Project S.A.F.E.

S.A.F.E is an industrial research project aimed at creating innovative furnishing systems for schools and offices, able to turn into intelligent systems for “life-saving” protection of people during an earthquake and/or the consequent collapse of the building. The challenge for scientific, technological and industrial research is to innovate and transform, from a structural perspective, the design of furniture and mobile equipment, used in schools and offices, in intelligent safety systems, which can contribute to the protection of life. In addition, through the development and integration of sensors and an IT management platform, the systems help finding people in the event of a collapse during an earthquake, also improving their performance in terms of safety, environmental sustainability and healthiness.

The project stems from the observation of what happens in public and private buildings during an earthquake and a consequent collapse, ie the behavior of furniture, mobile equipment and non-structural elements. These, in many cases, become a further element of danger and cause of mortality, in others they are transformed, often by chance, into systems of protection of human life. The different way of behaving of furniture system in the event of an earthquake and collapse, depends on how they were conceived, designed and built.

The project intends to focus, first of all, on research and the definition of new technical-performance requirements of the furnishing systems used in public contexts, such as schools and offices, which allow, through an approach to design from a structural perspective, to transform them into real life-saving protection systems in the event of an earthquake, thus generating a significant added value in a system of products, mostly destined for Public Administrations.

The S.A.F.E. project proposes an interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach to innovation aimed at accelerating the transfer of scientific and technological research results into usable industrial applications.