Narrating Ancient Roman Heritage through Drawings and Digital Architectural Representation: From Historical Archives, UAV and LIDAR to Virtual-Visual Storytelling and HBIM Projects

Abstract

One of the main objectives of today’s archaeological sites and museums is the development of research, understood as the interpretation and contextualisation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage to broaden the knowledge and accessibility of archaeological parks often unknown to visitors and the public on a large scale. In this perspective, the Appia Antica Archaeological Park aims to support research in digitising infrastructures and archaeological contexts of high historical and cultural value to plan short- and medium-term preservation and maintenance projects. In this context, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are tools with enormous potential in survey, inspection and digitisation, providing the basis for the subsequent phases of data interpretation, representation and material analysis. Thanks to the photorealistic reconstruction of dense structure from motion (DSfM) in the application of structural inspections, today it is possible to intercept the geometry and material conditions of small, medium and large structures, reducing the costs of inspections, limiting the interruption of the public and providing professionals and visitors with a better volumetric understanding of the system. However, inserting information that gradually accumulates throughout the process requires advanced 3D digital representation techniques, such as HBIM (historic building information modelling), scan-to-BIM approach and interactive forms, such as virtual and augmented reality (VR-AR). For these reasons, this study summarises the experience and lessons learned from the UAV inspection of three research case studies at archaeological, architectural, and infrastructure scales to increase awareness of the Roman-built heritage.

Multi-Sensor 3D Survey: Aerial and Terrestrial Data Fusion and 3D Modeling Applied to a Complex Historic Architecture at Risk

“…The HBIM project of the castle should be designed to preserve metric and semantic data, especially related to the historical interpretation and structural information of this fragile building. Being a 3D database and data-exchange platform, the HBIM model would enable the implementation of the castle's collected historical data and synchronic collaborations for further analyses [26][27][28]. Professional figures involved in the restoration project could analyze and exchange sensitive data before hands-up operations.…”

3D metric Survey of the Mezzagnone Arab bath. From point clouds to 2D drawings and parametric model

“…This tool would be designed to analyze and interpret stratigraphic evidences, transforming it into parametric surfaces linked to the IFC model. Furthermore, such a tool could facilitate the classification of these units, much like the categorization of archaeological findings, distinguishing between positive units (representing accumulation activities) and negative units (indicating erosion or removal activities) [4] [5] .…”

Future Homes With the Application of Ancient Building Experience, New Structural Techniques, and Natural Energy Consumption

“…They created thermal buildings, studios, and theaters that are astonishing considering the tools and technology of the time. Recently, scientists have narrated ancient Roman heritage through drawings and digital architectural representation to show the evolution process of ancient buildings (Banfi et al, 2023).…”