A Multidisciplinary Approach for Historic Buildings Diagnosis: The Case Study of the Kaisariani Monastery

Abstract

In this work, a multi-disciplinary approach regarding diagnostic study processes is presented, using as an example the Catholicon of Kaisariani Monastery in Attica, Greece. Kaisariani Monastery is considered one of the most important Byzantine architectural complexes in Greece. The Catholicon of Kaisariani Monastery was built during the middle Byzantine period, and has undergone many reconstructions during the centuries. It is a semi-complex, four-columned, cross-in-square church, with a cloisonné masonry. The suggested diagnostic processes included the creation of multidisciplinary thematic maps in Computer Aided Design (CAD) environment, which incorporated: (a) data of historical and architectural documentation; (b) data of geometric documentation; and (c) data of building materials characterization and decay diagnosis. The historical and general architectural data were acquired by thorough bibliographical/archival research. Geometric documentation data were acquired by three-dimensional (3D) laser scanner for the creation of the Catholicon section drawings, whereas image based photogrammetric techniques were utilized for the creation of a 3D textured model, from which orthoimages and architectural drawings of the Catholicon façades were developed. In parallel, characterization of building materials and identification of decay patterns took place after the onsite application of the nondestructive techniques of digital microscopy, infrared thermography and ground penetrating radar. These vast array kinds of data were elaborated and integrated into the architectural drawings, developing thematic maps that record and represent the current preservation state of the monument, a concerning major construction phases, the most important conservation intervention projects, building materials and decay. Furthermore, data quantification regarding the extent of building materials and decay at each monument’s façade took place. Therefore, correlation and better understanding of the environmental impact on building materials according to façade orientation and historical data, e.g., construction phases, was accomplished. In conclusion, the presented processes are multidisciplinary tasks that require collaboration among architects, surveyor engineers and materials scientists/engineers. They are also prerequisites for the planning and application of compatible and efficient conservation/restoration interventions, for the ultimate goal of the sustainable protection of a monument.

Archeological Heritage in the Area of the Jewish Ghetto in Rome: Surveying and Reading Among Archetypes and Memories of the Past

“…The main result of these studies is that the cultural heritage, as well as the entire historical city, is subject to an infinite variability of reading approach. One of the objectives of this research was to experiment and study in greater detail the use of the digital technologies for the identification and dissemination of the cultural heritage, increasing the digital archives and the creation of static and dynamic 3D models [14]. In these specific topics, the role of the representation instruments, based on the survey and 3D modeling, confirms how it is obligatory for the development of the processes (when their use are codified through a rigorous methodological approach); the drawing contains, still today, the expressive capacity to allow for the perception of an a-physic reality reproduced in a different spatial and temporal dimension.…”

Heritage Sustainability of the Territory: Photogrammetric Survey of the Castle of Beas de Segura (Jaén, Spain)

“…Together with this, given the multidisciplinary nature of the team, and the different techniques required, we analysed the work by E.T. Delegou and her team on the Kaisariani Monastery [12], in which all disciplines designed the data collection and analysis of results. All this was coupled with the extensive theoretical resources developed by F. Remondino [13] in the field of photogrammetry applied from volumetric recovery, or D. Constantino [14], explicitly on the application to heritage interventions.…”

A Proposed Multimodal Convolutional Neural Networks (Cnns) Soluble Salts Mapping System of the Subsurface: The Case of the Wall Painting at the Royal Box at Herodium, Israel

“…While each method shows remarkable capabilities, when mapping and investigating soluble salts beyond the superficial layers of the surface it seems that each method is lacking some ability the other obtains. In recent years, Methods integration have become more and more common in the field of art conservation (Delegou et al, 2019;Kilic, 2015;Raimondi et al, 2015;Sfarra et al, 2016). In particulare, this approach is being taken further these days with deep learning systems (Hoła & Sadowski, 2019).…”