CAAD Research Articles

Late Holocene vegetation dynamics on an Atlantic–Mediterranean mountain in NW Iberia

Detailed studies on the late Holocene vegetation dynamics of the mountains of NW Iberia are rare. Furthermore, the impact of human activities and changes in fire activity on the natural vegetation are not well-known over these areas. In order to improve the knowledge on these topics, pollen and charcoal analyses were conducted on two new sedimentary sequences from the Teleno Mountains. Between ca 4500 and 3200 cal yr BP, Pinus type sylvestris and Betula dominated the forests that covered the uplands of the Teleno Mountains. At this point this pine-birch forest was replaced with heathlands and grasslands, which persisted during all the Iron Age and the Roman period until ca 1500 cal yr BP. This abrupt deforestation process could be caused by fire, grazing, and/or mining activities linked to the exploitation of the metal resources of these mountains. Around 1250 cal yr BP a Betula forest established in the uplands of the Teleno Mountains, probably following a decrease in human activities. The gradual rise in regional population density since ca 300–200 cal yr may be linked to the increase in fire activity that triggered the replacement of birch forest with heathlands. Lastly, the extent of the Pinus pinaster-dominated forests in the lowlands is an illustrative example of how the economic activities of the local human population have controlled the vegetation cover in this area, as it is very clear in the pollen record the recovery of natural P. pinaster forests since ca AD 1900 associated to the start of resin exploitation.

The Relationship Between National Policy and Industrial Development in the UK and South Korea, 1940s–2000s

Introduction As design has increasingly become regarded as a strategic tool that makes a critical contribution to enhancing competitiveness and economic success,1 a growing number of businesses now consider the use of design as a means of achieving their business goals. Governments, too, have embraced policies that encourage businesses to develop and implement new products and services through the use of design.2 Yet, despite the efforts of companies to expand their business into overseas markets with government support, achieving their goals in the rapidly changing competitive environment of the global marketplace and economy is becoming increasingly difficult.3 Researchers have proposed that the purpose of a national design policy is to ensure that the appropriate design support is provided for businesses to become globally competitive.4 Such research has analyzed the influence of design on global competitiveness;5 however, few researchers have addressed the influence of national design policy on global competitiveness either longitudinally or in relation to indigenous industry. In this paper we examine in two different countries (i.e., the U.K. and South Korea) the relationship between national design policies and industrial development, as evidenced through a government-supported design center’s strategy, activities, and industrial support. We also compare the two cases to understand national design policy and how it influences indigenous industry. These two countries have been selected because of the difference in the level of maturity in their “design” support (i.e., United Kingdom has a very mature Design Council, while the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP), in South Korea, is relatively new); yet similar in their design and innovation index ranking in the Global Competitiveness Report.6 Both countries also have been described as having a clear and effective design policy7 and have applied government design policy and design promotion programs that have intensified the role of design in international competition.8 It has also been suggested that the United Kingdom has a strong

Computer-aided Architecture Design Based on Parameterized Model—Taking elementary and secondary schools as examples

Computer-aided Architecture Design Based on Parameterized Model—Taking elementary and secondary schools as examples

(Pre-) historic changes in natural and anthropogenic heavy metals deposition inferred from two contrasting Swiss Alpine lakes

Continuous high-resolution sedimentary record of heavy metals (chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), and mercury (Hg)), from lakes Lucerne and Meidsee (Switzerland), provides pollutant deposition history from two contrasting Alpine environments over the last millennia. The distribution of conservative elements (thorium (Th), scandium (Sc) and titanium (Ti)) shows that in absence of human disturbances, the trace element input is primarily controlled by weathering processes (i.e., runoff and erosion). Nonetheless, the enrichment factor (EF) of Pb and Hg (that are measured by independent methods), and the Pb isotopic composition of sediments from the remote lake Meidsee (which are proportionally more enriched in anthropogenic heavy metals), likely detect early mining activities during the Bronze Age. Meanwhile, the deposition of trace elements remains close to the range of natural variations until the strong impact of Roman activities on atmospheric metal emissions. Both sites display simultaneous increases in anthropogenic trace metal deposition during the Greek and Roman Empires (ca 300 BC to AD 400), the Late Middle Ages (ca AD 1400), and the Early Modern Europe (after ca AD 1600). However, the greatest increases in anthropogenic metal pollution are evidenced after the industrial revolution of ca AD 1850, at low and high altitudes. During the twentieth century, industrial releases multiplied by ca 10 times heavy metal fluxes to hydrological systems located on both sides of the Alps. During the last decades, the recent growing contribution of low radiogenic Pb further highlights the contribution of industrial sources with respect to wood and coal burning emissions.

