Optical Documentation Techniques for Condition Assessment of Facades: A Tentative Evaluation of Three Case Studies Executed in Göteborg and Vienna

Abstract

A growing need for relevant information for long-term planning is a vital issue for the actors involved in management and maintenance of built heritage, as well as of built environments at large. Through its subsidiary companies, the publicly owned real estate and housing corporation Förvaltnings AB Framtiden, Inc., in Göteborg, Sweden, is administering 70,000 apartments. In Vienna, the Wiener Wohnen is an Austrian municipal housing corporation, administering 220,000 apartments. The dimensions of such building stocks indicate the relevance of user-friendly yet stringent methods for acquisition of valid information about types of construction, materials, and related issues of deterioration. A combination of existing and new methods for documentation and condition assessment of building facades, primarily based on optical techniques, has been designed and tested in accordance to the needed information indicated. This article reports on the outcome of three case studies comparing three methods for developing digital image, textured three-dimensional-models of existing buildings.