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The presented research aims to define a parametric modelling methodology that allows, in short time and at a sustainable cost, the digital acquisition, modelling and semantic structuring of urban city blocks to facilitate 3D city modelling applied to historic centres. The methodology is based on field surveying and derives 3D data for the realisation of a parametric City Information Model (CIM). This is pursued through the adoption of parametric modelling as main method combined with AI procedures like supervised machine learning. In particular, the Visual Programming Language (VPL) Grasshopper is adopted as main working environment. The methodology proposed, called Scan-to-CIM, is developed to automate the cognitive operations of interpretation and input of surveying data performed in the field in order to create LoD4 city block models in a semi-automatic way. The proposed Scan-to-CIM methodology is applied to a city block located in the historic centre of Catania, Italy.

The article presents the results of a wider research carried out by a multidisciplinary group (archaeologists and engineers) of the University and the CNR-ISPC of Catania in the South-Western Quarter of the Minoan Palace of Phaistos (Crete). The article focuses on two digital survey campaigns carried out respectively in 2014, laser scanning, and 2019, Structure from Motion. Starting from the point cloud by laser scanner, the most recent, low cost and user-friendly photogrammetric tools (GoPro camera and software Agisoft Metashape) have been used during the 2019 campaign in order to update and to improve the previous dataset, which was used as a grid for georeferencing and scaling the new virtual model. Special attention was addressed to the comparison of the two datasets and to the reuse of the first one for georeferencing and scaling the second one. Furthermore, the research has been focused on the opportunity to exploit the obtained virtual model both for scientific purposes and for the outreach. The lack of accessibility of the South-Western Quarter of Phaistos Palace to the visitors attributes a special interest to this output. The virtual environment thus realized constituted an ideal starting point for the development of an educational fruition project based on a Serious Game approach. The cooperation of archaeologists and engineers in the development of the Phaistos game ensures a gaming experience not only pleasant but also provided with a strong educational profile.

The aim of this study is to survey the Roman baths integrated in the so-called Insula IV of the archaeological area of Tindari (ME) for a better understanding of the site and for its enhancement. It is a structure that represents one of the oldest and best preserved thermal buildings with retrograde path in Sicily. Taking into account the typological, structural and decorative peculiarities that characterize the site, it was necessary to operate through integrated digital survey methods (laser scanning and SFM), obtaining a 3D model which describes the building in its entirety. The thermal building was inserted in the first century AD in a residential block dating back to the Hellenistic period. It is located in the South-Eastern part of the orthogonal area that marks the urban area and is bounded by two major east-west arterial roads (decumani), intersected perpendicularly by narrow streets (cardines) in the South-North direction. The thermal baths are located on the south terrace of insula IV and are composed of a central body with a peristyle overlooked by two exedras, while the aligned rooms, where you can see different phases of construction and decoration, consist of: an apodyterium, a frigidarium with a basin, a tepidarium, a destrictariume and, finally, a calidarium. The geometric and formal characteristics of the surveyed spaces have led to the choice of topographic surveying techniques such as 3D Laser Scanning and the reconstruction of high quality textured meshes through SFM techniques to document floor mosaics and walls features. The digital model obtained has allowed for a better understanding of the archaeological complex and has provided a digital document useful for the graphic representation of the site (plan, elevations, sections and orthophotos) and for further multidisciplinary investigations aimed at the conservation of the asset and its enhancement.

The paper illustrates the strategies set up for the communication of the documentary heritage of the Museum of Representation (Mu.Ra.), Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania. Mu.Ra. houses and exhibits the collections of architectural projects (Francesco Fichera Archive) and chalcographies (including the collection of G.B. Piranesi). The mission of the museum is to preserve, protect and make available to the scientific as well as to a wider community, the results of the Department research, education and dissemination activities.This has inspired a new way of thinking, valuing and using the heritage possessed. Focusing on the enhancement of the collections and merging research and educational purposes, an innovative participatory approach has been investigated and experimented.Indeed the students of the drawing courses and interns at the museum have been involved in their dual role of future designers and potential visitors of the museum developing strategies for new target users. Specifically, the experimentation was carried out on the projects by Francesco Fichera and was focused on the development of a communication strategy addressed to the reading and understanding of the architectural project. The aim was to actively involve the visitor in the learning process, making the visit a cognitive and emotional experience through new forms of representation. To achieve this goal the students worked both on architectures existing in Catania and on the unrealized projects, with the aim of recreating, using 3D modeling, virtual environments and reality, the visual and perceptive sensations of the unfinished architectural space.DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.23.2019.8

