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The paper proposes a computational method to study and test the relationship between shape and performance for the built environment, sustaining the use of smart geometry to support design operation. A comprehensive study of the geometry and working principles of a hyperboloidical cooling tower is presented. A case study in Marghera (Venice), built in 1938 is explored. Thanks to knowledge in descriptive geometry and mathematics, scripting procedures, digital survey, Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis, the paper demonstrates how hyperboloidical cooling towers represent a reference in shape optimization. Varying the fundamental parameter of the shape, reducing the throat diameter, the simulation shows the enhanced efficiency of the tower in terms of velocity and temperature. Consequently, the proposed method may be applied to other surfaces and structures.

This research experiments the theme of cultural heritage (CH) in architectural/engineering fields, located in urban space. Primary sources and new tactics for digital reconstruction allow interactive contextualization-access to often inaccessible data creating pedagogical apps for spreading. Digital efforts are central, in recent years based on new technological opportunities that emerged from big data, Semantic Web technologies, and exponential growth of data accessible through digital libraries – EUROPEANA. Also, the use of data-based BIM allowed the gaining of high-level semantic concepts. Then, interdisciplinary collaborations between ICT and humanities disciplines are crucial for the advance of workflows that allow research on CH to exploit machine learning approaches. This chapter traces the visualizing cities progress, involving Duke and Padua University. This initiative embraces the analysis of urban systems to reveal with diverse methods how documentation/understanding of cultural sites complexities is part of a multimedia process that includes digital visualization of CH.

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