Archival Drawings Research Articles

Geo-Referencing and Analysis of Entities Extracted from Old Drawings and Photos Using Computer Vision and Deep Learning Algorithms

This study offers a quantitative solution that automates the creation of a historical timeline starting with old drawings from the beginning of the 18th century and ending with present-day photographs of the Old City of Jerusalem. This is performed using GIScience approaches, computer vision, and deep learning. The motivation to select the Old City of Jerusalem is the substantial availability of old archival drawings and photographs, owing to the area’s significance throughout the years. This task is challenging, as drawings, old photographs, and new photographs exhibit distinct characteristics. Our method encompasses several key components for the analyses: a 2D location recommendation engine, which detects an approximate location in the image of 3D landmarks; 2D landmarks to 3D conversion; and 2D polygonal areas to 3D GIS polylines conversion. This is applied to the segmentation of built areas. To achieve more accurate results, Meta’s Segment Anything model was utilized, which eliminates the need for extensive data preparation, training, and validation, thus optimizing the process. Using such techniques enabled us to examine the landscape development throughout the last three centuries and gain deeper insights concerning the evolution of prominent landmarks and features such as built area over time.

PHOTOGRAMMETRY IN ARCHEOLOGY ACCORDING TO VERIN NAVER BURIAL GROUND AND THE SHENGAVIT SETTLEMENT

Abstract. Photogrammetry is a non-destructive, three-dimensional modeling technique that has been widely adopted in archaeology. Archaeological monuments are particularly vulnerable to natural and anthropogenic activities, such as destruction, weathering, and erosion. Therefore, precise fixation and documentation of the monument are essential for preserving cultural layers for future generations. Digital technologies, especially photogrammetry, enable us to obtain better results for the photogrammetric survey. In recent years, this method has been employed in the excavation sites of Shengavit settlement and Verin Naver tombs, demonstrating its effectiveness in archaeological research. To obtain a better view of the stratigraphy of the site, the data was merged with archival drawings of previously collected information. This integration of data has allowed for a more comprehensive understanding of the site's history and evolution.

Algorithmic Modeling for Complex Vaults in Vittone’s Civil Architecture Between Archival Drawings and Realizations

The paper describes a work of geometric analysis, shape interpretation, and algorithmic modeling on the intradossal conformation of compound vaults inside Palazzo Grosso by Vittone. The tools of VPL allow to confront vocabularies and rules of three-dimensional homogeneous objects, to be applied to ideal models and built architecture.

ETFAS towns: rural architecture in Sardinia through the archival drawings

L’Ente per la Trasformazione Fondiaria e Agraria in Sardegna (ETFAS) nasce nel 1951 con la finalità di riformare l’attività agricola nella regione e attuare interventi volti alla realizzazione di infrastrutture, borgate e centri di servizio per la vita sociale degli assegnatari. Le ricerche relative alla documentazione progettuale prodotta dall’ente, svolte presso l’Archivio dell’Agenzia Laore Sardegna di Cagliari e l’Archivio del Moderno di Mendrisio, hanno restituito un importante numero di elaborati grafici redatti principalmente nelle forme canoniche di pianta, prospetto e sezione. Particolare attenzione emerge per le architetture collettive, qui presentate attraverso disegni inediti di Figini e Pollini per il borgo di Porto Conte nel territorio di Alghero, e di Zanuso e Crescini per il centro di Monte Cadelanu nel Sulcis.

The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947–1985

The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947–1985

A Chinese Renaissance: Henry Killam Murphy and His Interpretation of Traditional Chinese Architecture

American architect Henry Killam Murphy (1877-1954) dedicated his career to a “Chinese Renaissance” that adapted traditional Chinese architecture to meet technological and programmatic needs. Although previous scholarship has surveyed Murphy’s work, it deserves a closer analysis in order to measure Murphy’s design outcomes against the goals he described. This paper examines archive drawings by Murphy’s office so as to show the architect’s design intent, identifying creative design solutions provided by Murphy and his team that balance traditional architectural principles with modern requirements.

