Strutture e modellazione matematica in architettura

1 CFR, 5 ore - II semestre

Un approccio interdisciplinare all'analisi strutturale finalizzato a un'architettura di elevata qualità tecnologica attraverso la modellazione variazionale e computazionale di materiali e componenti, incentrata sulle loro proprietà geometriche, fisiche e costruttive, nonché sulle nuove prospettive offerte dai metamateriali meccanici.

Structures and Mathematical Modelling in Architecture
This PhD course explores the mechanics of complex structures arising in biological systems and advanced engineered materials, with particular emphasis on modelling, stability, wave propagation, and multiscale phenomena. Particular attention is devoted to the role of mechanical principles in design and architecture, highlighting how biological structures can inspire adaptive, resilient, and efficient solutions for the built environment. Through a combination of theoretical and applied perspectives, the course addresses themes relevant to engineering, architecture, and environmental design, including structural optimization, responsive materials, and bio-inspired systems.

Docenti invitati

Andrea Braides | Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Italy
Antonino Morassi | Università di Udine, Italy
Giovanni Noselli | SISSA Trieste, Italy
Lev Truskinovsky | Physics and Mechanics of Heterogeneous Media Laboratory, ESPCI, Paris, France

Orario

06/07/2026 dalle 17:00 alle 17:30 (Presentazione del corso) e dalle 17:30 alle 18:45
07/07/2026 dalle 11:00 alle 12:15 e dalle 15:00 alle 16:15
08/07/2026 dalle 11:00 alle 12:15

Aula

Aula Pintori, Asilo Sella, via Garibaldi 35, Alghero

Antonino Morassi | Università di Udine, Italy

Aula Pintori, Asilo Sella, via Garibaldi 35, Alghero
6 luglio 2026 dalle 17:00 alle 18:45

Daily experience shows that a spider that stays in the center of an orb-web is able to orient itself immediately toward the prey, and capture it, by testing the web at the contact points of its eight legs. We formulate the catching problem as the inverse problem of identifying the region of prey’s impact in a continuous membrane model of orb-web from dynamic measurements that mimic those made in Nature by a spider. We provide a mathematically-founded answer to this inverse problem.

Programma sintetico
17:00 - 17:30 Presentazione del Corso tematico Strutture e modellazione matematica in architettura
17:30 - 18:45 Antonino Morassi, Università di Udine - Can the spider hear the position of the prey?

Antonino Morassi 
Laureato in Ingegneria Civile e in Matematica, dal 2003 è professore ordinario di Scienza delle Costruzioni presso l’Università degli Studi di Udine. I suoi interessi sono orientati allo studio degli aspetti sia generali sia applicativi dei problemi di identificazione e diagnostica strutturale per via dinamica e del loro inquadramento matematico. Ha portato avanti un’intensa attività sperimentale con studi specifici su prototipi di laboratorio in scala ridotta e su strutture in piena scala.

Lev Truskinovsky | Physics and Mechanics of Heterogeneous Media Laboratory, ESPCI, Paris, France

Aula Pintori, Asilo Sella, via Garibaldi 35, Alghero
7 luglio 2026 dalle 11:00 alle 12:15

We review recent attempts to replace chemistry-centered models of force generation in (skeletal) muscles by mechanics-centered models representing muscles as active meta-materials with intricate internal network architecture. Specifically, behind the apparent series connection of structural elements in apparently crystal-like skeletal muscles there is a system of intricate parallel connections accomplished by passive cross-linkers.

Lev Truskinovsky graduated from Moscow University in Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, was a postdoc at Harvard, and then a professor at the Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics Department at the University of Minnesota. More recently he moved to France as a director of research at CNRS first in Ecole Polytechnique and then in ESPCI.

Andrea Braides | Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Italy

Aula Pintori, Asilo Sella, via Garibaldi 35, Alghero
7 luglio 2026 dalle 15:00 alle 16:15

The talk presents a mathematical approach for the treatment of unilateral constraints distributed at the microscopic scale, with applications in the mechanics of composite materials, metamaterials, and structures with imperfections or point-like reinforcements. 
The work connects the mathematical theory of homogenization to the modeling of structures and materials with local constraints, providing tools for moving from microstructural descriptions to effective macroscopic models.

Andrea Braides is a leading expert in the Calculus of Variations. Born in Udine in 1961, he trained at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa under the guidance of Ennio De Giorgi. Full Professor at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and member of the doctoral committee of SISSA in Trieste. Author of over 150 publications and reference books in the field, Invited Speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians (2014), Visiting Professor at the most prestigious universities worldwide.

Giovanni Noselli | SISSA Trieste, Italy

Aula Pintori, Asilo Sella, via Garibaldi 35, Alghero
8 luglio 2026 dalle 11:00 alle 12:15 

Regarded as a detrimental phenomenon in engineering, flutter instability has recently been shown to enable emergent functional behaviors in both natural and synthetic systems. In this talk, I will briefly review the fundamentals of flutter through the analysis of Ziegler’s double pendulum and then discuss recent results, inspired by studies on plant circumnutations, showing how this dynamic instability can be successfully harnessed for the design and control of soft robotic systems.

Giovanni Noselli is professor of Solid and Structural Mechanics at SISSA - International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste. In 2012, he joined the applied mathematics group mathLab, where he leads the SAMBA and BioMat experimental laboratories. His activities range from mechanobiology and soft robotics to structural instabilities, fracture mechanics, and active materials. His approach to research combines experimental observation, mathematical modeling, and numerical simulation.