From Scan-to-Bim to Heritage Building Information Modelling for an Ancient Arab-Norman Church

Abstract

Abstract. One of the most significant issues in Cultural Heritage is the management of ancient buildings to monitor their state of conservation or to plan actions in their maintenance; this issue can be now approached thanks to the use of the Scan-to-BIM process. This method allows the creation of parametric models into a BIM environment, which are capable of enhancing the geometrical representation of building elements and integrating different types of data.This paper shows the results of the research activities carried out by the Department of Engineering at University of Palermo (Italy) on applying the Scan-to-BIM approach to the survey and the modelling of an ancient Arab-Norman church in Palermo. This activity was motivated by a renewed interest from the local Administration towards the Arab-Norman Cultural Heritage in the city, since other more famous coeval monuments were included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 2015. The morpho-typological style of the church has been spotlighted by a high-detailed 3D laser scanner and photogrammetric survey. The aim of the modelling phase was to obtain a parametric model which was suit to render the peculiarity of this building at its best. Extensive knowledge about historical building techniques has been needed in order to model all the architectural elements. The results of this study allowed to obtain a HBIM of an Arab-Norman building and to reveal the weaknesses affecting the whole workflow; these were mainly due to the approach chosen for the modelling of the most particular architectural elements.

Developing Digital Interactive Exploration of Historical Places with Blending BIM and Virtual Reality

“…Compared with existing approaches or studies, the developed digital interactive exploration platform blending BIM and virtual reality offers several distinct advantages and contributions. Firstly, while existing approaches utilize either BIM [15], [21]- [24] or virtual reality [25]- [29] separately for cultural heritage exploration, integrating both technologies in a cohesive platform provides a more comprehensive and immersive experience [30]- [32]. By leveraging the detailed 3D models and rich information from BIM and combining it with virtual reality's immersive and interactive capabilities, the platform offers a more holistic and realistic representation of historical places.…”

Practicalities of Incorporating 3D Laser Scanning with BIM in Live Construction Projects: A Case Study

“…Furthermore, on the other hand, examples of applications for the Scan-to-BIM method include studies such as Mellado et al [41], Nguyen et al [44], Qiu et al [45], and Aricò and Brutto [46], among others. In Mellado et al [41], a Scan-to-BIM approach was proposed to showcase how laser scanning technology can be employed for existing buildings to facilitate sustainable-oriented design.…”

“…It is indicated that the proposed method could generate as-is BIMs with more accuracy in terms of geometric and semantic information. Aricò and Brutto [46] applied the Scan-to-BIM method to the survey and spatial modelling of a historical building, the Arab-Norman church in Palermo, to be exact. The 3D laser scanning and Photogrammetry techniques were employed to collect the data from the asset.…”

SCAN-TO-BIM method and analysis of measurement accuracy on the example of a historic church

“…An essential task related to the management of historic objects including monitoring their state of preservation or planning activities for their conservation and ongoing maintenance, is the development of a reliable 3D model (Aricò and Brutto. 2022;Rocha et al, 2020).…”

“…These methods allow the creation of parametric models in a BIM (Building Informaton Modeling) environment, which are able to improve the geometric model under development. It should be noted that BIM technology also enables the integration of different types of data (Aricò and Brutto. 2022;Rocha et al, 2020).…”