From ‘monument medical records’ to 3D GIS for historic architecture documentation

Historic architecture documentation and complex data set management needed for architectural heritage conservation are a problem that both theoretical and empirical research have continued to tackle since the Nineties. Following the first experiments to utilise “monument medical records” advocated by Giovanni Urbani and Michele Cordaro, carried out over a decade ago, we look at some more recent developments of research conducted into documentation systems to support architectural heritage conservation. This paper also illustrates how the new opportunities offered by the rapid development of information technology for the representation of cultural heritage (image-based modelling, cloud computing and SfM) provide very effective tools for documenting the state of conservation of cultural heritage and completed restoration work. The use of such tools allow the concept of “monument medical records”, initially plotted as two-dimensional representations of an architectural structure (e.g. “medical record” of St. Mary of Collemaggio in L’Aquila and other applications) to the true three-dimensional substance of architecture, broken down into its smallest elements, queried and displayed three-dimensionally. This breakdown can provide an increased amount of informative content that, although making the process more laborious, is designed to document the heritage requiring preservation in more detail.