Nel vasto repertorio siciliano delle prospettive solide, un ruolo di spicco è ricoperto da un esempio unico di realizzazione di finta prospettiva di cupola sferica su copertura ad arco ribassato, ricavata sull’incrocio del transetto con la navata centrale nella chiesa di Santa Maria dei Rimedi a Palermo. L’unicità di quest’opera sta nella geometria reale della cupola ribassata. Infatti gli esempi più diffusi di finte cupole in Sicilia sono realizzati su soffitti piani lignei o in calcestruzzo. In Appendice 1 si potrà consultare il repertorio delle finte cupole esistenti in Sicilia per la cui stesura ci si è avvalsi degli studi condotti dall’architetto Giuseppe Ingaglio nell’ambito della sua tesi di dottorato che ha indagato gli esempi di finte cupole in Sicilia e Malta. Soltanto la restituzione grafica del rilievo, attraverso anche la scrittura di algoritmi per la costruzione di traformazioni geometriche, ha disvelato la sua geometria reale mai rappresentata nell’iconografia storica poiché sovrastata da una struttura lignea ad otto falde. Il rilievo è stato realizzato attraverso l’uso delle tecniche Image Based Modelling (IBM), Structure from Motion (SfM) e contemporaneamente attraverso l’uso di uno scanner laser FARO a differenza di fase. Il rilievo con laser scanner è stato condotto per disporre di un modello di cui si aveva l’accuratezza metrica grazie al quale sarebbe stato possibile verificare l’attendibilità metrica del modello IBM attraverso un confronto su Cloud Compare. La sovrapposizione dei modelli e il loro allineamento è stato fatto solo allo scopo di verificare che il profilo geometrico della cupola, generato dal modello IBM, fosse perfettamente coincidente con quello della nuvola dei punti. Una volta generata e indagata la geometria della volta, è stata condotta una ricerca sui trattati che potesse fornire delle indicazioni di massima su come queste finte prospettive si realizzavano, quali fossero i criteri geometrici e gli accorgimenti costruttivi e dove si individuava il punto di osservazione. La trattatistica analizzata non ha fornito indicazioni precise operative su casi come il nostro, tuttavia è stata adattata la trattatistica che affronta il caso della finta prospettiva di una cupola sferica con tamburo e cupola di chiusura su soffitto piano. Un elemento determinante in questa fase è stato quello di disporre del punto di osservazione individuato nello spazio interno della navata centrale. Questo punto è, infatti, individuato sul pavimento del corridoio centrale che porta all’altare, attraverso un solco circolare di circa 10 cm di diametro ricavato sul marmo di rivestimento. Infine, come corollario alla ricerca condotta, è stato riportato lo studio geometrico della restituzione di una sfera in prospettiva (in Appendice 2).

A building’s structural safety is often remit to human life fatalities and the measures of social protection and security often used following the collapse of a portion of the building. It is quite clear that, if it were possible to monitor the increase of static deterioration, it would be easier to prevent the collapse. There are two fundamental aspects closely linked to the building’s collapse: the first concerns the security of lives and the second concerns the well-being and quality of life when it is considered in relation to Cultural Heritage survival. Unfortunately, the high cost of a 3D survey does not usually permit a constant monitoring of the visible instability. The paper aims to carry out a low-cost workflow for structural 3D monitoring of historical buildings based on Image Based Modeling (IBM) techniques. IBM techniques create a 3D model of the sample by taking a structured dataset of images according to photogrammetric rules. In recent years, the experimentation of several research teams demonstrated the affordability of these techniques, which are able to ascertain data with accuracy within a millimeter (according to the size of the sample and the camera resolution).

3D scanning has gone a long way since its first appearance in cultural heritage digitization and modeling. In the recent years some new low cost, fast, accurate emerging technologies are flooding the market. Envisioning the massive use of these cheap and easy to use devices in the next years, it is crucial to explore the possible fields of application and to test their effectiveness in terms of easiness of 3D data collection, processing, mesh resolution and metric accuracy against the size and features of the objects. In this study we focus the attention on one emerging technology, the Structure Sensor device, in order to verify a 3D pipeline acquisition on an architectural element and its details. The methodological approach is thought to define a pipeline of 3D acquisition exploiting low cost and open source technologies and foresees the assessment of this procedure in comparison with data obtained by a Time of Flight device. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation—Line and curve generation

The study aims to answer the growing need for virtuously organize informational apparatuses related to Cultural Heritage. We propose a methodology that integrates multidisciplinary processes of interaction with information aimed at survey, documentation, management, knowledge and enhancement of historic artifacts. It is needed to review and update the procedure of instrumental data acquisition, standardization and structuring of the acquired data in a three-dimensional semantic model as well as the subsequent representability and accessibility of the model and the related database. If the use of Building Information Modeling has in recent years seen a consolidation in the procedures and the identification of standard methods in design process, nevertheless in the field of architectural heritage, the challenge to identify operational methodologies for the conservation, management and process enhancement is still open.

This paper introduces the #InvasioniDigitali project which is an online crowdsourcing initiative started in Italy in 2013 with the aim to promote the value of and engagement with local heritage. The paper focuses on two case studies of pilot ‘invasions’ using 3D data capture by students at museums and heritage sites in Sicily.