobility management and energy efficiency. In this context, this volume aims to provide a contribution in this direction and presents the results of a research project aimed at the development of an integrated city-mobility-energy governance model. In particular, the first part of this work give an overview of the complex relationships between mobility, energy consumption and built environment through a meta-analysis of the recent literature. Specifically, in this section, the two main sources of energy consumption in urban areas (energy consumption in the residential sector and energy consumption of transport) are considered. These sectors represent, according to the latest estimates, respectively 32% and 35% of the final energy consumption. The section introduces several characteristics of the built environment such as density, functional mix or accessibility and described as such factors affect energy consumption in the transport and residential sectors. Understanding these relationships is of crucial importance for the development of a coordinated mix of actions aimed at reducing energy consumption in urban areas. Subsequently, the main models present in the literature for estimating residential energy consumption and urban transport energy consumption are presented, paying particular attention to the strengths and weaknesses of each model, the complexity and the related technical and operational aspects related to the implementation of such models. In the second part of this work, the focus is on the techniques for the representation and classification of energy consumption in urban areas through an application to the case study of Naples. Particularly, this section places particular emphasis on the new opportunities offered by the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and by the increasing availability of new data sources. The work integrates the use of "traditional" data sources such as census surveys, new data sources (in particular open and large data) with spatial analyzes developed ad hoc to provide exhaustive knowledge of energy consumption patterns within the city of Naples. The proposed methodology is validated by comparing the results obtained with the previously available data for the study area and by the implementation of spatial statistical analyzes in a GIS environment. The proposed methodology is a useful tool for public decision-makers and policy makers aimed at defining integrated government strategies for the reducing and optimizing of public and private energy consumption. In particular, the methodology described in this work is useful for classifying and representing energy consumption on an urban scale, for the identification of critical areas in terms of consumption, and for ex post evaluation of interventions on the urban system.

Description: An examination of the literature sources, of the archival documents, of the iconographic and cartographic repertoire to reconstruct the key moments of the fascinating architectural and artistic history of one of the most famous monuments of our city. The Basilica of San Giovanni Maggiore is now the result of often ominous and even criminal events, or of some imprudent interventions, that the recent renovations have been able to remedy only partially. Nevertheless, thanks to the constant care and to the appropriate use by the Engineers Order of Naples, it has been lately given back to the city: not only as an important place of worship, but also as a cultural center and a social gathering site, placed in such a significant area of the historic center of Naples, UNESCO World Heritage since 1995. The architectural and artistic analysis of the Basilica has been preceded by a description of urban history in late Antiquity and in the early Middle Ages; it had its fulcrum in the hill of Monterone, now largo of San Giovanni Maggiore, with an irregular and tortuous web, preserved up to us. This work proposes in the second part an updated summary analysis of existing artistic works in the Basilica, as well as those placed in some other locations in order to be preserved or restored.

Description: Cities are in a state in which two opposing forces are acting on them: on the one hand the unabated urbanization process, on the other the evergrowing demand for real sustainability. The book proposes an urban planning response focused on the transformations of urban sectors to be achieved using innovative operative tools; for this aim the book defines the main features of this operative tools. The goal is to include in the cities innovative actions that can provoke a domino effect with repercussions on the entire urban structure. The book is devided in 5 sections. The first one addresses the issue of urbanization and the development of the urban systems, with the related implications in terms of resource consumption and concentration of people and functions. The second part discusses some models that explain the mechanisms of urban sprawl and the derived scenarios. The third part deals with one of the key nodes of the relationship between urban systems and environmental resources, namely the energy. The fourth part analyzes some international case studies to extrapolate recurring characteristics that can affect the operative planning. The fifth section focuses on the features of this new type of plan.

Description: Cities and all the activities carried out in an urban environment significantly influence climate change causes but, at the same time, they are greatly affected by them. For these reasons, urban areas not only represent one of the problems, but also the main field of application of intervention strategies to be developed in order to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. Among the strategies to contrast climate change, the adaptation to its environmental effects has been pushed right into the background in scientific debate, mainly due to the difficulty experienced in transferring urban climatology into methods that can be easily implemented by planners to draw up land use plan. This volume is an attempt to strengthen the cultural background of urban planner, establishing solid connections with urban climatology, in order to build a new language, able to consider the relationships between urban morphology and climate change adaptation strategies to be implemented.

