Every year the Genoa Science Festival takes inspiration from the latest and most burning issues of the day, offering a multifaceted scientific debates, absolute previews, shows and exhibitions crossing over and exploring the connections between Art and Science, paying special attention to the latest research findings, as well as to what’s new in emerging countries.
This is a global event intimately tied to the city of Genoa and to the region of Liguria. The Science Festival also features high international level where panel discussions take place and face-to-face meetings with Italian and foreign top experts make every year a unique event fully dedicated to science dissemination.
IAAC Projects showcased at the Festival della Scienza
SYNAPSE by Hayder Mahdi, Nikol Kirova, Shruti Jalodia
Synapse is a surface based sensing medium that utilizes nanoparticles to do three tasks – It senses user presence in a space, collects the occupancy data and by analysing it, it creates easy-to-understand presence heatmaps. What makes it unique is that the Data collected is inherently anonymous, unlike cameras or IP based sensors that can be intrusive to the physical or digital identity. ?Moreover, as a surface-based system, it can become an integral part of architectural materiality.
GRAPHENE COMPOSITES by Javier López-Alascio Hervás, Gelder Van Limburg Stirum, Ricardo Mayor, Thanos Zervos
A study of graphene as an embedded material inside traditional building materials such as unbaked clay. The research aims to examine the innovative possibilities of graphene applications that haven’t been done before in architectural design or fabrication processes.
FLUX IN by Eduardo Chamorro, Elliott Santos, Marc J Bou Assaf
This project seeks to create responsive macroporous structures used in?self-assembled, lightweight, rigid systems. The combination of PU foam that is infused with a mixture of resin, wax and graphene allows for a material that has a soft and rigid state based on temperature and can regain its original shape by releasing the energy stored in the compressed foam.
PARANEL by Chen Yuchen, Aman Jain, Alberto Holguin, Takeru Osoegawa
Paranel is a thermo-responsive glazing system, based on the properties of a phase change material (paraffin) embedded in a resin composite. Thermal and visual control is achieved by the thermal capacitance and transparency change performance of the PCM.
PIEL VIVO by Noor El-Gewely, Lili Tayefi, Christopher Wong
Unlike plastics derived from fossil fuels, bio-plastic is made from organic compounds, and therefore can be part of the full life-cycle design, also known as the “Cradle-to-cradle” approach. Piel vivo is trying to show how such materials, in this case, orange peel- and coffee waste-based, can be used to create building components of high aesthetic and mechanical quality.
BREATHING SKIN by Irene Ayala Castro, Montakan Manosong, Ya Chieh Chang, Zina Alkani
Homeostasis is the fundamental mechanism for organisms to maintain an equilibrium in physiological variables that sustain lives. Sodium Polyacrylate, one of the superabsorbent polymers in the hydromorph family, is the material used in this prototype for its high capacity of volume change when absorbing water: up to 300 times of its volume in a short time span, and the effect of evaporative cooling as it prolongs the evaporation process. It can therefore work in water-driven actuators used to open and close the pores of a future breathing building skin.
