Digital& Documentation. Digital Strategies for Cultural Heritage (Vol. 2)

Cultural Heritage is as rich as complex and its documentation is an increasing challenge. The digital solutions are numerous and their potential is a topic of constant investigation by the scientific community that is requested to deliver digital strategies to make heritage permanently open and shared

Lunette Vaults in Guarini’s Work. Digital Models between Architettura Civile and Modo di Misurare le Fabriche / Volte a lunette nell’opera di Guarini. Modelli digitali fra Architettura Civile e Modo di misurare le fabriche

In Guarini’s systematization of vaulted systems based on geometric reasoning, the lunette vaults created by cutting main vaults of different geometric shape and inserting the groins take on a primary role. This operation increases the natural lighting of the rooms and ensures airiness and dynamism to atria and halls of Baroque palaces. In the Architettura Civile (published posthumous in 1737) and the Modo di misurare le fabriche (1674), he describes the geometrical origin and the measurement of the vaults, respectively. In the first treatise, the lunette vaults emerge as a typology rich of shape variations and implementations in civil buildings, in the second the surfaces of the vaults are attributed to the geometric matrices of the single elements and present some novelties with respect to the Architettura Civile, having semi-ellipses, and arcs of circumference and ellipse, as directrices. In this work the significant relationships between these two Guarini’s treatises, whose complementarity emerges in the continuous reference to the Geometry-Architecture binomial, are developed and deepened. The graphical analysis and digital modeling of surfaces allow not only the recognition of the geometric primitives underlying the structure of the vaulted systems and the verification of the measurement rules that Guarini largely attributes to himself, but also the comparison with the architectures realized in the period of the second expansion of Turin. Nella sistematizzazione guariniana dei sistemi voltati, fondata sul ragionamento geometrico, assumono un ruolo primario le volte a lunette generate mediante il taglio di volte principali di differente conformazione geometrica e l’inserimento di unghie. Tale operazione consente di aumentare l’illuminazione naturale degli ambienti e di garantire ariosità e movimento ad atri e sale nei palazzi barocchi. Nell’Architettura Civile (postuma 1737) e nel Modo di misurare le fabriche (1674), egli illustra, rispettivamente, la genesi geometrica e la misura delle volte. Nel primo trattato, le volte a lunette emergono come tipologia feconda di variazioni formali e applicazioni negli edifici civili, nel secondo le superfici delle volte sono ridotte alle matrici geometriche delle singole componenti e presentano alcune novità rispetto all’Architettura Civile assumendo direttrici semi-ellittiche ad arco di circonferenza e di ellisse. Nel presente lavoro si esaminano e approfondiscono le importanti relazioni, nello sviluppo del tema, fra i due trattati guariniani, la cui complementarità emerge nel continuo riferimento al binomio Geometria-Architettura. L’analisi grafica e la modellazione digitale delle superfici consentono non solo il riconoscimento delle primitive geometriche sottese alla costituzione dei sistemi voltati e la verifica delle regole di misurazione che Guarini in gran parte ascrive a sé, ma anche il confronto con le architetture realizzate nel periodo del secondo ampliamento di Torino

3d modelling for valorizing 20th century architectural archives: the case of the unbuilt project for a theatre in Cagliari by Carlo Mollino

Abstract. The issue of conservation and valorisation of Cultural Heritage involves today 20th century architectural archives, that come to us with their often considerable amount of materials, where the predominance of the design drawings arises. Interpretation, fruition and sharing of archival materials aimed to deepening the knowledge of contemporary masters and architectural movements address the works of many international scholars. In particular, using the continuous innovations of digital modelling tools, a field of this research is developing reconstruction and new interpretations of masters' unbuilt projects. The rise of H-BIM for modelling architectural heritage, has been flanked by some experiments really aimed to represent unbuilt architectures. This is the case presented in this paper: the unbuilt project for the "Teatro Comunale" in Cagliari, designed by Carlo Mollino between 1964 and 1965. The building has been digitally modelled and the potentialities of BIM tools are today in phase of evaluation, also in light of the aim to create a collection of reconstructive models of Mollino's projects, to be shared on-line. In particular, in this phase of the research, we are exploring the potentiality of BIM aimed to evidencing the reliability of reconstructive modelling based on different documentary sources.</p

Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality: A Possible Continuum for the Enhancement of Architectural Heritage

Augmented reality and artificial intelligence technologies are increasingly involved in the interpretation, classification, and eventually in our understanding of the built environment. This paper collects three recent on-site research experiences, which developed mobile app prototypes and experimented with these advancements in the relationship between computer vision and architectural artifacts. The first project concerns the vaulted atria of Baroque Turin and integrates a work of analysis and representation with augmented reality applications to visualize interpretative 3D models. The second project focuses on the development of a mobile app to access data on monuments, exploiting deep learning technologies for image recognition. The application field is the Imperial Fora in Rome. The third project is part of the so-called "third mission" of universities, being developed in partnership with a company operating in the electronic telecommunications infrastructure sector. The project explores automatic methods for updating existing building information modeling databases on antenna tower sites. This experience, the last in chronological order, though focused on a modern architectural asset, is meant to reframe and integrate the previous ones, updating the methods and the foreseen developments, and stressing the potential of the combined use of the studied technologies. The joint consideration of the three projects is aimed at reflecting on the processes, which from different techniques for the recognition of spatial features, produce schematic understanding and operational uses of the shape of built heritage

