digital survey and representation of Cultural Heritage

Lo studio svolto sulla celebre scala elicoidale di Palazzo Mannajuolo (1909-1912), costruito a Napoli su progetto di Giulio Ulisse Arata (1881-1962), verte sull’individuazione della matrice configurativa alla base della sua struttura e sull’analisi delle scelte costruttive, messe in atto dalle maestranze dell’epoca, al fine della sua realizzazione. L’indagine sulla scala è stata resa possibile grazie ai risultati ottenuti durante una campagna di rilievo e dalle ricerche documentali, che hanno fornito la base per le successive elaborazioni digitali, impieganti anche la modellazione parametrica. La ricerca è stata condotta anche sul contesto storico-culturale napoletano dei primi anni del Novecento, nella cui temperie il palazzo si inserisce, mediante il confronto con altri casi-studio, anche di epoche precedenti, presenti sul territorio. Qui se ne offre una breve sintesi.

The rapid development of ICT and the increasing availability of low cost tools and software for a wide platform of users have favored the studying of the possibilities given by digital technologies applied to Cultural Heritage. The consequent widespread use of digital representations of Cultural Heritage led in 2009, after a long process , the drafting of “The London Charter" which aims to establish general methodological principles for digital visualization in the research and communication field of Cultural Heritage. The “Principles of Seville” represent an implementation of the London Charter, specifically related to archaeology. The gained experience should be an interesting reference for the architectural field, for which, however, it seems necessary some disciplinary and methodological considerations. Therefore the paper want to be a base point to develop a consideration on the opportunity to decline the principles of “The London Charter” in the architectural heritage field and, more generally, on the issues and opportunities offered by advanced digital technologies and tools for architectural heritage surveying, visualization and representation.

La modellazione per i Beni Culturali pone spesso problemi di non semplice soluzione, gestire le informazioni da dati massivi come quelli provenienti dal rilievo digitale richiede approcci specifici ed efficaci. In questo volume, redatto da docenti, ricercatori e collaboratori dei corsi di Disegno Automatico e Tecniche Grafiche Avanzate, si propone un approccio efficace per il bilanciamento tra la volontà di presevare un alto livello di dettagli e la necessità di dover garantire una effettiva gestibilità dei modelli tridimensionali digitali rappresentanti architetture, archeologie ed elementi statuari e di ornato.

The basilica of St. Silvestro was erected in 1907 on the foundations of two ancient rooms surrounded by several mausolea, its excavation took place from 1890 to 1906. The presence of some venerated burials led to the realization of a second building thought to be an indoor cemetery. Today the burials and the fragments of sarcophagi have been moved in the museum. Among the choices of project an integrated digital survey both 3D laser scanner that photogrammetry have been used. The survey had to deal with the complex characteristics of the pieces of sculptures and the difficulties linked to the light subsurface dispersion of the marble. To give a better access to monument, an architectural project and the digital technology tried to enhance the real with a digital layer.

The study shows the results of the digital and photographic surveys operated on an architectural work of great importance: it is the Mausoleum for Tonietti family, by Adolfo Coppedè, built on the Elba Island in Tuscany-Italy at the beginning of the 20th century.
The current alarming conditions of the building invite to make some reflections on the unpleasant but common fate of many architectures of the Liberty and Eclectic period in Italy. With the evolution of rationalism of the architectural form and thus the gradual purifying of decorative plastic organisms from architectural objects, architectural research, and with it the observation and conservation of cultural heritage, has increasingly focused on new rational style, omitting many examples in floral style equally deserving of attention.
The alarming state of preservation of Tonietti Mausoleum, combined with the total absence of projects by local authorities, set the conditions for the dissolution of the work and the consequent loss of the cultural and territorial connotation that it creates.
The processing of the surveys and the gathering of documentation wants to create the basis for the comparison of work conditions in its original state and the current form, fixing the actual conditions of decay.
There is the hope that this work can create a conservative practical input that restores the integrity of the cultural property designed by the youngest of Coppedè brothers, giving to it its real and necessary value in the study of the history of architecture and the development of the evolutionary dialogue necessarily connected to the same historical evolution.

Il progetto pilota – elaborato da un gruppo di ricercatori dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze (DiDA: Dipartimento di Architettura) e dell’Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (CIFA: Centro de Investigaciones de La Faculta de Arquitectura) – ha come fine quello rilevare e analizzare dal punto di vista stilistico e formale alcuni esempi significativi di fabbriche religiose caratterizzanti il tessuto urbano dell’antica capitale del Guatemala, allo scopo di individuarne gli archetipi e, conseguentemente, di formulare delle ipotesi sull’aspetto originario dei manufatti, mutilati da ripetuti eventi sismici accorsi in cinque secoli di storia, rappresentabili attraverso tecniche di anastilosi e ricostruzione virtuale.
La prima fase del progetto è incentrata sulla documentazione di cinque complessi religiosi campione (la Catedral de San José, la Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, la Iglesia de San Agustín, la Iglesia de Santa Clara e la Iglesia de las Capuchinas), dei quali sono stati analizzati dal punto di vista geometrico e formale i fronti delle rispettive chiese.

The analysis of the Aχειροποίητος monastery shows the superimposition of different buildings: a domed church with a central plan, built in late Byzantine times over the ruins of an early Christian basilica, enlarged by the addition of three successive narthexes, and therefore transformed into a
longitudinal basilica. The name Aχειροποίητος, literally “made without hands”, referred to a sacred icon hosted therein. A walled enclosure surrounds the church and contains the monastery, which developed in subsequent phases, with different additions, demolitions and restorations. We outlined the formation process of the complex, from the V cent. Basilica, to the transformation of the monastery into military barracks in the 1970s, as a premise for the restoration project. Recently the Department of Antiquities assigned the monastery to the Girne American University for its restoration and it is urgent to accomplish some statical interventions. The management of this site, hence the political situation of northern Cyprus, represents an interesting case study on the contested heritage issue. Nevertheless, the heritage management in Cyprus, for the complex political situation of the island, bears more difficulties than in other UE countries, but we should consider that every heritage site has someway a contested character.
An architectural project was experimented, according to the typo-morphological approach of the Muratorian Italian School, based on the principle that new buildings should be the continuation of the old ones, without imitating them, but following their formation process, as the last step of an ongoing process. We did not conceive the new architecture as an object contrasting with the context, but following the full
understanding of the processual transformations of the site, it was possible to design the new addition to the monastic building as a living organism, in conformity with the sacred context.