Historical Heritage Maintenance via Scan-to-BIM Approaches: A Case Study of the Lisbon Agricultural Exhibition Pavilion

Abstract

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has emerged as a revolutionary tool in the domain of architectural conservation and documentation. When combined with terrestrial 3D laser scanning, it presents a powerful method to capture and represent the intricate details and nuances of historic structures. Such buildings, with their unique architectural lineage, often exude a geometric complexity unparalleled by standard designs. Consequently, the transition from scan data to a BIM framework, or the scan-to-BIM process, becomes intricate and time-intensive. Beyond the challenge of digital translation, the true essence of these historic buildings lies not only in their geometric form but also in understanding and preserving their design logic, formal composition rules, and primitive geometry. It then becomes imperative that the resulting model maintains fidelity in terms of proportion, shape, symmetry, and spatial rationale. Considering these challenges and potentials, this article delves into the process of digitalizing and BIM modeling of the Lisbon Agricultural Exhibition Pavilion located in Portugal. Our study proceeds in a tripartite structure: initiating with an in-depth terrestrial 3D laser scanning of the pavilion, followed by a comprehensive registration, processing, and alignment of the acquired scans, and culminating in a detailed BIM model using the industry-standard Revit 2020 software.