A Cyclops, a Stone, and a Four-Breasted Woman: Drawing Anatomical Knowledge

Drawings have a long history communicating new ideas, and in the early modern period, they were mobilized by a new form of institution—the scientific society—which emerged as a permanent structure to facilitate novel modes of pursuing and producing anatomical knowledge. This collaborative approach engendered new techniques for communicating and circulating knowledge among investigators, including innovative visual and material practices. Institutions such as the Royal Society of London and the Académie royale des sciences in Paris produced hundreds of drawings, by both artists and philosophers, in the course of their pursuits to understand the functions, structures, and diseases of the body. From depictions of bladder stones to monstrous births, drawings not only recorded anatomical investigations but often stood in for anatomical objects themselves. This essay explores how these early scientific societies created and used drawings as an important tool in their work, particularly in the study of human anatomy. From drawn accounts of dissected cadavers to recording anatomical anomalies, drawings circulated in society meetings, were debated by members, and were recorded in the institution’s minutes. This essay focuses on the materiality of drawings and their ability to preserve and perpetuate anatomical knowledge in ways that ephemeral specimens were not able to match. Based on unstudied archival drawings, this essay contends that image-making was a central component to the study of human anatomy in early scientific societies and that these drawings were a crucial tool in the process of anatomical discovery and knowledge production during their early years.

ЧИННИКИ РУЙНАЦІЇ ФОРТЕЦЬ ПІВДНЯ УКРАЇНИ

ЧИННИКИ РУЙНАЦІЇ ФОРТЕЦЬ ПІВДНЯ УКРАЇНИ

Топография Симонаса Даукантаса в Санкт-Петербурге

Simonas Daukantas’s Topography of St Petersburg S u m m a r y Simonas Daukantas spent 15 years (between 1834 and 1850) living in St Petersburg, where he worked as an assistant registrar at the Senate. This article highlights the exact addresses of where Daukantas lived and published books in St Petersburg. The address of the place where Daukantas lived in 1837 is published for the first time; the drawing of the building has been obtained, the landlord identified. Apparently, in 1837 Daukantas lived in the building owned by Marya Nelsen, the wife of chief (regiment) doctor Gavrila Nelsen, at the intersection of Kazanskaya street and Voznesensky prospect (or Voznesensky avenue; the exact address: Voznesensky Ave 15–17/Kazanskaya St 45). The article features the drawing of this building and contains information about its condition, which shows that in late 1830s and in 1840s the building was in an appalling state of repair. Marya Nelsen died in 1840, and the building was assigned to a care agency. Some of the tenants continued to live at the building for some time, only to move out later; apparently, Daukantas was among those who vacated this residence. More details are provided about Daukantas’s place of residence in 1842 (address: Malaya Masterskaya 9, the building near the Church of St Stanislaus), providing the drawing of the building and publishing pictures of how it looks today, revealing the characteristics of the building’s architecture, including those from the time when Daukantas lived there. The building next to St Stanislaus Church at Malaya Masterskaya 9 was built in 1841–1842. In one letter of 1842 Daukantas claimed his residency at this address, so we suggest that he might have moved in right after the completion of construction. The addresses of three printing houses where Daukantas published his books have been identified. On top of that, details of what the buildings looked like during Daukantas’s time there have been obtained. Christian Hintze’s printing house was located at Durygina’s house at Nevsky prospect 8. The building has survived to this date virtually intact. Ivanov’s lithograph based on Sadovnikov’s picture represents the view of the building in 1830s, the approximate time of Daukantas’s book publications at Hintze’s printing house. Later, the enterprise was acquired by Merkushev. The printing house of Karl Kray was located in the corner of Frost’s building at Malaya Morskaya 12/Gorokhovaya 9. Analysis of the archive drawings of the buildings has provided some insights into what the building’s appearance was during Daukantas’s time in St Petersburg. Before 1850, Gretsch’s house (current address: Moika 92; the building was demolished in early 1960s) was home to Eduard Pratz’s printing house. The blueprints of the building that were found in the archives shed a light on what the building looked like in 1840s and 1850s, when Daukantas would publish his books there. Gretsch’s own publishing house was in the same building. The archives contain blueprints of Gretsch’s house on Moika riverfront, showing the appearance of the building at the time of Daukantas’s printing his books there: the façade off Moika, the courtyard, and the plan of the building. Giedrius Subačius has noted that 1841–1845 were the years when Daukantas was the most consistent in his orthography. Βetter living conditions in the new building constructed in 1842 most probably had allowed Daukantas to improve the quality and efficiency of his work. It is also worth noting that the publishing houses were close to the places where Daukantas lived and worked. All these buildings are located in the Admiralteisky district of St Petersburg.

