Architectural heritage digital representations for conservation strategies

Abstract

Digital technologies enable a thorough analysis of Architectural Heritage, offering various representations that provide different levels of documentation and knowledge-based conservation tools. This paper presents a methodological approach that leverages three digital representations related to three levels of documentation: Virtual Tour Informational Modelling, Point Cloud Informational Modelling, and Historical Building Information Modelling. Their characteristics and potential are compared, focusing on the effectiveness in supporting the analysis process, and the management of future conservation works. Furthermore, the dichotomy between 2D and 3D representations of AH is tackled, emphasizing the need to align with the conservation strategies, timeline, and budget constraints. It also discusses the integration of heterogeneous data and various digital representations to address the challenges in AH preventive conservation and management, resulting in the proposal of a sustainable documentation workflow to support the conservation process.