Application of BIM technology for surveying heritage buildings

Abstract

The preservation of heritage buildings is beyond doubt an important problem of today. The examination of a heritage building involves a number of problems, viz. missing design documentation, the need to find extant reports about technical condition of the building structures and building reconstruction projects prepared by different organizations, and nonconformance of data contained in drawings and documents of different organizations. In this paper the abovementioned problems are reviewed exemplified by the case of the federal heritage-listed building "Ekaterinburg State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre", Yekaterinburg. The paper proposes the use of solutions based on information modeling methods for the examination of structures of the abovementioned building and reviews the possibility of employing these methods for upkeeping the building. The article demonstrates the practical value of the proposed application of a BIM model method comprising the building reconstruction stages for the structure survey on a specific example. The method proposed in the paper has a great practical value and can be employed for the improvement of normative and technical documentation, heritage building survey works, and for creating design documentation for restoration of buildings.