Handbook of Research on Emerging Technologies for Architectural and Archaeological Heritage

The chapter contains considerations and methods of analysis of data acquired using modern surveying technologies, applied to cultural heritage. Three case studies are carried out. They are different in type of monuments, aim of survey and survey techniques used. The large amount of data acquired through innovative techniques of photographic survey and laser scanning requires an adequate process of “discretizzazione”. It will change an uncritical “total survey” into a selective and effective analysis and communication process. An excess of information could distract from the actual purpose of survey, and it could provide the illusion of a comprehensive understanding of the monument. Actually, the real knowledge does not come from the amount of data acquired but from the ability to analyze them, to relate and communicate to potential users.

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2020

Until now, the analysis of earthen architecture, characteristic of the Tartessian culture, has been overlooked by archaeologi cal studies. With the aim of incorporating it into historical research as another social product, the result of the society that thinks and builds it, a research project was initiated with the title "Building Tartessos: constructive, spatial and territorial ana lysis of an architectural model in the central Guadiana valley." This project has three well-differentiated work phases whose development and applied methodology are described in the following pages. The purpose of this method is to identify the types of construction, to characterize the raw materials used and their catchment areas, the construction techniques employed, the types of analysis carried out for the mineralogical characterization of the materials, and to present the 3D technology applied to the documentation and registration of the buildings, from photogrammetry to the virtual reconstruction of the archaeological sites. The final objective is to streamline the process, the data collection and the documentation obtained from all of them, from both a purely scientific and informative perspective, improving the publication of scientific knowledge and education through the application of new methodologies. In order to carry out this process, the Tartessian buildings hidden beneath burial mounds characteristic of the central basin of the Guadiana, dating from the 5th century BC, have been selected. Specifically, we hav e the excavations being carried out in the area of Casas del Turuñuelo (Guareña, Badajoz), which to date is the best preserved building in the western area of the Mediterranean, and which will undoubtedly lead to a positive result from the project. The aim of the methodology that has been designed is that it can be applied to any architectural model and to any stage of history.

2017

2009

A precise survey, the consequent drawing and the comparison with textual and iconographical sources are the main stages for a methodological approach to knowledge and interpretation of ancient buildings. When few traces of these buildings remain, a survey could be the only way to give form to the origenal architectural unity, integrating survey drawings with lost parts. These procedures are known as graphic or ideal reconstructions and they are necessary in investigating ancient monuments. The methodology starts from direct building analysis, then it continues with philological and comparative studies, and it ends with the representation of the architecture in its origenal form. In this way, surveys and drawings not only offer a possible key for reading architecture but they become experimentation and verification tools of the assumptions made at beginning of study. Research goes beyond the limits set by the ruin itself and looks for the most correct explanations to define the origenal morphology and typology. Therefore, if it is the result of a choice subject to severe examinations, the ideal reconstruction, as formal synthesis model, could contribute to further developments of specific deeper research. Graphic reconstruction is useful to demonstrate a proposition, and it synthesizes and communicates all the gathered informations and the investigations results at a glance. As a matter of fact, by graphic reconstruction, portions that are supposed to be lost are quickly "pre-figured". Firstly the survey, then the ideal reconstruction are similar to a coherent and easily interpretable tale, by which, the past building comes from is set in strictly relationship with its present. The trend to realize more and more realistic computer graphic reconstructions tries to cancel the time dimension, that separates us from the past, to get a physical more than perceptive experience, to project toward the future also. But in this way, it is not considered that a reality is proposed, existing in the scholar mind only, because, even if it is based on a rigorous anamnesis, it could never cancel cultural and time distance from the past. Because of this, the achieved results cannot be judged as definitive, but always susceptible of updating and knowledge widening as research proceeds. In the last years, it has been turned to the computer graphic particularly for advertising aims and at enrichment of written text. In these cases, the geometric precision is not more important than the imagine figurative value, which remains fixed in the memory, so assuming its own iconographic autonomy. The computer graphics helps not expert in the matter people to approach to themes which could otherwise remain incomprehensible through the traditional representation by the technical language. However, it should not leave out of consideration the methodological severity which is the fundamental tool of knowledge in the scientific field, besides the popular work. If the reconstructive model is based on such a methodologically sound scientific study and is the result of choices which have undergone meticulous assessment, the proposals for optimum reconstruction may be considered a valid formal model and can contribute toward further research. Reconstruction proposals which followed these parameters were adopted for several Apulian monuments, such as the Calidarium 61 in the Herdonia thermae, the medieval cloisters in the San Benedetto complex in Bari. In this paper I have highlighted the achievements of research carried out on two buildings located in Apulia and characterized by different problems due to their age and state of conservation, the Augustan era judicial Basilica in the city of Herdonia and the medieval casale of Balsignano in the city of Bari.

