Interpretation of architecture changes by combined use of historical sources, IR Termography and GPR: the study case of San Francesco convent near Montella (AV), Italy (original) (raw)
MDPI - Heritage 2019, 2(3), 2384-2397 - Special Issue Materials and Methods in Cultural Heritage: The role of Archaeometry in Museums (ISSN 2571-9408), 2019
In the last few years, new technologies have become indispensable tools for specialists in the field of cultural heritage for the analysis, reconstruction and interpretation of data but also for promotion of artefacts or buildings sometimes inaccessible or in a bad state of conservation. The discipline of geomatics offer many opportunities and solutions for integrated digital surveys and the documentation of heritage (point-based methods, image-based photogrammetry and their combination): These data can be processed in order to derive metric information and share them using databases or GIS (geographic information system) tools. This paper is focused on the description of combined survey methodologies adopted for the geometric and architectural documentation of the site and surviving structures of the Castel of Scalea (Cosenza, Italy). It is a typical context where traditional survey procedures do not fully succeed or require a longer amount of time and great effort if a high level of accuracy is requested: For this reason, aerial close-range digital photogrammetry enhanced by the GNSS (global navigation satellite system), and total station positioning systems have been used at various levels of detail for the production of a detailed 3D model and 2D thematic maps with an excellent level of in the positioning of the structures and in the architectural drawing. Thanks to the collected dataset, it was possible to better identify the building units (CF), to digitize the limits of the masonry stratigraphic units (USM), and to draw up a first constructive diachronic sequence hypothesis on which to base chronology. Moreover, some particular masonry techniques have been sampled and compared at the regional level with the aim to better dating of constructive expedients. It was finally demonstrated how the use of integrated methodologies allows us to obtain a complete and detailed documentation including information regarding not only architectural and geometrical features but also archaeological and historical elements, building materials and decay evidences-all useful as support of the interpretation of data.
Journal of Cultural Heritage, 2019
Today, Geomatics science can provide modern techniques of acquisition, visualization, measurement and data management, useful for preservation, documentation and analysis of Cultural Heritage, in all its variety. Very interesting is the case for which both the project documentation of an object and the object itself are Cultural Heritage. A perfect example is the big Arc of entrance to the Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery of Milan (Italy), by Giuseppe Mengoni (1877), whose project documents are today kept at the "Museum-Archive Giuseppe Mengoni" of Fontanelice (province of Bologna). Exploiting this case, in the present study it was tested the utilization of geomatic techniques-photogrammetry and GIS (Geographic Information System) technology in particular-for archive documentation, developing an innovative tool able to allow intuitive and immediate searches among the archive documents (once made measurable) and the catalogue records, and let an innovative reading of the big Arc, in each step of its project development.
GPR prospecting in Renaissance and baroque monuments in Lecce (Southern Italy)
2011 6th International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar (IWAGPR), 2011
In this contribution, we present three case histories related to three churches of the 16-17 th century in Lecce, Southern Italy. The data have been processed by means of a standard processing, and the results have been interpreted with the aid of an archive research. The aim of this paper is to show that a strict collaboration between technical and humanistic competencies can constitute a meaningful additional value to the results in these kinds of case histories.
This article is the outcome of a research on survey digital techniques for acquiring knowledge, documentation and enhancement of the architectural heritage. Through this research, the current low-cost image-based modeling techniques have been tried and tested. The goal was to identify an operative methodological way for the transmission of the cultural heritage through metrically reliable 3D photographic models that can be used both in the contexts of fruition and in 3D virtual repository (3D Icons, Europeana). In particular, in this article, I report the results of research applied to the Auteri Chapel, a micro-architecture of 1871, located in the monumental cemetery of Catania. The proposed methodology takes advantage of analytical drawing and survey tools to understand and decode not only the geometric and formal aspects of the architectural building but also the symbolic and semantic ones (use of symbolic shapes, search for beauty, meaning of decoration) related to the specific connotation of these architectures of memory.
M. Giannini, 2017
The new era of designing in architecture and civil engineering applications lies in the Building Information Modeling (BIM) approach, based on a 3D geometric model including a 3D database. This is easier for new constructions whereas, when dealing with existing buildings, the creation of the BIM is based on the accurate knowledge of the as-built construction. Such a condition is allowed by a 3D survey, often carried out with laser scanning technology or modern photogrammetry, which are able to guarantee an adequate points cloud in terms of resolution and completeness by balancing both time consuming and costs with respect to the request of final accuracy. The BIM approach for existing buildings and even more for historical buildings is not yet a well known and deeply discussed process. There are still several choices to be addressed in the process from the survey to the model and critical issues to be discussed in the modeling step, particularly when dealing with unconventional elements such as deformed geometries or historical elements. The paper describes a comprehensive workflow that goes through the survey and the modeling, allowing to focus on critical issues and key points to obtain a reliable BIM of an existing monument. The case study employed to illustrate the workflow is the Basilica of St. Stefano in Bologna (Italy), a large monumental complex with great religious, historical and architectural assets.