Pre-Colonial Herding Strategies in the Shashe-Limpopo Basin, Southern Africa, Based on Strontium Isotope Analysis of Domestic Fauna

Archaeological sites in the Shashe-Limpopo River Basin, southern Africa, reflect marked population growth and increased socio- political complexity between ca AD 880 and 1290, but the nature of agropastoral management that underpinned these extensive, more complex societies is not well understood. One key question concerns whether localized or more widespread regional strategies were employed to manage large herds of domestic animals. In order to identify potential herding areas we carried out strontium isotope analyses on tooth enamel from domestic fauna recovered at Shashe-Limpopo River Basin sites and compared them with those of modern wild and domestic fauna sampled from the greater region. Values were determined via low-resolution Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Laser-ablation ICP-MS and high-resolution, standard Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (TIMS). The low-resolution approaches gave values comparable to data produced by TIMS, within the level of precision required to distinguish geological areas contained in this exceptionally isotopically variable environment. The less invasive laser-ablation ICP-MS method provided a means to sample tooth enamel increments for indications of inter-seasonal movement of livestock. The archaeological data suggest that an inter-seasonal geographical expansion of herd management took place as socio-political complexity increased. A trans-humance or relocating herding strategy would have limited overgrazing of the local river basin landscape and results allow us to revisit hypotheses that overgrazing and environmental deterioration contributed to the subsequent political collapse and abandonment of the river basin at ca AD 1290.

Exploring spatial structures of settlements by saturation

There is a confluence between GIS and space syntax, which is based on the theory of topology and well known in the research field of Computer-Aided Architectural Design (CAAD). Although many GIS software have been employed to develop analytical tools in accordance with the theory of space syntax, there is still a need to explore its mathematical foundation for better understanding and interpretation of the results produced by the programs. This research attempts to provide more profound mathematical definitions about some basic concepts of space syntax. Furthermore, we will delve into the mathematical definition to discover some embedded characteristics that have not yet been mentioned by space researchers. Some conjectures are also proposed and tested using two traditional Taiwanese settlements. The concept of saturation, suggested by this research, is a new possibility to identify the centrality, peripheral regions, private place, key gateways, and subregions in settlements. This study also shows that this quantitative approach can well supplement the qualitative approach used by most researches nowadays.

O problema da distribuição espacial na arquitetura: pesquisa e reflexões

O artigo trata do problema da distribuicao espacial em planta (SLP, por sua sigla em Ingles) aplicada ao projeto arquitetonico. A criacao de desenhos de plantas e uma questao fundamental e, devido a sua complexidade, nenhum metodo preciso para ser resolvido. Apresentamos uma visao geral e uma descricao detalhada do processo de projeto arquitetonico para compreender esse fenomeno. Em segundo lugar, apresentamos uma breve historia e o desenvolvimento do SLP. Em seguida, trataremos sobre o estado da arte (tecnicas, abordagens e estrategias) para implementar solucoes de design. Os conceitos de otimizacao, sistemas generativos, inteligencia artificial, algoritmos geneticos e modelagem com base na fisica tambem sao revistos e discutidos. Tambem sao analisados os softwares comerciais CAAD e BIM. Ao final, apresentamos as conclusoes e uma discussao sobre os resultados e o impacto deste tipo de software na pratica da arquitetura.Palavras-chave: planejamento de distribuicao espacial, design criado por computador, projetos arquitetonicos automatizados, metodologias de design.

The hidden material culture of the Dark Ages. Early medieval ceramics at Sagalassos (Turkey): new evidence (ca AD 650–800)

AbstractOn the basis of recent archaeological evidence unearthed in the course of systematic excavations by the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) in southwestern Turkey, this paper attempts to pull together different strings of ceramic data in order to bridge the era between late antiquity and the Middle Ages (mid seventh century to ninth century AD). Our aim is to present samples of the ceramic assemblages excavated at the site of ancient Sagalassos from layers that are most probably dated to the late seventh and eighth centuries. An attempt has been made to examine rigorously the stratigraphy and its contents that are admittedly completely different to the known ceramic forms of the late Roman/early Byzantine (fourth century to mid seventh century) and middle Byzantine (early tenth century to mid 13th century) periods at Sagalassos. Five different pottery types are presented, both kitchenwares and tablewares. The fact that all the ware types presented here are local products should not be seen necessarily as a result of a general decline in trade, rural and/or urban life, but rather as a local response to a generally changing economic system and an emerging local pottery tradition based on household-organised production. The shift from the Roman mass-produced and customised wares (that started to disappear from the market) to non-specialised local/regional production (that started to satisfy basic household needs) need not have been a sudden one. Our ultimate aim is to contribute to recent attempts to throw more light on the archaeologically ‘hidden’ material culture of the so-called ‘Dark Ages’.

