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Figure 1: Hans Foramitti (1963) 
2. HANS FORAMITTI’S CURRICULUM VITAE 
“Born on 20 March 1923 in Vienna. He finished school in 1941 
and was on military service in World War II from 1942 —1945. 
In 1952 he graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the 
University of Technology Vienna as Diplom-Ingenieur for 
Architecture. During the vacations he spent time at the 
Academy of Arts and at the Academy of the Louvre in Paris. 
His first job was as a junior assistant at the Institute of Building 
Art, Building Survey and Preservation at the University of 
Technology Vienna and at the same time he worked for an 
architect on the reconstruction of the Church on the Leopolds- 
berg, Vienna. Foramitti was wholly responsible for the 
technical planning as well as for the reconstruction works. In 
1955 he went to Italy to study the archaeological works under 
St.Peter’s Cathedral and the conservation of the grave of 
St.Peter. 
1955 to 1957 Foramitti had a position in the Austrian Board of 
Works II and was actively involved in the construction of the 
Federal Research Institute Arsenal. 1957 to 1959 he served as 
Librarian at the University of Technology and at the Austrian 
National Library, receiving a further qualification for higher 
library service, specially also for preservation and stewardship. 
During this time he finished his thesis on “Orcival and the 
Roman Pilgrim Churches of the Auvergne” and received his Dr. 
of Technical Sciences at the University of Technology Vienna. 
End of 1959 he moved to the Austrian Board of Works I and 
was delegated to the Department of Architecture of the Federal 
Federal Office for Preservation of Monuments and Sites 
(Bundesdenkmalamt, BDA), where he finally served in the rank 
ofa Chief Councillor (Oberrat). 
  
      
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
     
   
  
   
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
   
    
     
  
  
  
  
   
     
   
   
      
   
  
     
     
      
  
   
International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B5. Istanbul 2004 
Already in the early sixties he started to test architectural 
applications of photogrammetry in order to overcome the 
difficulties he had with often dangerous, incomplete and 
unreliable manual surveys of inaccessible areas, e.g. high up on 
unprotected scaffolds, where he preferred to do the work 
himself instead of sending one of his collaborators. In 1963 he 
bought the first instruments, 1964 saw the arrival of the first 
measuring camera, and in 1966 the photogrammetric unit of the 
department of architecture was officially founded, becoming a 
department in 1968. 
  
Figure 2: Foramitti at dangerous recording work high up on a 
scaffold (St.Stephen, Vienna 1960) 
In 1968 Foramitti was also entrusted with the international 
contacts of the Federal Office. Foramitti spoke perfect French, 
German and also English. In 1964 he participated in the Venice 
conference of architects and conservationists where he played a 
role in the foundation of ICOMOS, the International Council on 
Monuments and Sites. (The author met him by chance at the 
railway station when he came back to Vienna. He was smiling 
and happy about the results and mentioned that it would bring 
about the chance to more easily introduce photogrammetry to 
conservation) 
Some years later he became the first Director of the UNESCO- 
ICOMOS Documentation Centre in Paris, another centre 
founded by him and his international friends. In Austria he was 
Vice-President of the National ICOMOS Committee, and he 
became the head of the Austrian Convention Bureau, i.e. the 
person responsible for the 1954 Hague Convention for the