Interdisciplinary Approaches in Cultural Heritage Documentation: The Case of Rodakis House in Aegina

Abstract

The surveying and documentation of cultural heritage monuments are widely considered to be the very first steps towards their preservation. In practice, these procedures are undertaken with the use of advanced equipment, which yields the capabilities of detailed recording, representation and digitisation, so as to provide easy access to the material gathered and thus ensure its availability for future research. The expected actions and procedures appear to unfold smoothly when the cultural artifact being documented is public, and is presented as a focal point of cultural interest, ascribing to it an active role in the social, cultural and economic development of the place where it is located. On the contrary, the documentation of private monuments exhibits considerable difficulties in obtaining access permissions, gathering archival material, using specialised technical equipment and coordinating actions in the context of research procedures and interdisciplinary approaches. The vernacular house of Rodakis is a private monument on the island of Aegina. Despite the fact that it was well known during its creator’s lifetime, continued to be a point of attraction and interest for experts and a place of informal education for students, and was officially declared as a monument of cultural heritage, none of the above was able to prevent its destruction, without the required maintenance over time. The changes in its property status established new conditions for the exclusion of experiential visits at the natural monument, which had indeed become dangerous without the necessary restoration works. The references and studies on the character of Rodakis house as a monument of architectural heritage cover a period of 110 years, during which an extended directory of archival material of various types was compiled. Overall, these elements place the house in a prominent position, but have not yet been assembled in a comprehensive interdisciplinary study. The present paper attempts to outline the conditions and the possibilities for cooperation between different scientific fields, in the interdisciplinary surveying and documentation of private architectural monuments.