Assessment of User Satisfaction Following the Transformations Resulting From Encroachment on Social Amenities in Buruburu Estate, Nairobi CityCounty, Kenya

Transformations have led to questionable environmental qualities in housing neighbourhoods. Urban areas in Africa, and Kenya in particular are faced with an increased growth of planned settlements transforming into unplanned housing units. Most researches on housing transformations have concentrated on the dwelling units but little has been done on other aspects such as social amenities. The study therefore draws attention to this neglected aspect of transformation in housing and the reactions of dwellers towards the same. Buru Buru in Nairobi city formed the location of the empirical study. The study assessed user satisfaction following transformations of social amenities in Buruburu Estate, Nairobi City County. Data was collected using interview schedules from respondents drawn from residents and architects responsible for the transformation. Qualitative and quantitative data that used various techniques including structured interviews, digital photography and analyses of archival drawings and satellite maps were analysed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The findings showed that the user were very unsatisfied with the different social amenities in the estate. The conclusion was that social amenities should be developed at the beginning of the scheme. The study recommends inclusion of a possible model and clarification on the roles that professionals, developers and authorities need to play in any housing development in order to mitigate the phenomenon.

Down to Earth: Martin Heidegger, Le Corbusier, and the Question of Dwelling, Essentially

The philosopher Martin Heidegger and the architect Le Corbusier — two towering 20th-century public figures — each built for themselves small, sturdily crafted timber cabins well away from the cities of their busy everyday lives, to which they would repair annually to work in solitude and draw sustenance from their landscapes and locally archaic cultures. This article presents a close tandem reading of the architecture and inhabitation of Heidegger’s staunchly traditional Hutte on the upper slope of a deep-green Schwarzwald valley and Le Corbusier’s modern-ascetic Cabanon overlooking the beckoning azure waters of the Cote d’Azur. It draws on archival drawings and photographs, published and private statements, writings by others, and direct personal observations made in situ. These two unassuming yet inordinately significant dwellings seek to counter the overwhelming modern condition of ‘technicity’ by descending to the chthonic claims of the natural conditions, in alliance with Heidegger’s post-war essays co-locating building and dwelling, and Le Corbusier’s Le poeme de l’angle droit that indexes a descent down to the question of dwelling, essentially.

TRADITIONAL RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE OF BOYKO CONSTRUCTION SCHOOL ON THE BASIS OF AN ARCHAIC PLAN: PRINCIPLES OF FORMATION

The article identifies the main patterns of construction of Boyko residential buildings, which are based on an archaic three-part plan. It was found that Boyko's three-chamber dwellings existed in three variants, where the oldest type is considered to be one in which the dwelling cage is located in the middle, and the hayloft and pantry - on the sides of the dwelling. Based on measurements of existing buildings, analysis of literature and archival drawings, an ideal model of traditional three-chamber Boyko housing was created and it was substantiated that the idea of an archaic three-chamber house was based on the laws of the golden section. However, in practice, most houses had minor deviations from this rule, which were due to the different width of the ancillary premises and the violation of the proportions of the living space. The construction of traditional residential buildings of the Boyko construction school meets four basic rules: symmetry or the desire for symmetry in the construction of plans and facades with a possible asymmetrical arrangement of individual elements and parts of the house; staticity of the whole volume of the building; balance of the main elements of the house; variety in the use of details and decor. Despite the typical plans and ancient rules of the general compositional construction of houses, the masters sought uniqueness and artistic expression with the help of details. The location of the yards was influenced by the terrain and local natural conditions. It is revealed that the identity of architectural and natural forms is the main principle that makes it possible to harmoniously link static architectural forms with constantly changing natural. The predominance of the sloping lines of the silhouette of the house over the vertical lines provided an organic connection with the environment.

The architecture of the former Carmelite Monastery in the Mali Dorohostai village in Volhynia

Monasteries of the Roman Catholic order of the Carmelites were well-represented in the historic cities of Volhynia (e.g. Berdychiv, Dubno, Vyshnivets, Kisilin, Lutsk, etc.). One of them was built in the Mali Dorohostai village, which currently is a part of the Mlyniv district in Rivne Oblast of Ukraine. This monastery, built in the mid-18th century, was closed in the 1830s, and then adapted by the Russian Tsar for the use of Orthodox Church. During the first World War, it was completely destroyed. The architecture of this monastery is almost forgotten in modern historiography. The recently discovered archival drawings from the first half of the 19th century give a good idea of the stylistic and structural characteristics of the no longer existing monastery.

