Ultralight membrane structures towards a sustainable environment

ended

Clean energy transition imposes a drastic change of paradigm in the building construction technology. Among the several anthropogenic sources of pollution, building construction industry produces the highest environmental footprint, with massive global energy consumption and vast CO2 emission. Moreover, the enormous demand for buildings in rapidly developing countries characterised by extreme climates can cause an environmental shock, which can hardly be tolerated by our planet. LIGHTEN project aims to foster a new generation of highly qualified scientists and engineers to become experts in advanced design methods for a sustainable built environment. Novel fully recyclable and low-carbon structural membranes offer a thinner and green alternative to glass and other transparent cladding materials when implemented in lightweight buildings, resulting in significant weight savings in the envelope and supporting structures, thus drastically reducing the environmental impact. The remarkably incomplete scientific and technological understanding of the thermomechanical behaviour of such innovative structural membranes requires the development of engineering models capable of predicting their performances and allowing their rational use in ultralightweight buildings with enhanced energy efficiency and resilience. Experimental characterisation, mechanical modelling, computer simulation, and structural design will be taught and developed to educate the researchers through a tailored and integrated doctoral program jointly supervised by industrial and academic partners. The trained researchers will be equipped with unprecedented technical abilities and environmental sensitivity, to exploit the opportunities provided by the built environment sustainability challenge, in response to the Paris Climate Act for highly efficient and fully decarbonising buildings by 2050.