CONTEMPORARY MASTER’S ARCHITECTURE: NEW ARCHITECTURAL
HERITAGE.
APPROACHES FOR SURVEYING AND REPRESENTATION
C. Balletti, S. Mander
University [UAV of Venice — CIRCE - Photogrammetry Section
balletti@iuav.it, mander@iuav.it
Commission V - WG V/4
KEY WORDS: Photogrammetry, Architecture, Integration, Modelling, Laser scanner, Orthoimage, Multi-scale
ABSTRACT:
We are used to consider as architectural heritage that part of architecture belonging to “historical” periods and events.
It is obvious that this classification, through the years, is always growing and the architecture “of interest” appears to be closer to our
times. The different conception of architecture reflected in XX century’s buildings appears even through a different cognitive
approach and representation.
Even if surveying methods can be the same (topographical and photogrammetrical integrated with new instrumentations), surely its
representation invites to research alternative ways respecting, chiefly, the evolution in documentation and preservation standards.
Texture acquisition becomes of primary importance, to be employed in orthogonal projection and in rendering models, to better
describe materials and their state of maintenance. It’s fundamental that digital photographic documentation is realized controlling
scientifically radiometric values, that is by colour space calibration, to allow absolute valuations on colorimetry state and to offer the
possibility to compare values in different times, especially respect to maintenance and restoration works.
The introduction of laser scanning instruments (underlining the 3D nature of survey) and the contemporary architecture’s being
require to use different methods in representation: from orthogonal projection, with vectorial drawings and ortho-rectified images
loaded, particularly meaningful if we think about a material knowledge of buildings, to three-dimensional models, suddenly
employed directly in the design genesis ( such as in the latest architectural trend).
Questions about a 3D representation are many, such as the concept of nominal scale, that is fundamental in every survey campaign,
because it’s not correct to bind it to the representative scale of all the projections originated from the model. Another matter is the
way of model fruition: the possibility to explore its space, to query it about position, dimension, distances, area, volumes. These
matters are strictly bounded to the choice of specific software: actually no one has the capability to answer simultaneously to the
previous requirements. Moreover there are some other questions on the way to realize the model: by surfaces triangulating (2- or 3-
dimensionally) clouds of points, or based on geometric solid primitives, or on voxel.
All these subjects bring to consider the necessity of a revision of the rules in execution and representation of survey, to enlarge the
canons already fixed in previous specifications.
Generally, it would seem natural to consider only architectures Italian Pavilion of the Biennale of Venice and the Fondazione
from the past as belonging to the architectonic heritage to Querini Stampalia -, survey plotting must also employ several
conserve and restore. It seems impossible that contemporary different methods of representation.
works, which we use and frequent everyday, can have possibly As Scarpa's works are highly plastic in nature, orthogonal
endured such decay and deterioration to warrant conservative projections remain essential (for the representation of plans and
interventions beyond normal everyday maintenance. elevations) executed with vectorial drawings integrated with
But the truth is somewhat different: even modern materials (for ortho-rectified images, but 3D models are also fundamental for
example, iron and concrete) can decay to the point that they lose its representation, models which can be realized today by
both their structural and aesthetic function. Therefore, it processing 3D data.
becomes important not only to conserve and salvage the "new
materials" with new techniques, but to define new cognitive
approaches and new forms of representation.
The need to survey, as a cognitive act of architecture, some of
the works by one of the greatest Italian masters of contemporary
architecture, Carlo Scarpa, seemed to be a significant example
to use for experimentation on the most recent tools in the area of
documentation of the form and the colour and to study forms of
representation that may be alternative or complementary t«
traditional ones with a view to building a system of
documentation and knowledge focused and structured in
accordance with the characteristics of modem and
contemporary works.
Precisely because of the characteristics of the architecture in
question - in the specific case, the Sculpture Garden inside the
-
Recently, we've seen a few exploratory attempts to realize
numeric models at the computer always perceived as a
complement to the mongian representations.
The need for documentation, together with the possibility of
computer management of the infographic models, seems to be
shifting the discipline towards a co-existence of the traditional
static representations and the dynamic models. This conflicts
with the needs of designers to have two-dimensional supports
that, as we know, represent a spatial and functional model of the
architecture.
The solution would seem to be to bring together innovative
concepts with the traditional methods, in other words, bringing
together 3D digital models and orthogonal projections.
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