Supporting the designer’s and the user’s perspectives in computer-aided architectural design

At any given step in the architectural design process, a designer can usually only consider a small subset of the actions that can be applied to a design along with the consequences of those actions on the overall design process. Computer-based design tools can enable humans to operate more efficiently in this process. In the end, the design product (i.e., a built environment) is meant to be used by people other than the designer. Taking the users’ perspective into account while creating a layout is crucial to not only creating an environment that fulfills all design constraints but that is also usable in everyday life. We present CoSyCAD, a program that can be used to assist architects in the layout of a floor plan; it simultaneously analyzes the cognitive complexity of routes through an indoor environment, thereby enabling direct feedback on a layout’s usability. We provide a sample scenario that utilizes the program and discuss further possible enhancements.

Glacial to Holocene climate changes in the SE Pacific. The Raraku Lake sedimentary record (Easter Island, 27°S)

Easter Island (SE Pacific, 27°S) provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct past climate changes in the South Pacific region based on terrestrial archives. Although the general climate evolution of the south Pacific since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is coherent with terrestrial records in southern South America and Polynesia, the details of the dynamics of the shifting Westerlies, the South Pacific Convergence Zone and the South Pacific Anticyclone during the glacial–interglacial transition and the Holocene, and the large scale controls on precipitation in tropical and extratropical regions remain elusive. Here we present a high-resolution reconstruction of lake dynamics, watershed processes and paleohydrology for the last 34 000 cal yrs BP based on a sedimentological and geochemical multiproxy study of 8 cores from the Raraku Lake sediments constrained by 22 AMS radiocarbon dates. This multicore strategy has reconstructed the sedimentary architecture of the lake infilling and provided a stratigraphic framework to integrate and correlate previous core and vegetation studies conducted in the lake. High lake levels and clastic input dominated sedimentation in Raraku Lake between 34 and 28 cal kyr BP. Sedimentological and geochemical evidences support previously reported pollen data showing a relatively open forest and a cold and relatively humid climate during the Glacial period. Between 28 and 17.3 cal kyr BP, including the LGM period, colder conditions contributed to a reduction of the tree coverage in the island. The coherent climate patterns in subtropical and mid latitudes of Chile and Eastern Island for the LGM (more humid conditions) suggest stronger influence of the Antarctic circumpolar current and an enhancement of the Westerlies. The end of Glacial Period occurred at 17.3 cal kyr BP and was characterized by a sharp decrease in lake level conducive to the development of major flood events and erosion of littoral sediments. Deglaciation (Termination 1) between 17.3 and 12.5 cal kyr BP was characterized by an increase in lake productivity, a decrease in the terrigenous input and a rapid lake level recovery, inaugurating a period of intermediate lake levels, dominance of organic deposition and algal lamination. The timing and duration of deglaciation events in Easter Island broadly agree with other mid- and low-latitude circum South Pacific terrestrial records. The transition to the Holocene was characterized by lower lake levels. The lake level dropped during the early Holocene (ca 9.5 cal kyr BP) and swamp and shallow lake conditions dominated till mid Holocene, partially favored by the infilling of the lacustrine basin. During the mid- to late-Holocene drought phases led to periods of persistent low water table, subaerial exposure and erosion, generating a sedimentary hiatus in the Raraku sequence, from 4.2 to 0.8 cal kyr BP. The presence of this dry mid Holocene phase, also identified in low Andean latitudes and in Patagonian mid latitudes, suggests that the shift of storm tracks caused by changes in the austral summer insolation or forced by “El Niño-like” dominant conditions have occurred at a regional scale. The palm deforestation of the Easter Island, attributed to the human impact could have started earlier, during the 4.2–0.8 cal kyr BP sedimentary gap. Our paleoclimatic data provides insights about the climate scenarios that could favor the arrival of the Polynesian people to the island. If it occurred at ca AD 800 it coincided with the warmer conditions of the Medieval Climate Anomaly, whereas if it took place at ca AD 1300 it was favored by enhanced westerlies at the onset of the Little Ice Age. Changes in land uses (farming, intensive cattle) during the last century had a large impact in the hydrology and limnology (eutrophication) of the lake.