Construction History and Digital Heritage. Experimentations on Renaissance Domes in Campania (Italy)
ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2020
The paper describes an ongoing research project granted by the University of Naples Federico II (2017-2020) concerning masonry domes considered as visual poles in the historic urban landscape and as a constructively vulnerable built heritage. Studies focus on Renaissance domes in Campania region (Naples included) and combine established strategies with innovative ones for the knowledge of visible/invisible parts. Verticals and curved structures are investigated with a unitary approach, together with the pre-reinforcements placed during the construction phases or for later strengthening. These topics deal with issues crucial for the domes' study: firstly, the overlapping of inner and outer surfaces that hide structural elements and do not enable their comprehension. In addition, we must consider the recurring difficult inspection or inaccessibility due to the big dimensions and heights from the ground. All these factors, together with the fact that decorated surfaces are a limit for the traditional diagnosis, require new investigation strategiesremote and by non-destructive methodsso as to document the invisible both for emerging and for underground parts. A model for knowledge characterized by the interlacement of 'humanistic' interpretation and bottom-up/bottom-down surveys is discussed. The understanding of what is invisible to direct inspection is considered a stimulating frontier for proposing innovative dissemination tools for the comprehension of cultural heritage, able to reach new communicative horizons related to the construction of complex forms of architecture. The transposition of the research outcomes into digital "accessible" data aims at having impacts for sharing a broader cultural awareness of the built heritage historical constructive significance.
2009
A precise survey, the consequent drawing and the comparison with textual and iconographical sources are the main stages for a methodological approach to knowledge and interpretation of ancient buildings. When few traces of these buildings remain, a survey could be the only way to give form to the original architectural unity, integrating survey drawings with lost parts. These procedures are known as graphic or ideal reconstructions and they are necessary in investigating ancient monuments. The methodology starts from direct building analysis, then it continues with philological and comparative studies, and it ends with the representation of the architecture in its original form. In this way, surveys and drawings not only offer a possible key for reading architecture but they become experimentation and verification tools of the assumptions made at beginning of study. Research goes beyond the limits set by the ruin itself and looks for the most correct explanations to define the original morphology and typology. Therefore, if it is the result of a choice subject to severe examinations, the ideal reconstruction, as formal synthesis model, could contribute to further developments of specific deeper research. Graphic reconstruction is useful to demonstrate a proposition, and it synthesizes and communicates all the gathered informations and the investigations results at a glance. As a matter of fact, by graphic reconstruction, portions that are supposed to be lost are quickly "pre-figured". Firstly the survey, then the ideal reconstruction are similar to a coherent and easily interpretable tale, by which, the past building comes from is set in strictly relationship with its present. The trend to realize more and more realistic computer graphic reconstructions tries to cancel the time dimension, that separates us from the past, to get a physical more than perceptive experience, to project toward the future also. But in this way, it is not considered that a reality is proposed, existing in the scholar mind only, because, even if it is based on a rigorous anamnesis, it could never cancel cultural and time distance from the past. Because of this, the achieved results cannot be judged as definitive, but always susceptible of updating and knowledge widening as research proceeds. In the last years, it has been turned to the computer graphic particularly for advertising aims and at enrichment of written text. In these cases, the geometric precision is not more important than the imagine figurative value, which remains fixed in the memory, so assuming its own iconographic autonomy. The computer graphics helps not expert in the matter people to approach to themes which could otherwise remain incomprehensible through the traditional representation by the technical language. However, it should not leave out of consideration the methodological severity which is the fundamental tool of knowledge in the scientific field, besides the popular work. If the reconstructive model is based on such a methodologically sound scientific study and is the result of choices which have undergone meticulous assessment, the proposals for optimum reconstruction may be considered a valid formal model and can contribute toward further research. Reconstruction proposals which followed these parameters were adopted for several Apulian monuments, such as the Calidarium 61 in the Herdonia thermae, the medieval cloisters in the San Benedetto complex in Bari. In this paper I have highlighted the achievements of research carried out on two buildings located in Apulia and characterized by different problems due to their age and state of conservation, the Augustan era judicial Basilica in the city of Herdonia and the medieval casale of Balsignano in the city of Bari.
2015
The research focuses on the first establishment urban map of the nineteenth century Gregorian Cadastre of Bologna, kept today at the State Archives of the city. In this cadastral cartography the city is divided into some sectors; for each sector – unique case in the Gregorian Cadastre of the ancient Papal State – there are ground floor maps and maps for the floors above and below. The present study aims to analyse this peculiar cadastre using digital tools deriving from the integration of geomatic and archival skills. For some test-areas, a careful comparative consultation of the graphical information stored in the georeferenced maps and the written one in the related cadastral registers is performed; this allows 3D digital reconstructions of the horizontal and vertical extent of the cadastral proprieties, and also thematic visualizations (e.g. according to owners, designed use, rent, etc.). This modern kind of representation allows a deep analysis of the complex nineteenth century ...
Építés – Építészettudomány , 2020
The use of digital technologies to study architecture and landscape has begun to represent an innovative aspect of the research when it started to allow the dynamic association (as input and output) of images and alphanumeric data: the different combination of this information through inferences and algorithms and the consequent generation of new data has freed digitisation from a strictly instrumental role making it a new methodological approach in itself. As a matter of fact, recently architectural research has begun to take an interest in the problem 'from within', working not only on the application of computer tools but, more consciously, on their configuration. The work carried out by the Sapienza research group is aimed at developing ontologies and inferential models specifically dedicated to the representation of historical buildings and is devoted to the implementation of a national GIS platform for the historical centres, the Risk Map of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism. This kind of work involves a series of methodological issues specially oriented to the definition of the role of the history of architecture in itself and its use for the conservation project. These arguments are developed within this essay, mainly focused on: type and quality of information deriving by the new procedures; interpretative components that fuel the new research methods; cost/benefit ratio in the use of 'analogue' and 'digital' approaches; future prospects of the two different (traditional and digital) investigative strategies. Moreover, both of the fields of digital research developed by the group (ontology and Risk Map) are here summarised.