Digital Innovations in Architectural Heritage Conservation: Emerging Research and Opportunities

Preface Introduction The book deals with “conservation” and with the opportunities offered by digital technologies: Conservation is a general concept involving the strategies for heritage safeguarding and enhancement, and digital tools and applications – such as database, virtual reality, augmented reality, digital museums, social networks, etc. – can define useful participative processes for heritage conservation. In particular, the book focuses on architectural heritage. Any project of conservation roots on knowledge and understanding of historical and aesthetic values. The architectural field presents important differences compared to other ones: Architectural heritage shapes from a relationship between “built” and “void”, masses and details, as synthesis of materials, constructive systems, aesthetic characteristics, and spaces able to accommodate human activities. Moreover, continuous processes of modification and transformation over time defines it. The role of the cultural, historical and built context is inescapable. Documents are composed by a vast and heterogeneous quantity of historical and recent data, often scattered in different archives, such as drawings, writings, paintings, photos, previous studies and surveys, etc. related to the building, to the designer, to the builders, to the yard, etc. Digital technologies for surveying, modeling and representation have produced important methodological changes. In particular, laser scanning, photogrammetry, advanced software for modeling and data analysis, and computer-based visualization have moved the process of historical and critical knowledge toward the use of complex 3D models. They favor the collection, analysis, computing, and communication of the huge quantity of data and information. It is important to go beyond the conceptual and operative dichotomy between 3-D model and database model, toward integrated models, at the same time made by spatial objects and referenced information. From complex models rises new methodological issues: The heuristic role of digital modeling; The relation between interpretative models and reality, virtual reality, and augmented reality; “Transparency” as scientific practice and a way to interrelate and conserve physical and digital heritage; Interdisciplinary as critical reflection and opportunity; New participative applications as chance to enhance heritage, and the related reflection on the concepts of interpretation, of “memory”, of “history”, of authoritative and participative aspects. Key matter of the book is the opportunities offered by digital technologies for conservation and, consequently, for knowledge, interpretation, presentation, participation, sustainability, management. With specific attention to architectural heritage. Consequently, the main topics of the book are not limited to historic buildings, but they start from general issues to develop a reflection that come to architectural heritage. Therefore key words are: • Cultural Heritage, Tangible Heritage, Intangible Heritage, Built Heritage, Urban Heritage, Landscape, Memory, Integrity, Authenticity. • Conservation, Interpretation, Presentation, Sustainability, Participation, Interdisciplinarity, Management. • Digital Heritage, Virtual Heritage, Digitalization, 3-D Modeling, Computer Based Visualization, Social Media. • Architectural Heritage, Architectural History, Documentation, Surveying, Representation, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, BIM, Transparency, Paradata, Communication, Gaming, Edutainment, e-Tourism. Where Topics Fit in the Word Today The ICT growth, the decreasing cost and the ease of use of digital tools have made the most advanced technologies available to a larger number of scholars and to common people, thus favoring their practice and experimentation. From the very beginning of the Seventies, the archeology has immediately looked carefully to the possibilities offered by computer modeling. In addition, Digital Humanities has focused on digital heritage. In the “built heritage” field, computer based visualization has become a line where visual computing is an effective methodology for scientific research. Hence, it has resulted in the need to define appropriate procedural protocols. In 1999, on UNESCO’s “World Heritage Magazine”, Stone defined Virtual Heritage as: «the utilization of technology for interpretation, conservation and preservation of Natural, Cultural and World Heritage» (Stone 1999). Later, many pages have been written about the concept of “Digital Heritage”, especially from the publication of the “Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage” by UNESCO in 2003. Here “Digital Heritage” is defined as: «cultural, educational, scientific and administrative resources, as well as technical, medical and other kinds of information created digitally, or converted into digital form from existing analogue resources including different kinds of products such as texts, databases, images, audio, graphics, software and web pages». It is evident how digital technologies – intended both as tools and as methodologies – are a common shared substrate across disciplines. A deep reflection on digital heritage concept is essential. In 2009, The London Charter aimed “to establish principles for the use of computer based visualization methods and outcomes in the research and communication of cultural heritage” (p.4). Today a new and unveiled relationship between physical heritage and digital heritage is growing, where “digitality” currently accompanies “reality” and enhance it; but also the opposite: The real artifact improves digital heritage, according to a virtuous circle. Because advanced technologies make the physical and digital heritage two sides of the same interrelated subject. This book presents to the international community a critical reflection on the characteristics that architectural heritage has taken today and consequently on the related aspects and strategies for its conservation. The writing develops the discussion according to subsequent steps, moving from the general to the particular, keeping an eye on