Cultural Heritage conservation and communication by digital modeling tools. Case studies: minor architecture of the Thirties in the Turin area

Between the end of the twenties and the beginning of the World war two Turin, as the most of the Italian cities, was endowed by the fascist regime of many new buildings to guarantee its visibility and to control the territory: the fascist party main houses and the local ones. The style that was adopted for these constructions was inspired by the guide lines of the Modern movement which were spreading by a generation of architects as Le Corbusier, Gropius, Mendelsohn. At the end of the war many buildings were reconverted to several functions that led heavy transformations not respectful of the original worth, other were demolished. Today it's possible to rebuild those lost architectures in their primal format as it was created by their architects on paper (and in their mind). This process can guarantee the three-dimensional perception, the authenticity of the materials and the placement into the Turin urban tissue, using static and dynamic digital representation systems. The “three-dimensional re-drawing” of the projects, thought as an heuristic practice devoted to reveal the original idea of the project, inserts itself in a digital model of the urban and natural context as we can live it today, to simulate the perceptive effects that the building could stir up today. The modeling skills are the basis to product videos able to explore the relationship between the environment and “re-built architectures”, describing with the synthetic movie techniques, the main formal and perceptive roots. The model represents a scientific product that can be involved in a virtual archive of cultural goods to preserve the collective memory of the architectural and urban past image of Turin

3d modelling between ideation, geometry, and surveyed architecture: the case of the vaulted system of ‘Appartamento di Mezzanotte’ in Palazzo Carignano

The present work focuses on the study of vaulted systems by Guarini, by virtue of the paradigmatic role that Guarini assumes in the field of studies dedicated to this topic. The research has been compared in-depth analysis aimed at connecting relevant data with archival drawings, historical studies and treatises in order to use digital representation in heuristic terms. The attempt is to delineate and explain, through the analysis of architectural artifacts, the links between theorizations, transformations of reference geometric models and buildings. The ‘Appartamento di Mezzanotte’ (northern apartment) of Palazzo Carignano was choosen as a case study, because the different vaulted rooms that compose it witness the creative inspiration by Guarini and allow to structure a study that produce interesting results in relation to the connections between theoretical studies, research and cultural heritage. The use of digital representation integrated with photo-modelling (SfM) tries to create new tools to investigate these different fields in their absolute and relationship value

3D MODELLING BETWEEN IDEATION, GEOMETRY, AND SURVEYED ARCHITECTURE: THE CASE OF THE VAULTED SYSTEM OF 'APPARTAMENTO DI MEZZANOTTE' IN PALAZZO CARIGNANO

Abstract. The present work focuses on the study of vaulted systems by Guarini, by virtue of the paradigmatic role that Guarini assumes in the field of studies dedicated to this topic. The research has been compared in-depth analysis aimed at connecting relevant data with archival drawings, historical studies and treatises in order to use digital representation in heuristic terms. The attempt is to delineate and explain, through the analysis of architectural artifacts, the links between theorizations, transformations of reference geometric models and buildings. The 'Appartamento di Mezzanotte' (northern apartment) of Palazzo Carignano was choosen as a case study, because the different vaulted rooms that compose it witness the creative inspiration by Guarini and allow to structure a study that produce interesting results in relation to the connections between theoretical studies, research and cultural heritage. The use of digital representation integrated with photo-modelling (SfM) tries to create new tools to investigate these different fields in their absolute and relationship value.</p

AUGMENTED TURIN BAROQUE ATRIA: AR EXPERIENCES FOR ENHANCING CULTURAL HERITAGE

Abstract. This paper presents the most recent developments in a project aimed to the documentation, storage and dissemination of the cultural heritage. The subject of the project are more than 70 Baroque atria in Turin, recognized by critics for their particular unitary vaulted systems Our research team is currently working on digitizing documents and studying ways to enhance and share these results through ICT. In particular, we want to explore possibilities for recognizing and tracing three-dimensional objects in augmented reality (AR) applications connected to the collected data. Recent developments in this field relate to the technology available on widespread mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, allowing for real-time 3D scanning. Using software prototypes, we want to introduce some problems involved in integrating this technology into digital archives.</p

Digital strategies for the valorisation of archival heritage

20th century pre-digital architectural archives are a current topic of interest for scholars involved in historical studies as well as those studying conservation, valorisation and communication. These vast archival heritages could be enhanced by the methodologies, techniques and tools offered by the digital revolution. The present proposal demonstrates this potential through the application of structure from motion techniques to a physical scale model that represents the Turin Horse Racing designed by Carlo Mollino. Moreover, the paper presents a comparison of different software, methodologies and modelling tools and suggests a design for virtual and on-site communication strategies. These strategies fuel new interrelations of knowledge and ideas, through which an archive can become a place of convergence between the real and the virtual