Engineering and Technological Heritage in the Digital Era: Documentation, Preservation, Interpretation and Futures
A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Architectural Design, Urban Science, and Real Estate".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 15
Special Issue Editors
Interests: reality capture; digital documentation; BIM; HBIM; immersive visualization (VR/AR)
Interests: historic preservation; architectural heritage; documentation; digital heritage methodologies; augmented reality (AR); design
Interests: digital restoration of cultural heritage; heritage documentation; digital heritage reconstruction
Interests: natural and cultural heritage planning and management; public and tourist use of heritage; tourism management; heritage interpretation
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Engineering and technological heritage represents the critical legacies of human innovation, including massive structures like bridges, railways, canals, factories, vessels, aerospace facilities, and large-scale infrastructures. Unlike conventional architectural heritage, these sites are defined by their functional complexity, immense scale, and technical integration, imposing unique challenges for documentation, conservation, and interpretation.
In the digital era, advances in reality capture (e.g., laser scanning, photogrammetry, UAV-based surveying), modeling (e.g., HBIM, digital twins, memory twins), AI-driven analysis, and communication (e.g., immersive visualization) are providing powerful tools to record, analyze, and communicate this heritage. These methods address significant technical and conservation challenges while opening up new opportunities for structural diagnosis, asset management, technical storytelling, and public engagement.
This Special Issue welcomes theoretical and applied contributions that explore how digital tools can effectively safeguard and reinterpret engineering and technological heritage for future generations.
Relevant themes include the following:
- Unique characteristics of engineering and technological heritage and their digital documentation.
- HBIM, digital twins, and memory twins for analysis and management.
- Digital methods for conservation, risk management, asset management strategies, and structural diagnosis.
- Immersive visualization and innovative interpretation of these sites.
- Theoretical and ethical perspectives on digital preservation.
We invite scholars and practitioners to share their innovative research, case studies, reviews, and interdisciplinary perspectives that advance our understanding and the future of engineering and technological heritage in the digital age.
Prof. Dr. Junshan Liu
Dr. Danielle Willkens
Prof. Dr. Miaole Hou
Prof. Dr. María Viñals
Prof. Dr. Antonio Galiano-Garrigós
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- engineering heritage
- technological heritage
- digital heritage
- heritage building information modeling (HBIM)
- digital twins
- reality capture
- heritage asset management
- structural diagnosis and monitoring
- immersive visualization and interpretation
- conservation and risk management
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