tangible heritage and, in particular, on architectural heritage. The book starts from the concept of conservation, then it describes the evolution of the idea of heritage; consequently, the role and matters posed by digital tools are studies. In conclusion, it analyzes all these topics in the architectural field. Target Audience The book aims to present an advanced reflection and a specific point of view: The one oriented to the conservation of architectural heritage, with its indissoluble match between digital and physical heritage, favored by new advanced technologies. The book defines the state of the art and the results achieved in key areas. The argument is multifaceted and multidisciplinary. In fact, even if traditionally the disciplines related to historical architecture are well defined, however digital technologies open up numerous issues and methodological aspects. This does not mean that the book addresses only to scholars of architecture; it has a broader cultural and social interest, first because the topics are interdisciplinary. The book highlights how cultural heritage conservation rises from interdisciplinary processes concerning all the people involved in the conservation, from different scientific fields. According to this point of view, the book would be a source for different kind of researchers, also favoring the definition of a shared background and a common thesaurus. Finally yet importantly, the presented issues have an economic importance (tourism, e-tourism, social networks and apps economy, etc.). Therefore, the potential impact of the book could be of considerable importance, evoking the interest of all those that are involved in the study, management, design and preservation of historical buildings, in educational or business activities related to architectural heritage. References are on heritage conservation, heritage studies, digital culture, new trends in philosophy, information technologies, social media, architectural and urban definition and conservation, architectural surveying, modeling, and computer based visualization. The book first presents the main issues related to cultural heritage, and then it focuses on architectural heritage. Therefore, the book should be interesting for several kind of scholars, but in particular to everybody interested in historic buildings and urban heritage conservation. According to the interdisciplinarity characteristics of heritage studies and of digital studies, the target audience could be wide and heterogeneous: • Scholars of architecture, history, urbanism, humanities, museum studies, etc. • Scholars of conservation, preservation, restoration, sustainability, management, etc. • Scholars of digital culture, social media, communication, etc. • Scholars of ICT, 3D modeling, computer graphics, etc. • Professionals interested in heritage conservation, preservation, presentation, interpretation, tourism, e-tourism, management, etc. • Software houses; • Government bureaus; • Amateurs of technology; • Common people that everyday lives the architectural heritage. Organization of the Book The book moves from a reflection on the concepts of “conservation” and on the ever evolving idea of “heritage”. Then it points out the importance of built heritage as reference for the study of tangible and intangible heritage. It analyses the ineludible relationship between digital heritage from physical content and the related real heritage. From hence, it underlines the relationship that participative approaches, social media, digital models, and virtual visualization establish between all the people involved in heritage conservation. In particular, digital heritage does not threaten the essence of physical heritage but it accompanies it, without its substitution. From the “marriage” of physical heritage and related digital heritage derives advanced opportunities for heritage conservation. • The first chapter describes what is “conservation” and it highlights the main matters: Documentation and knowledge, interpretation and presentation, interdisciplinarity, sustainability, participation, management, and politics. At the same time, it focuses on questions posed by digital culture and the growing of digital tools. • The second chapter deals with the concept of “cultural heritage”, describing how it has developed from the twentieth century, and the actual advanced ideas and matters in its definition, pointing out that heritage is a cultural changing concept, and on the related conceptual consequences. Finally yet importantly, it analyses the relationship between tangible and intangible heritage. • The third chapter focuses on the role of digitality and on how digital technologies can be useful instruments for heritage conservation. In particular, it deals with built heritage and issues related to digital heritage born from physical contents. The ubiquity of digital tools defines a new relationship with built heritage, favoring its conservation. • The fourth chapter is specifically dedicated to architectural heritage. Here the main topics of the book are presented and analyzed with particular attention to historical buildings, urban heritage, and historicized landscape. This chapter defines what is architectural heritage and the differences with other kind of heritage, and the methodological dissimilarities with other cultural fields. Then, the characteristics of digital medium for architectural heritage are presented, and in conclusion the main strategies offered by digital models and tools are underlined. The book highlights how conservation is a participative open-ended cultural process, and how digital technologies well fit with conservation issues and how they favor advanced procedures for heritage safeguarding. Stefano Brusaporci University of L’Aquila, Italy REFERENCES Stone, R. J. (1999). Virtual heritage. UNESCO World Heritage Magazine, November, 18-20. The London Charter (2009). Retrieved November 15, 2016 from http://www.londoncharter.org/ UNESCO (2003). Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage. Retrieved November 15, 2016, from http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17721&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html