Preliminary study of an ancient earthquake-proof construction technique monitoring by an innovative structural health monitoring system

<p class="Abstract">The historical and cultural heritage analysis of the Italian territory is of primary importance, because this territory is one of the richest in the world and can enrich our knowledge in different field. In fact, in the field of structural engineering, a new discovery was made in Calabria, in the south of Italy. By investigating various architectural treatises related to earthquake-proof constructions, new knowledge was ganed by analyzing buildings made with fictile tubules bricks. One of them is an unprecedented anti-seismic construction widespread in southern Calabria and patented by Pasquale Frezza.</p><p class="Abstract">In order to avoid the collapses of these structures, in this work, an innovative method to monitor and obtain the mechanical properties of these structures in real time, minimizing measurement uncertainty is proposed.</p>

Introduction: Bodies and Buildings in Motion

Since antiquity, motion had been a key means of designing and describing the physical environment. During the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, however, individuals across Europe increasingly designed, experienced, and discussed a new world of motion – one characterized by continuous, rather than segmented, movement. This chapter examines the shift from segmented to continuous motion in order to establish the architectural and cultural historical context for the following eight essays. It considers how architects and other authors stressed ever more putting individuals in motion through new types of built spaces and through new approaches to architectural treatises and guidebooks, while writers in other discourses encompassing science, medicine, and philosophy debated movements at all scales from the heliocentric universe to vibrating atoms.

The Relationship between Architecture and Ritual in the Hindu Crematorium

Hindu philosophy sees death as part of the cycle of life, and celebrates it. Despite this, crematoria and cemeteries have been largely ignored in architectural treatises in India. Funerary spaces are influenced by three centuries-old layers: religion, region, and time. This paper seeks to understand the architectural variation in funerary space by focussing on region (context) and time (temporal and/or political impact) to see how they influence form and function. By comparing examples from Hyderabad and Varanasi the paper lays out a theoretical framework for both rituals (based on scriptures) and the spaces in which they are enacted, so that these ancient traditions, and their architectural articulations, can be passed on for the future.

Introduzione. La prospettiva come tema vitruviano = Introduction. Perspective as a Vitruvian Theme

Con la diffusione della prospettiva lineare, l’architettura divenne uno dei principali temi di studio degli artisti rinascimentali. La necessità di rappresentare architetture credibili impose ai pittori di imparare a disegnare come gli architetti, combinando piante e alzati e applicando le regole proporzionali e morfologiche tramandate da Vitruvio. I trattati di prospettiva accolsero sistematicamente mirate istruzioni sul disegno degli edifici, così come i trattati di architettura dedicarono spazio alla rappresentazione prospettica, considerandola come una disciplina corrispondente a ciò che Vitruvio chiamava «scaenographia». A sancire lo stretto legame tra la prospettiva dei pittori e la scenografia vitruviana fu principalmente Daniele Barbaro che compose il suo celebre trattato di prospettiva come approfondimento del tema che tanto lo aveva impegnato nel suo altrettanto celebre commento a Vitruvio.AbstractWith the spread of linear perspective, architecture became one of the main disciplines studied by Renaissance artists. The need to represent credible architecture forced painters to learn how to draw like architects, combining plans and elevations and applying the proportional and morphological rules handed down by Vitruvius. The treatises of perspective systematically welcomed instructions on the design of buildings, just as the architectural treatises dedicated space to perspective representation, considering it as a discipline corresponding to what Vitruvius called «scaenographia». To establish the close link between the perspective of painters and the Vitruvian scenography was mainly Daniele Barbaro who composed his famous treatise on perspective as a deepening of the theme that had so busy him in his equally famous commentary on Vitruvius.

A Reality Integrated BIM for Architectural Heritage Conservation

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has attracted wide interest in the field of documentation and conservation of Architectural Heritage (AH). Existing approaches focus on converting laser scanned point clouds to BIM objects, but laser scanning is usually limited to planar elements which are not the typical state of AH where free-form and double-curvature surfaces are common. We propose a method that combines low-cost automatic photogrammetric data acquisition techniques with parametric BIM objects founded on Architectural Treatises and a syntax allowing the transition from the archetype to the type. Point clouds with metric accuracy comparable to that from laser scanning allows accurate as-built model semantically integrated with the ideal model from parametric library. The deviation between as-built model and ideal model is evaluated to determine if feature extraction from point clouds is essential to improve the accuracy of as-built BIM.

A Reality Integrated BIM for Architectural Heritage Conservation

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has attracted wide interest in the field of documentation and conservation of Architectural Heritage (AH). Existing approaches focus on converting laser scanned point clouds to BIM objects, but laser scanning is usually limited to planar elements which are not the typical state of AH where free-form and double-curvature surfaces are common. We propose a method that combines low-cost automatic photogrammetric data acquisition techniques with parametric BIM objects founded on Architectural Treatises and a syntax allowing the transition from the archetype to the type. Point clouds with metric accuracy comparable to that from laser scanning allows accurate as-built model semantically integrated with the ideal model from parametric library. The deviation between as-built model and ideal model is evaluated to determine if feature extraction from point clouds is essential to improve the accuracy of as-built BIM.

Use of Photogrammetry for Digital Surveying, Documentation and Communication of the Cultural Heritage. Example Regarding Virtual Reconstruction of the Access Doors for the Nameless Temple of Tipasa (Algeria)

This paper presents a methodological contribution in the field of the archaeological restitution’s process. This latter is based on virtual anastylosis, which concerns the reconstruction of fragments of the ruins of the nameless Temple of Tipasa in Algeria. We have to mention that our work focused more particularly on the virtual restitution of the three access doors of the sacred courtyard of the temple. Here, we have found many fragments including the voussoirs, which were revealed during the excavation work, encouraging the proposition of our hypothesis on the initial state of the temple. The protocol followed is based on the photogrammetric survey of the blocks which has allowed us to generate 3d models of the elements constituting the entrance facade to the sacred courtyard. The historical documentation as well as the architectural treatises made it possible to fill the gaps with the aim of communicating the most relevant image of our temple. The main objective of the research was to provide a corpus of data in 2d and 3d of all the blocks which has served, at first the documentation and the study of the remains; but also for the proposal of virtual reconstitution hypothesis for valorization and knowledge of part of the history of the site of Tipasa.

Building Faith: Ethiopian Art and Architecture during the Jesuit Interlude, 1557–1632

This dissertation examines the relationship between royally-sponsored Roman Catholic and Ethiopian Orthodox art and architecture during the 1557 to 1632 Jesuit Ethiopian mission. The first part of the dissertation examines key religious and secular sites, demonstrating how these structures combined elements drawn from classicizing architectural treatises, the Portuguese estilo chão, and Ethiopian architecture. The second part of the project assesses the role of books, prints, and religious art as tools of conversion and as artistic models. In contrast to studies that posit that European visual culture supplanted the Ethiopian during the mission era, the dissertation argues that the period’s art and architecture demonstrates the Jesuit strategy of cultural accommodation, and that far from being apart from Ethiopian art history, it shares stylistic and iconographic hallmarks with the so-called “Gondärine style.”