Description: The volume contains the results of the research project "Governance Analysis Project (GAP) for the Smart Energy City. The actualization of Smart Cities in the Metropolitan Areas of Europe and Italy” conducted within the PON “Smart Energy Master for the energy management of the territory” at the University Federico II of Naples (TeMA Lab of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering). Smart Cities have gained increasing relevance in the scientific debate and in the national and international operational practice, emerging as one of the opportunities to rethink cities and, more generally, the life of urban communities. First reflections, researches and projects on the issue seem to converge towards the idea that a “smart” urban development should not only be a result of the yet necessary and unavoidable infrastructural endowment (physical capital) and of its continuing innovation, but also of the quality of human, social and environmental capital, conceived as strategic factors for development. A “smart” city is, primarily, a city able to effectively satisfy the needs of its citizens respecting the rules imposed by the environmental context. It is in such a debate that the project GAP fits with the aim to address Smart Cities in light of the administrative reorganization of Italian large cities as a consequence of the Law 56/2014. With a scientific approach, the volume provides a comprehensive and updated framework of how Italian and European Metropolitan cities are declining the Smart City issue and this thanks to the collection of a wide-ranging screening represented by more than 1.000 initiatives including researches, projects, interventions, technologies, etc. Furthermore, one original element of this research is that after an analysis conducted through indirect sources, a phase of dialogue with “stakeholders” was carried out (and of this there is a wide picture in the volume in which, by the way, are reported long excerpts of the interviews). This has enabled to give a clearer framework of what is now experimenting in Italian and European cities, avoiding being totally naïve for interventions and projects labelled as “smart”, but often lacking of innovative methods and contents. The volume is articulated in 16 chapters: two chapters present the comparison among 12 Italian metropolitan cities, instituted by Law 56/2014, with reference to the ongoing experimentations (chap.1) and indicators of smartness (chap.2); one chapter (chap.15) illustrates how 5 European cities (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Bristol and Bruxelles) are interpreting the Smart City model; one chapter (chap.16) illustrates the ongoing experimentation in 3 Italian metropolitan cities (Milan, Venice and Bologna) directly explained by those who are carrying on the interventions (local technical bodies or associations); the remainder chapters are dedicated each to one of the 12 metropolitan cities analyzed (Milan, Turin, Genoa, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, Bari, Reggio Calabria, Palermo and Catania).

Description: This book focuses on the new anthropology elaborated by the physicians-philosophers of Montpellier in the second half of the 18th century, in particular, Paul-Joseph Barthez (1734-1806). In the wake of scepticism and empiricism, Barthez plans a science of man which rests upon physiological foundations and assimilates the respective resources of medicine and philosophical reflection. This essay first reconstructs the historical-cultural context in which the author’s writings came into being; second, it examines the texts in which its science of man takes shape, by highlighting the methodology, conceptual tools and theoretical implications.

Description: A long-serving leader of the Christian Democratic Party from mid-1940s to late 1950s, Fiorentino Sullo led an intense political action in the province of Avellino, combining exercise of power and political planning, programmatic appeals and rational distribution of resources, political and administrative management of State’s intervention in the public sphere and its bodies, efficient control and modernization of the territory. For over fifteen years, he intended to address and solve the typical dilemma faced by every modernizing elite and posed by the clash between the poles of conservation and transformation. His political career was characterized by a deep understanding of the traditional traits of the local communities, persistent and inevitable in the development of the relationship between politics and society. He also highlighted, in his activities, a strong orientation towards political change and the socio-economic development of a backward periphery.

Description: The arrival of the Allies in Italy in July 1943 was not the result of an impromptu decision, but rather of a prolonged debate that involved both political and military agencies in London and Washington for the first four years of the Second World War. The decision to pursue the defeat of the Axis through the invasion of Sicily had been reached by the Anglo-American leaders at Casablanca, in January 1943. The choice to give precedence to Italy in the framework of the European war was by no means a foregone conclusion, and its importance in the strategic developments of World War II in Europe has often been underestimated. This research seeks to re-evaluate the role that the ​elimination of Italy played in the overall strategy developed by the Allies during the first phase of the Mediterranean conflict. The analysis of the political debates, military planning, and strategic appreciations produced by Anglo-American decision-makers in the 1939-1943 period shows that the Allied wartime interest in Italy, its defeat and the occupation of its territory was the result of a long-term design.

Description: The book presents the correspondence between Roberto Michels and the Italian and French (Sorel and Lagardelle) syndicalists, which constitutes an essential historiographical source for the reconstruction of the controversial political biography of the sociologist. An introductory essay by Giorgio Volpe provides a critical interpretation of Michels' position within the socialist movement. It reconstructs the background of Michels' correspondences and studies the phases of his political militancy through the analysis of his political articles, sociological studies, autobiographical notes and reports on the Italian and German socialist parties' congresses.