The seminar aims to introduce the students to the changes at the local and global scale and its socio-technical, ecological, cultural and economic challenges. The goal of the workshop is to strengthen student’s knowledge and skills to: - Identify environmental factors affecting the health, well-being and safety of the people in the built environment, at urban and building scale; - Stress the architect’s role in the design of the Healthy City at different scales, focusing on key enabling technologies and innovation in the building and construction domain; - Investigate the relationships between environmental conditions, urban microclimate, light and acoustic environment, and the potential effects on health, well-being and perceived safety, indoor as well as outdoor; - Manage approaches and procedures for measuring/monitoring environmental quality (light, sound, microclimate, air quality, waste); - Develop a human-centric perspective for design and management of technologies in the built environment; - Understand the role of bioclimatic design in designing a healthy city; - Design the urban environment according to an ecological approach with particular attention to the role of the urban spaces features and greenery related to the urban morphology and microclimate; - Identify the use of Nature Based Solutions - NBS and architectural technologies in adaptation and mitigation strategies with particular attention to health effects. The skills to be acquired by the student are: - The ability to develop scientific investigation and theoretical insights on the topic; - The ability to critically analyze a built environment focusing on the user’s needs of health, welfare and safety; - The ability to perform surveys and measures in the field aimed at characterizing the environment, such as sound, light, air and surface temperature, air quality etc.; - The ability to identify and manage architectural and technological strategies to design a healthy built environment.

Students attending the Introductory Seminar must have a good knowledge of the fundamentals and principles of Building Physics and Architectural Technology. In particular, they must have taken a course in Building Physics in their three-year course of study in which the principles of lighting, acoustics and thermal building physics were covered.

The course consists of 3 modules: - I Module _ Principles and theories on health and wellbeing in the built environment at urban and building scale. This module is devoted to provide the general framework of the course. The subjects that will be tackled concern: impact of built environment on human health and wellbeing; environmental factors affecting human health and wellbeing; tools for integrating and evaluating health and well-being aspects when designing and managing the built environment. The principles and theoretical basis of design for a healthy city will be explained, with reference to various aspects of the thermo-hygrometric microclimate and the acoustic and light environment. - Module II _ Case studies analysis. Based on literature and bibliograpphy the students’ groups will analyses a number of case studies. - Module III _ Strategies Architectural and urban design strategies for healthy cities, and social quality in buildings and communities will be outlined by the students’ groups.

The course is delivered through a combination of lectures, thematic seminars with invited speakers and design workshops. Each activity is coordinated between the two involved disciplines: Building Physics (3 CFU) and Environmental Technological Design (3 CFU). As a general indication, 30 hours are devoted to lectures and seminars and 30 hours to workshops, laboratory and/or in-field practice. For each module, students are initially asked to develop a personal analysis on literature references listed in the attached bibliography and provided in class by the teachers. The analysis is then collectively discussed and deepened through lectures and seminars, also with external experts. Students work in groups for both modules, with a periodical support of the teaching staff during collective reviews. At the end the course, the students teams will be ask to present their work. The Environmental Technological Design module: (Phase 1): the first part of the course will be devoted to the basic concepts of the role of urban microclimate as a determinant of health and the bioclimatic approach as an adaptation strategy at the neighborhood and building level. Emphasis will be on natural (outdoor/indoor) cooling strategies in different climates; (Phase 2) Several case studies of bioclimatic projects in different urban scenarios will be analyzed by the student groups based on the characteristics of local climates; (Phase 3) The student groups will have to define design strategies at the neighborhood and building level for climate adaptation aimed at a healthier city in different climate contexts. This phase will be carried out mainly in the classroom with teacher supervision. The Building Physics module:(phase 1) the theoretical background (lighting and acoustics) will be provided in the first part of the course; (phase 2) these aspects will be used in group works to critically analyse design case studies at the micro-urban scale; (phase 3) finally students groups are required to research and make proposals of design strategies that address the criticalities emerged in the second phase. In-field practice includes on-site measurements and subjective surveys, carried out by the students with the support of the teaching staff. Revision of the students’ work will be planned periodically during the teaching hours.

- WELL v2 building standard, IWBI, https://www.wellcertified.com/certification/v2/ - Ford, B.; Schiano-Phan, R.; Vallejo, Juan A. (2020), The architecture of natural cooling, Routledge - Erell, E.; Pearlmutter, D.; Williamson, T. (2011) Urban Microclimate: Designing the Spaces Between Buildings, Routledge - Aletta, F., Xiao, J. (2018) Handbook of Research on Perception-Driven Approaches to Urban Assessment and Design, ISBN:9781522536376, IGI Global - Hanc, M; McAndrew, C. and Ucci, M. (2018), Conceptual approaches to wellbeing in buildings: a scoping review, Building Research and Information, pp. 767-783. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2018.1513695

Lecture slides; Text book;

Exam: Written test; Compulsory oral exam; Group project;

Each group will be asked to prepare one poster and to collect the analysis and proposal on design strategies in a dossier that is prepared, based on a fixed structure provided by the teaching staff, and sent electronically, by means of the student portal maximum 7 days before the exam date. The dossier and the poster are collectively presented, discussed and assessed during the final oral examination. The individual learning level is also assessed through a multiple choice test on the subjects addressed in Module I and II. The test will last one hour. No teaching material could be used during the test. The grading criteria follows the rules reported below: - Comprehensiveness, quality and deepening of the dossier’s contents: 50% - Knowledge and understanding of the principles, methods and tools (individual assessment of the learning level): 50%

In addition to the message sent by the online system, students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) are invited to directly inform the professor in charge of the course about the special arrangements for the exam that have been agreed with the Special Needs Unit. The professor has to be informed at least one week before the beginning of the examination session in order to provide students with the most suitable arrangements for each specific type of exam.