Use of Vegetable Materials for Temporary Structures and Infrastructures

The need of saving material and energy resources suggests as possible strategy a simplification in the construction elements based on more efficient solutions from the mechanical and functional viewpoint (Cecchini, Costruire 300:96–99, 2008). The proposed paper deals with the design of a poly-functional center, the Palco Urbano, by means of a Social Housing completion, aimed at hosting researchers, students, and artists within a residential zone in the freguesia of Azurem, enclosed in the University Campus of Guimaraes in Portugal. The stages of regeneration for this urban area start from the analysis, mainly about flows and times with maximum students’ concentration at the University, local inhabitants’ presence, and finally about the appealing element of the Guimaraes Castle. The textile material for architecture can be considered as a design parameter, when the goal were that of temporary, adaptable, and removable roof for architectural as well as social enhancement of wide spaces: by means of a new access door, the latest would be suitable for a manifold of activities, by appropriate contextualization to the climate. Such textile building components match the updated requirements of developing products with a few of matter, at ecological use and with closed productive cycle (Francese, Innovative and sustainable use of natural materials in the Mediterranean basin. In: Francese D, Passaro A (eds) Building in the Mediterranean region. Sustainable technologies and materials for inhabiting: Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia. D’Arco Editore, Spigno Saturnia, 2017); the proposed technological solution for temporary covering the open spaces is made up by means of a tensile structure in an ancient material: the hemp fabric. Also, the technical element of the wall is proposed in hemp-and-lime brick. The chosen materials are a hint for opening a debate about the benefits deriving today from vegetable-fiber materials, which can be re-employable in demountable architectures, within a continuous process based on circular economy. This improvement in use of the two hemp products leads to innovative procedure and construction design for a flexible and reversible architecture, as well as to low ecological footprint solutions.