Digital Reconstruction and Restoration of Architectural Heritage: Samara House

Abstract

Samara House, built in 1956 with its surrounding landscape, is one of the National Historic Landmarks for its unique Usonian architectural heritage. The house shows signs of aging and significant structural damage. This article presents a case study of the preservation of Samara House through a highly digitized reconstruction framework. The study presents an innovative digital reconstruction and restoration of the historic built heritage using advanced Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) and Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) technologies to achieve accurate and fast documentation, modeling, and digital reconstruction. The research outputs build the basis of the restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Samara house and the effects of structural degradation. The study creates a better understanding of structural degradation in historic architecture and changes how we approach landmark preservation and conservation. Finally, the project exposes architecture and engineering students at different levels to multidisciplinary learning through pragmatic and productive research to produce a new education model that prioritizes interdisciplinary collaboration with an attentive eye to the future of digital research in historic preservation and restoration design.