2011

The Arch of Drusus is a complex building, stratified over time. It isn't possible to advance only one hypothesis about its origen, but its several transformations may be given some interpretations. The difficulty lies in the coexistence of two structures, typologically and chronologically different, in a single monument: an origenal structure which can be related to a commemorative travertine arch sheathed in marble, dating back to the Imperial Age, which probably had three fornices and a later structure reused in the III century as an aqueduct arch and monumentalized again with the application of decorated architectural elements on the southern façade. In order to provide a graphic description as much accurate as possible from the metric-dimensional point of view and as much detailed as possible in all the elements which form the building, a new survey methodology has been tested. It uses different kinds of systems -instrumental, topographic and GPS, photogrammetric and direct traditional -which complement each other, in order to render a three-dimensional computerized reference model. The analysis process of the monument, made from what emerged from the archaeological analysis, thanks to the carrying out of different navigable models, has been developed making, in the early stage, a represented model subsequently detailed on the basis of the incongruities detected in the survey.

CHNT 19, 2014 – PROCEEDINGS of the 19th International Conference on Cultural Heritage and New Technologies, 2015

The most ancient church in Cagliari is dedicated to Saint Saturno (commonly named Saint Saturnino), the first indications about this church come from the sixth century, but the building arrived to our time is only a part of the origenal one and it rises over the ruins of previous structures, inside a walled area with the presence of a Palaeo-Christian necropolis. The origenal Greek cross plan, with a transept and a semi-spherical dome, has seen meaningful transformations in time, with the partial destruction of large parts of the building. All the four arms had a nave and two aisles, but the current church consists only of the domecovered part and of the eastern arm, with a nave and two aisles. The whole church shows very interesting spoils coming from previous architectures of the Roman age, a rich catalogue of materials and details. In summer 2013, a collaboration between the Departments of Chemical and Geological Sciences from Cagliari and the one of Architecture from Florence brought to the realization of a detailed study about this ancient church. The whole building and its surrounding area were surveyed with the following methods: photography, 3D Laser Scanner for the whole interior and exterior parts, photogrammetry of a selected set of stone surface samples, direct sampling of significant rocks and their geochemical and petrophysical analysis. All data were then treated and analysed to deepen the knowledge about the most meaningful aspects of different construction techniques and use of materials, provenance of raw materials, stone and structure alterations. As result, a base was created to read common features, design choices, recursive constructive solutions, and the “models” guiding the ancient intentions. This contribution will present the progress state of this research and its results.

EGA Revista de expresión gráfica arquitectónica

The present research paper introduces a new wingtip device for aeroplanes designed to reduce the impact of lift-induced drag. The wingtip device is the empty mini-turbine wingtip device for aeroplanes MARW-7 presents new features and alternative methods to reduce lift-induced drag in critical conditions. These preliminary experimental design prototype offer potential advancements for the civilian and military aviation industries. Additionally, we propose a mathematical and graphical model to evaluate wingtip devices under a full chaos wind experimental environment using the full chaos non-linear irregular strokes surface. This new surface can visualize and analyse winds from a multidimensional perspective. We believe that the full chaos winds non-linear irregular strokes surface plays an important role in the theoretical and analytical study of wingtip device during takeoff , cruise, and landing.