CONTEMPORARY MASTER’S ARCHITECTURE: NEW ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE. APPROACHES FOR SURVEYING AND REPRESENTATION C. Balletti, S. Mander University IUAV of Venice – CIRCE - Photogrammetry Section balletti@iuav.it , mander@iuav.it Commission V - WG V/4 KEY WORDS: Photogrammetry, Architecture, Integration, Modelling, Laser scanner, Orthoimage, Multi-scale ABSTRACT: We are used to consider as architectural heritage that part of architecture belonging to “historical” periods and events. It is obvious that this classification, through the years, is always growing and the architecture “of interest” appears to be closer to our times. The different conception of architecture reflected in XX century’s buildings appears even through a different cognitive approach and representation. Even if surveying methods can be the same (topographical and photogrammetrical integrated with new instrumentations), surely its representation invites to research alternative ways respecting, chiefly, the evolution in documentation and preservation standards. Texture acquisition becomes of primary importance, to be employed in orthogonal projection and in rendering models, to better describe materials and their state of maintenance. It’s fundamental that digital photographic documentation is realized controlling scientifically radiometric values, that is by colour space calibration, to allow absolute valuations on colorimetry state and to offer the possibility to compare values in different times, especially respect to maintenance and restoration works. The introduction of laser scanning instruments (underlining the 3D nature of survey) and the contemporary architecture’s being require to use different methods in representation: from orthogonal projection, with vectorial drawings and ortho-rectified images loaded, particularly meaningful if we think about a material knowledge of buildings, to three-dimensional models, suddenly employed directly in the design genesis ( such as in the latest architectural trend). Questions about a 3D representation are many, such as the concept of nominal scale, that is fundamental in every survey campaign, because it’s not correct to bind it to the representative scale of all the projections originated from the model. Another matter is the way of model fruition: the possibility to explore its space, to query it about position, dimension, distances, area, volumes. These matters are strictly bounded to the choice of specific software: actually no one has the capability to answer simultaneously to the previous requirements. Moreover there are some other questions on the way to realize the model: by surfaces triangulating (2- or 3- dimensionally) clouds of points, or based on geometric solid primitives, or on voxel. All these subjects bring to consider the necessity of a revision of the rules in execution and representation of survey, to enlarge the canons already fixed in previous specifications. Generally, it would seem natural to consider only architectures from the past as belonging to the architectonic heritage to conserve and restore. It seems impossible that contemporary works, which we use and frequent everyday, can have possibly endured such decay and deterioration to warrant conservative interventions beyond normal everyday maintenance. But the truth is somewhat different: even modern materials (for example, iron and concrete) can decay to the point that they lose both their structural and aesthetic function. Therefore, it becomes important not only to conserve and salvage the "new materials" with new techniques, but to define new cognitive approaches and new forms of representation. The need to survey, as a cognitive act of architecture, some of the works by one of the greatest Italian masters of contemporary architecture, Carlo Scarpa, seemed to be a significant example to use for experimentation on the most recent tools in the area of documentation of the form and the colour and to study forms of representation that may be alternative or complementary to traditional ones with a view to building a system of documentation and knowledge focused and structured in accordance with the characteristics of modern and contemporary works. Precisely because of the characteristics of the architecture in question - in the specific case, the Sculpture Garden inside the Italian Pavilion of the Biennale of Venice and the Fondazione Querini Stampalia -, survey plotting must also employ several different methods of representation. As Scarpa's works are highly plastic in nature, orthogonal projections remain essential (for the representation of plans and elevations) executed with vectorial drawings integrated with ortho-rectified images, but 3D models are also fundamental for its representation, models which can be realized today by processing 3D data. Recently, we've seen a few exploratory attempts to realize numeric models at the computer always perceived as a complement to the mongian representations. The need for documentation, together with the possibility of computer management of the infographic models, seems to be shifting the discipline towards a co-existence of the traditional static representations and the dynamic models. This conflicts with the needs of designers to have two-dimensional supports that, as we know, represent a spatial and functional model of the architecture. The solution would seem to be to bring together innovative concepts with the traditional methods, in other words, bringing together 3D digital models and orthogonal projections.