The reconstruction of drawn architecture

Abstract

Among the many situations that arise in the process of digital hypothetical 3D reconstruction, a particular case is that of unbuilt projects. Such projects were designed but remained on paper, with the result that, although documented by technical drawings, they posed the typical problems that are common to other cases, which range from 3D reconstructions of transformed architecture to destroyed/lost buildings and parts of towns. These case studies, which start from old drawings, have to be implemented by different kinds of documentary sources that are able to provide—by means of evidence, induction, deduction, and analogy–information characterized by different levels of uncertainty and related to different levels of accuracy. All methods adopted in a digital hypothetical 3D reconstruction process show us that the goal of the researchers is to be able to make explicit, or at least intelligible, a synthetic/communicative level representative of the value of the reconstructive process that is behind a particular result. This can be accomplished through a graphical system. The result of a reconstructive process defines three aspects of a structure, intimately related to each other: shape (geometry, size, spatial position); appearance (surface features); and constitutive elements (physical form, stratification of building/manufacturing systems). This paper presents the use of 3D models as a means to document and communicate the shape and appearance of unbuilt architecture while tracing the uncertainty and accuracy that characterizes each of the reconstructed elements.