PRO-INNOVATION : PROCESS PRODUCTION PRODUCT

Abstract

The beginning of the third millennium has marked a period of unprecedented change for cities, architecture and product/visual design. Over the last two decades, economic, social and environmental causes have stimulated and conditioned research and production, directing them towards substantial paradigm changes, proposing new challenges to create more smart, more resilient, more responsive and adaptive, more efficient and more sustainable urban systems, buildings and objects – from nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) to Positive Energy Architecture (PEA) – designed and built faster, with lower costs and with a positive effect on the environment, society, health and productivity: more innovative, in a nutshell. It is a common knowledge that innovation is, now more than ever, the tool needed to recover from the global economic crisis, to aim for economic prosperity and quality of life improvement, to increase productivity, to foster competitiveness, to support the challenge of globalization and environmental sustainability, both at an ‘incremental’ level (improvement of an already existing production process) and ‘radical’ (to create a new unmatched method or production system). In this regard, the book ‘Pro-Innovation: Process Production Product’ collects essays and critical thoughts, researches and experimentations on the subject of Innovation in the building and design industry, which can provide some starting points for debate for the international scientific Community or show successful examples of innovation, sustainability and social inclusion. The papers are grouped into two sections (Architecture and Design) according to the scientific field they are referred to, and provide a summary – obviously not exhaustive – of the Innovation that is characterizing the beginning of this century, presenting many proposals and new points of view of the process, of its management and of the building production that indicate new paths to thread and new professionals.