РОСТОВСКИЙ ТЕАТР КУКОЛ: «СТАРОЕ» И «НОВОЕ» В АРХИТЕКТУРЕ СОВЕТСКОГО МОДЕРНИЗМА

Rostov Puppet Theater is an interesting example of the early stage of Soviet modernism in the region. It has an unusual building history and originality. The building with laconic and simplified forms outwardly corresponds to the image of the mass development of the 1960–1970s. Special features distinguish the building from among similar buildings. These are scale and harmony with the environment, compliance with the residential complex House of State Security Officers, and mosaic panels. On the basis of field studies of the Puppet Theater, the study of archival materials and design drawings, the authors managed to clarify the facts of the history of construction, identify the features of the stylistics of modernism, features of the spatial and planning structure and the architectural and artistic image of the building. The method of comparative analysis is used, comparing the materials of full-scale and historical-archival studies of the Puppet Theater with the project documentation and preserved images of the Annunciation Church, on the site of which it was built. The internal volume of the theater includes the remains of the structures of the destroyed church. The building became a clear illustration of the collision of “old” and “new” in the architecture of Soviet modernism, a reflection of the processes of changing aesthetic ideas of the time.

‘Architects in war’: wartime destruction and architectural practice during the siege of Sarajevo

During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1996), standard practices of architectural investigation and design processes, such as visiting specific sites, became too dangerous. Located in a valley, Sarajevo was besieged for four years. It was subjected to constant military attacks. The destruction of the city followed two directions. At the same time that shelling was undoing the city’s architecture, the control and remote occupation of public space by sniper gunmen instigated the creation of ephemeral spaces for protection and survival. The military siege rescaled the urban landscape and people’s homes. In 1993, architect Zoran Doršner documented how this had also transformed the architectural programme of typical modernist dwellings into self-organised spaces. Documenting the shelling of the city and its destruction during the war, Sarajevo’s architects were directly engaged with the ‘city at war’. Relying on their experience of survival and their pre-war architectural practice, they created temporary methods for the architectural observation and documentation of the city under destruction. Ivan Štraus witnessed the destruction of the city from his terrace. He gathered his observations in a diary entitled ‘Architects and Barbarians’ (1995). In 1993, Lebbeus Woods visited Sarajevo. Taking the role of a journalist, he presented his pamphlet War and Architecture. To understand architects’ practices in the wartime city, this article revisits documents that were produced during the war. These include the abovementioned diary and pamphlet, the reports on Sarajevo’s destruction published in the special issue of ARH architecture magazine on ‘Warchitecture’ (1993), and archival photographs, sketches, and drawings. The work and role of ‘architects in war’ remains largely unexplored in architectural theory and history. Through the methods employed by Sarajevo’s architects and citizens, this article attempts to introduce a research lexicon of architectural practices and ephemeral interventions by ‘architects in war’.

On proportional design and diagonal planning in R.M. Schindler’s Beach house of 1936/38 for Anna Olga Zacsek

ABSTRACTRudolph M. Schindler’s revolutionary theories and designs, which were clearly ahead of his time, have gradually been recognized for their ingenuity. His work would equip him to represent the American modern avant-garde. Many architects find it difficult to leave behind working conventions. Perhaps, only a few in the profession have challenged conventional thinking and working traditions, including Schindler. Among Schindler’s oeuvre, the beach house built for Anna Olga Zacsek is unique in terms of its systematic interplay of the diagonal axis and his unit grid design. Unfortunately, the building was demolished before becoming extensively known in the architectural community. Many scholars and commentators have briefly commented on the house, yet there has been no in-depth study. Thus, the surviving archival drawings were read and reconstructing, and a physical scale model was fabricated. These were used to uncover the house’s unique spatial characteristics and to expose the underlying logic of it spatial composition.

3D MODELLING BETWEEN IDEATION, GEOMETRY, AND SURVEYED ARCHITECTURE: THE CASE OF THE VAULTED SYSTEM OF ‘APPARTAMENTO DI MEZZANOTTE’ IN PALAZZO CARIGNANO

Abstract. The present work focuses on the study of vaulted systems by Guarini, by virtue of the paradigmatic role that Guarini assumes in the field of studies dedicated to this topic. The research has been compared in-depth analysis aimed at connecting relevant data with archival drawings, historical studies and treatises in order to use digital representation in heuristic terms. The attempt is to delineate and explain, through the analysis of architectural artifacts, the links between theorizations, transformations of reference geometric models and buildings. The ‘Appartamento di Mezzanotte’ (northern apartment) of Palazzo Carignano was choosen as a case study, because the different vaulted rooms that compose it witness the creative inspiration by Guarini and allow to structure a study that produce interesting results in relation to the connections between theoretical studies, research and cultural heritage. The use of digital representation integrated with photo-modelling (SfM) tries to create new tools to investigate these different fields in their absolute and relationship value.

