The Study of Architectural Heritage with HBIM Methodology. A Medieval Case Study

Abstract

The communication deals with the first results achieved in the development of the research project entitled: the Design of a Database, Management Model for the Information and Knowledge of Architectural Heritage; HAR2013-41614-R, subsidized by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the National Programme for Research Aimed at the Challenges of Society. The objective of the exposed issue is to elucidate the necessity to define a method to generate a database with the Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology for medieval heritage architecture’s management through a virtual model, which binds the whole of the information. The communication exposes the process of three-dimensional modelling that is necessary to host the BIM database. This way, the previous studies allow to understand the overlapping episodes, enlargement/reform, and to read, in the monument’s walls, the footprints that different civilizations have left over time. Likewise, this concept was added to the virtual 4D model as the historical construction phases. The first results show the process of inserting the point cloud in BIM, the design of a specific historic template, the generic modelling, the specific modelling of objects—both existing and disappeared ones—the creation of BIM families, the generation of medieval materials, and the representation of the archaeological remains. On the other hand, the representation of the historic and constructive evolution, with all its data embedded in one single model, has produced very good results in order to interpret the evolution through the heritage virtual model. Thanks to the specific Historic Building Information Modeling (HBIM) methodology, it was possible to unify the information that was spread out around the heritage projects and make comparisons with other methods.