BIM for Cultural Heritage (HBIM)

Dear Colleagues,

The BIM process has mainly been focused on new buildings, covering the whole building life-cycle from the construction phase to asset management. The generation of accurate as-built parametric models of structures and infrastructures verified by point cloud surveys is a complex task of primary importance in reuse and renovation projects in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. BIM for built heritage (HBIM) is still an emerging field. The biggest difference between BIM and HBIM is that HBIM faces a built heritage that has already existed for a period of time and has special value. Built heritage is characterized by complex morphology and nonhomogeneous features which clash with BIM’s standardized procedures. HBIM research is linked to the value of architectural heritage. This also affects the data linked with the building model, such as numeric data, imagery, and text documents, which can all evidence its historic importance but can also be of historic value themselves. It is essential to clearly understand and record the value of architectural heritage in an appropriate information model in order to facilitate conservation-friendly management, and to include the LOD and LOI of models. Laser scanning and photogrammetry have a fundamental role in the survey of existing facilities, especially for the generation of accurate and detailed as-built parametric models. However, various studies have demonstrated that automatic modelling from point clouds has sporadic adoption in large and complex BIM projects. The reconstruction problem is typically carried out with manual modelling approaches, resulting in time-consuming and labour-intensive operations. The creation of parametric models from photogrammetric and laser scanning point clouds requires, therefore, new automatic methods that are able to operate without excessive simplification of the information encapsulated into huge point clouds. At the same time, heavy models are useless for practical purposes, and productive work must be avoided. This requires research work aimed at developing novel algorithms for surface reconstruction and object parameterization, capable of approximating the point cloud with sufficient metric accuracy. Particular attention must be paid to self-intersection issues during the automated parameterization of complex shapes. As the generation of complex 3D models and the digital collection and linkage of nongeometric information constitute a significant investment, attention must be given to overall benefit of the process. Novel use cases such as numeric simulations for heritage structures based on BIM or site management and monitoring regimes integrated with BIM can provide substantial return of investment.

Prof. Dr. Pierre Grussenmeyer
Prof. Dr. Alex Yen
Dr. Jan Boehm
Dr. Luigi Barazzetti
Guest Editors

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