technological systems, digital tools, and smart grids serving urban communities
227
energy needs and intervenes actively, avoiding unnecessary consumption. In case solar energy reserves are not adequate, the AI guided home will be able to switch off unnecessary devices automatically, or to reduce their consumption when possible, sending appropriate warning messages to the householder. Present and future applications of AI are being continuously tested, mainly in the field of Domestic Domotics, and their evolution will certainly be greatly accelerated by the forthcoming spread of 5G telecommunication wireless technology, able to transfer an unprecedented flow of information and data to predictive systems, largely superior than the ones available at present. Managing urban environments with Digital Twin models At the beginning of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the rise of digitalization, innovative technologies, and materials as well as the emergence of new construction techniques, transformed the way that infrastructures, real estate and building assets can be planned, designed, constructed, and made operational to create a more attractive, energyefficient, comfortable, affordable, safe, and sustainable built environment. Developments in digital design, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology, and additive manufacturing, have finally started to move the construction industry – traditionally reluctant to innovate and slow to adopt new technologies – towards a new era. In particular, the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector is facing a rapid and considerable transformation given the diffusion of BIM (Building Information Modelling), which is consistently