Stefano Brusaporci

Architectural Heritage and 3D Models

Architecture represents the physical space built by man—in its immanent and tangible presence—and a spatial and temporal event. The architectural 3D digital model is the mediator between intellect and tangible reality, and it takes the form of a digital replica of the observable phenomenal reality. Thereby the model expresses—i.e. contains—the history and it’s passage through time; a visual narration that is part of the historical process and critical analysis. It’s an interpretable document, but also a genuine critical-historical text, expressed with the figurative language of the virtual dimension. Presupposition of this methodology for historical analysis, it’s a careful architectural surveying, a wise modeling project and an intelligent and critical use of the digital model.

MUS.AQ: A Digital Museum of L’Aquila for the Smart City INCIPICT Project

Nowadays the advanced Information and Communications Technology (ICT) represents an important opportunity to facilitate the “interpretation” and “presentation” of cultural heritage. The INCIPICT project, through the support of an optical communication infrastructure, gives the opportunity to conduct experiments relating to different fields of research, among which the cultural heritage enhancement. The aim of the paper is to illustrate the MUS.AQ digital museum of L’Aquila project, representing a new way to document, conserve and enjoy the architecture and urban space of the city. Through digital and interactive applications, it is addressed both to scholars and not, and it favours the understanding and knowledge of the characteristics and values of L’Aquila cultural heritage.

Ontological Issues in Architectural Digital Heritage Interdisciplinary World

Thegrowingofdigitaltools–oftenofeaseandaffordableuse–,theriseofICT,thediffusionof digitaldevices,havebroughttothespreadof3-Dmodels,computer-basedvisualization,andtherise ofadvancedapplicationsandofnewscientificmethodologies.Thecommonpracticewithdigital heritage,itsaffordances,andtheinteroperableuseofdigitalinstrumentsfavourinterdisciplinaryworks andcollaborationsbetweenscholarsandprofessionals.Accordingtothiscontext,aimofthepaper istoofferacriticalreflectiononcharacteristicsofarchitecturalheritageandhowdigitalheritage has influenced the discipline, to define references on which root interdisciplinary collaboration, underlinepeculiaraspectsandsuggestcriticalapproachesforawiseuseofdigitaltools,fosterthe studyofexperiencesmadeindifferentfields,andsupportausefulcollaborationbetweenresearchers ofdifferentfields. KeyWORDS 3-D Model, Architectural Heritage, Digital Heritage, Interdisciplinarity, Ontology, Visualization INTRODUCTION: FROM DIGITAL HeRITAGe TO INTeRDISCIPLINARITy In1999,onUNESCO’s“WorldHeritageMagazine”,R.J.StonedefinedVirtualHeritageas:“the utilizationoftechnologyforinterpretation,conservationandpreservationofNatural,Culturaland WorldHeritage”(Stone,1999).Later,manypageshavebeenwrittenabouttheconceptof“Digital Heritage”,especiallyfromthepublicationofthe“CharteronthePreservationoftheDigitalHeritage” byUNESCOin2003.Herethe“DigitalHeritage”ismadeby:“...cultural,educational,scientific andadministrativeresources,aswellastechnical,medicalandotherkindsofinformationcreated digitally,orconvertedintodigitalformfromexistinganalogueresourcesincludingdifferentkindsof productssuchastexts,databases,images,audio,graphics,softwareandwebpages...” Thegrowingofcomputingcapabilities,thedevelopmentofInformationandCommunication Technologies,the“affordances”(Gibson,1979)ofdigitalheritagefordifferentpurposes,andthe diffusionofnon-expensive–oftenfree–softwareandappsofeasyusehavemadedigitaltoolsever moreaffordableforeveryoneandusedindifferentlyandsimultaneouslyindissimilarresearchfields withthediffusionofdigitalcontents.Thereisaconstanteverrisingofdigitalproducts,andawide overlappingandmixingoftools,methodologies,andresearchobjectandaimsmadebydifferent kindof scholars, suchascomputer scientists, topographers, surveyors,archaeologists,architects, engineers.Consequently,DigitalHeritage isoften intendedasacornerstoneonwhichacademic fieldsaremakingan‘ecosystem’growing.

Between Tradition and Experimentation. The Balilla House in Teramo by Enrico Del Debbio

Through documental research and architectural survey, the paper presents a study on the Balilla House in Teramo (Italy) – originally designed by Enrico Del Debbio, on the events that brought to the building of the House and sports centre and on following transformations. The building is referred to a context characterized by urban scale works, by the realization of new social building typologies and by a linguistic experimentation with modernist expressions that put together tradition and research of new expressive ways. The study favours the analysis of the role played – in this kind of works – by Italian designers, public bodies as well as local technicians and institutions.

Historical Watermills. Architectural, Mechanical and Hydraulic Heritage

Historic watermills are studied as a complex heritage given by the synergy of buildings, hydraulic works and mechanical elements. They are the result of processes of modification and stratification that have occurred over the centuries, interrelated to landscape and human history. In particular, the paper focuses on historic watermills in the territory of Teramo (Italy), aiming to understand the history, culture, economy, and technological evolution of the territory. Moreover although these mills are local phenomena, the solutions—in particular, those derived through an accurate, wise and pragmatic use of natural resources—can reveal traditional practices no longer known, recurrent in similar environmental contexts, that can explain common solutions of wider historical and territorial diffusion.

Giovanni Pomodoro (XVI Century)

Giovanni Pomodoro was a mathematician, astronomer and land-surveyor, and an experienced instruments builder, who lived in the XVI century. His figure and his name cannot be split off from his only known work: the treatise “Geometria Prattica” [Practical Geometry], published posthumously in 1599. The treatise has a constant practical aim and in all probability in this aspect lies the fame and fortune of the work through the centuries: It is “modern”, shaped as a “handbook”, more than as an exhaustive “treatise”, and it favoured the diffusion of scientific notions and solutions between clients and common people, according to the process of knowledge diffusion that would be implemented between the XVI and the XVII centuries. In particular it is thanks to the numerous tavolas dedicated to the “surveyor’s cross” that the work has always been a reference in the study of historical surveying methods and tools.

Cultural Heritages in Aterno Valley (Italy): Historical Watermills for Cereals Grinding

Watermills were known and used from the Roman age; they diffused during medieval age and had a preponderance between working machines till the advent of steam engine. Fundamentally they can be classified as mills with horizontal wheel and mills with vertical wheel. Mills are complex structures, made by mechanisms, hydraulics works, buildings, and are witnesses of past cultures. The case study are the watermills of Aterno Valley (Italy), a territory between Gran Sasso and Sirente-Velino natural parks. The study involves different topics: history, hydrology, mechanics, architecture. Historical analysis and mill’s surveying favour the comprehension of mill’s documental values. They can be studied as indicators of modifications of technologies, society, economy, territory during centuries. Watermills are cultural heritages and we believe that only through the integration of all contributions deriving from different research fields will create a comprehensive and exhaustive description of the phenomena that have allowed the construction, the use and the actual neglected conditions of mills, and that can favour their conservation, protection and exploitation.