Theatricalizing a Familial Archive

This paper examines a solo performance, The Truth: A Tragedy (2010), by Cynthia Hopkins. Hopkins (b. 1972), a critically acclaimed experimental theater and music artist based in New York City, authored this performance text, one that blends her autobiographical and familial traumas into an elaborate spoken and sung narrative, so that she can become a semi-fictionalized surrogate of herself and of her father John Hopkins (1932-2011). This paper explores how documentary film scholar Michael Renov’s term, ‘domestic ethnography,’ applies to The Truth: A Tragedy and how her theatrical embodiment of her familial traumas expands an understanding and applicability of that term. The paper also puts Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett’s scholarship on ethnographic objects in conversation with Hopkins’s corresponding ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ installation of her father’s belongings, which she curated and placed in the lobbies of the theaters where she performed. Using the cabinet of curiosities’ genre as a stylistic framing device allows her to inform viewers about a wide range of information, from something as serious as Parkinson’s disease and its potential treatments and side effects to the joys of sailing a ship (with an interactive station). The playfulness threaded throughout the exhibit allows theatergoers to interact with other various items, such that an energetic exchange between the visitor and the objects increases the object’s vitality. As the curator and performer, she intentionally creates her performance and her museum such that the audience must notice how artificial aspects co-mingle with auto/biographical ones. Hopkins, a theatrical domestic ethnographer, gives her performance the appearance of a documentary by both grounding it in specific and detailed things from real life—archival objects, drawings, verbatim text, and film footage—and theatricalizing these truths with her own embodied representations on-stage and curated, interactive invitations in the installation. This work is highly fictive, yet truthful. The truth of her story emerges from the audience’s negotiation of her creative use of familial objects, images, stories, and songs. Ultimately, she encourages viewers to imagine how they might mine, reconstruct, and reflect upon their own familial ethnographies.

A Multidisciplinary Study on the Seismic Vulnerability of St. Agostino Church in Amatrice following the 2016 Seismic Sequence

ABSTRACTThe big earthquake of August 24, 2016 and subsequent major shocks severely damaged many historic villages in Central Italy and dramatically showed the intrinsic vulnerability of the diffused architectural heritage. The St. Agostino church is one of the collapsed historical buildings, being inside the epicentre village of Amatrice. During the long seismic earthquake swarm, progressively the church was damaged and monitored. This multidisciplinary study of the damage of the church includes correlations of all the data derived from three steps geomatics surveys (3D aerial and terrestrial models): the archival drawings and images documenting previous events distressing the building, the previous strengthening intervention, and finally the seismic site response analysis (from Amatrice’s accelerometric station). Through a back analysis carried out by a finite elements model, it was possible to understand the seismic vulnerability of this historical building, in relation to the previous interventions and damage events. The proposed methodology, based on the interdisciplinary data analysis, provides useful information for the next strengthening projects of damaged historical monument.

DEVELOPING VERIFICATION SYSTEMS FOR BUILDING INFORMATION MODELS OF HERITAGE BUILDINGS WITH HETEROGENEOUS DATASETS

Abstract. The digitization and abstraction of existing buildings into building information models requires the translation of heterogeneous datasets that may include CAD, technical reports, historic texts, archival drawings, terrestrial laser scanning, and photogrammetry into model elements. In this paper, we discuss a project undertaken by the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) that explored the synthesis of heterogeneous datasets for the development of a building information model (BIM) for one of Canada’s most significant heritage assets – the Centre Block of the Parliament Hill National Historic Site. The scope of the project included the development of an as-found model of the century-old, six-story building in anticipation of specific model uses for an extensive rehabilitation program. The as-found Centre Block model was developed in Revit using primarily point cloud data from terrestrial laser scanning. The data was captured by CIMS in partnership with Heritage Conservation Services (HCS), Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), using a Leica C10 and P40 (exterior and large interior spaces) and a Faro Focus (small to mid-sized interior spaces). Secondary sources such as archival drawings, photographs, and technical reports were referenced in cases where point cloud data was not available. As a result of working with heterogeneous data sets, a verification system was introduced in order to communicate to model users/viewers the source of information for each building element within the model.