Enhancing Heritage and Traditional Architecture Conservation Through Digital Technologies. Developing a Digital Conservation Handbook for As-Salt, Jordan

Claudia Trillo,Busisiwe Chikomborero Ncube Makore,Athena Moustaka,Kwasi Gyau Baffour,Chika Udeaja,Rania Aburamadan

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-52869-0_18

Claudia Trillo, Busisiwe Chikomborero Ncube Makore + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52869-0_18

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Abstract

Heritage cities are facing unprecedented pressure, due to the combination of climate change impacts, rapid urbanization and uncontrolled growth. Historic urban centres in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries are particularly exposed. This paper discusses the benefit of applying digital technologies, and in particular Building Information Modeling (BIM), in supporting heritage conservation, by developing a proof of concept based on a purposely chosen case study, i.e. the traditional Jordanian city of As-Salt near Amman. Building on and moving forward the tradition of paper-based Conservation Handbooks for historic cities, this study aims at exploiting the potential of digital technologies for enhancing the development and implementation of Digital Conservation Handbooks. Documentation and promoting of As-Salt will be conducted through developing a set of virtual models (3D models and BIM objects) suitable to support the construction sector and traditional architecture and heritage, framed and delivered in form of Digital Conservation Handbook. This will be achieved by: developing a new set of BIM (Building Information Modeling) objects related to the traditional architecture heritage in Jordan, suitable to be used by engineers and architects in the development of interventions on the built environment; creating a library of 3D models of exemplar buildings (Jordan heritage and traditional architecture), suitable to be used to promote the tourist image of Jordan. This will set a precedent for further documentation and heritage conservation of traditional cities in Jordan, MENA countries and internationally. Finally, the paper will discuss issues and challenges of documenting traditional heritage and architecture in As-Salt and the impact that such process may achieve in raising awareness across the local communities, thus offering insights to the larger community of architects, conservationists, and planners.

Highlights

This study aims at producing a novel tool positioned within the interplay between community engagement and knowledge and planning tools, by building on and moving forward the existing tradition of the Italian Conservation Handbooks (Giovanetti 1992)
In particular BIM (Building Information Modelling), are instrumental to update the traditional approach pursued by the Conservation Handbooks and exploit the potential of digital technologies in heritage conservation
This paper presented the preliminary studies undertaken by UK and Jordanian team of academics, seeking to build and move forward the tradition of Conservation Handbook by implementing digital technologies and turning traditional paper-based Conservation Handbooks in digital toolkits for designers and conservationists

Summary

Introduction

A final case of reference which fully developed this methodology is the handbook prepared for the city of Citta’ di Castello, which spans between 1980s and early 1990s (Giovanetti 1992) These cases supported the development and testing of a consolidated methodology for the conservation of historic urban fabric, based on the three specific goals: (1) encourage and steer the conservation of historic urban fabric, through appreciation of the materiality of historic buildings; (2) offer technical insights to conservations and architects; (3) engage with the communities on the conservation of traditional heritage. It is based on the idea that contemporary conservation handbook should take the form of BIM models, embedding key features of historic buildings whilst enabling designers to gather and reassemble information (Volk et al 2014) This facilitates the conservation of historic centres, both through an enhanced body of knowledge made available to the local professionals’ community, and through community engagement

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