Short CV
Rossella Corrao, Architect, PhD graduate in Building Engineering: Design Techniques and Building Production, Full Professor in Architectural Engineering at the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo since 2019.
She teaches “Architectural Engineering and Technology Innovation” for the Master's Degree in Engineering of the Building Systems and “Management of the building process” for the Master's Degree in Building Engineering and Architecture.
Her research activity has been aimed, over the last years, at the study of the effects of the technological evolution in the building sector, taking into particular account the study of mechanical assembly systems for the construction of sustainable architectural building envelope and the evaluation of novel materials and technologies for the performance improvement of building components. More in detail, the research activity has been focused on the analysis of problems related to the use of high technology materials for the performance enhancement of light-capturing elements of building envelope. In particular, she has designed a new configuration of glassblock and a new dry assembly system in order to improve their use for the construction of energy efficiency translucent building envelopes in high-rise buildings, located in Mediterranean and subtropical areas.
At the present time she is investigating the questions related to the use vegetation for the mitigation of Urban Heat Island effect and the improvement of comfort outdoor and indoor by developing a multiscale metodology for the analysis of different scenarios; moreover she is developing a novel BIV component for façade that use succulents plants, for the retrofit of existing buildings in mediterranean and subtropical areas.
Currently, she is coordinator of UNIPA research group in the field of iHERITAGE. ICT Mediterranean Platform for Cultural Heritage project, financed by ENI CBC MED Programme 2014-2020 (in progress).
She is author of several books and scientific papers published on national and international journals, magazines and conference proceedings.
She is, also, author of two different Patents internationally registered.
Co-founder of SBskin. Smart Building Skin s.r.l. (www.sbskin.it), an academic spin-off of the University of Palermo aimed to prototype and commercialize multifunctional, translucent, photovoltaic components for active building façades that integrates third generation solar cells technology (DSSC).
(updated March, 16th 2021)