Multidisciplinary Approach for the Knowledge of Historical Built: Digital Tools for the Virtual Restoration

The identification of strategies to be implemented for the restoration of cultural heritage, considered in its broad meaning, results from complex knowledge path. This process involves different disciplines collecting information for the cultural heritage safeguard and identification of innovative solutions that support the professionals and administrators in the conservation actions. At the same time, the advances in digital technologies provided novel solutions capable of supporting the knowledge, conservation and valorisation processes of built heritage. Based on these assumptions, the paper deals with a solution based on Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) techniques for addressing the issues concerning the processes of cultural heritage. The digital environment is suitable for managing an operative procedure that integrates the methods traditionally used by the restoration and archaeology of buildings disciplines to converge in the virtual restoration of a historical artefact. The HBIM model of the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Fontecchio (AQ) is developed starting from the in-situ investigation of the artefact. The model integrates multidisciplinary data with the aim of planning and designing proper restoration interventions for the examined asset, making these visible within the digital model and Virtual Tour in the perspective of virtual restoration. The strength of the proposed solutions is the virtual intervention of restoration actions on the artefact replica that is not a simple reproduction of the real but a digital object that communicates with a wider audience and facilitates the design and the comparison between alternative solutions, promoting the e-conservation paradigm.