Holocene and latest Pleistocene climate and glacier fluctuations in Iceland

Multiproxy climate records from Iceland document complex changes in terrestrial climate and glacier fluctuations through the Holocene, revealing some coherent patterns of change as well as significant spatial variability. Most studies on the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent deglaciation reveal a dynamic Iceland Ice Sheet (IIS) that responded abruptly to changes in ocean currents and sea level. The IIS broke up catastrophically around 15 ka as the Polar Front migrated northward and sea level rose. Indications of regional advance or halt of the glaciers are seen in late Alleröd/early Younger Dryas time and again in PreBoreal time. Due to the apparent rise of relative sea level in Iceland during this time, most sites contain evidence for fluctuating, tidewater glacier termini occupying paleo fjords and bays. The time between the end of the Younger Dryas and the Preboreal was characterized by repeated jökulhlaups that eroded glacial deposits. By 10.3 ka, the main ice sheet was in rapid retreat across the highlands of Iceland. The Holocene thermal maximum (HTM) was reached after 8 ka with land temperatures estimated to be 3 °C higher than the 1961–1990 reference, and net precipitation similar to modern. Such temperatures imply largely ice-free conditions across Iceland in the early to mid-Holocene. Several marine and lacustrine sediment climate proxies record substantial summer temperature depression between 8.5 and 8 ka, but no moraines have been detected from that time. Termination of the HTM and onset of Neoglacial cooling took place sometime after 6 ka with increased glacier activity between 4.5 and 4.0 ka, intensifying between 3.0 and 2.5 ka. Although a distinct warming during the Medieval Warm Period is not dramatically apparent in Icelandic records, the interval from ca AD 0 to 1200 is commonly characterized by relative stability with slow rates of change. The literature most commonly describes Little Ice Age moraines (ca AD 1250–1900) as representing the most extensive ice margins since early Holocene deglaciation, with temperature depressions of 1–2 °C compared to the AD 1961–1990 average. Steep north–south and west–east temperature gradients are reconstructed in the Holocene records of Iceland, suggesting a strong maritime influence on the terrestrial climate of Iceland.

Domain based fast feature modeling: Design and implementation

A domain-based fast feature modeling approach was proposed. Inspired by the approach of Domain Engineering in software engineering, for a particular field of feature modeling design, this approach is on how to use the knowledge of such field to improve geometric modeling system. As a result, the entire efficiency of the geometric modeling system was improved by optimizing software architecture and algorithm design. Base on this novel method, the demand of geometric modeling in Computer-Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) was discussed, and a system framework for domain-based geometric modeling was created. Several examples of this method in industry modeling design and digital entertainment fields prove the effective.

CAAD e Criatividade, uma experiência com arquitetura fractal

Esta pesquisa resulta da experiência realizada com alunos de Arquitetura a partir da introdução de conceitos da geometria fractal na composição arquitetônica. Os autores elaboraram um conteúdo didático para o Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem em Arquitetura e Design, que aborda o potencial dos fractais como sistema generativo de formas no projeto arquitetônico assistido por computador (CAAD). A criação da disciplina" CAAD e criatividade" utiliza de estratégias pedagógicas específicas para o ensino de fractais na arquitetura e para o ensino a distância, que são explicadas neste artigo.

Historical photography-based computer-aided architectural design: Demolished buildings information modeling with reverse engineering functionality

This paper is about single three-point perspective historical photography-based CAAD modeling (amateur camera calibration, pose and 3-d reconstruction) of man-made environments, buildings and monuments, rich in geometrical regularity. The proposed method, gains profit from the presence in the image (historical photography) of three vanishing directions and two orthogonal object edges with known length ration, and then focuses on the graphical estimation of the skew intrinsic parameter of the uncalibrated camera (i.e. the angle of dot' s x and y optical axes, in photography plane), dealing in this way even with the skew presence case (non-rectangle dot). The presence of skew is not a negligible factor in historical photography of early 20th century years, due to dot optical axes failure (carelessness manufacturing) or collapse, as well as the twist effect (distortion) from the undocumented film development process in 1920s. The graphical recovery of the skew factor is the main contribution of the paper to the pose and CAAD literature. It is shown that a single three-point perspective amateur photography, even with the presence of skew, is adequate for calibration, pose and planar structure (building façades) recovery, if the usual in building's architecture geometric clues are present (i.e. planarity, orthogonality and parallelism) and some metric data (e.g. length and width of demolished building's dimensions) are available. The proposed method was validated on a simulated cuboid and demonstrated on a number of demolished historical buildings for which only one uncalibrated (and skewed) photography was available. The accuracy evaluation shows that the method is suitable for CAAD modeling applications regarding demolished buildings and monuments of the early 20th century years (2% relative accuracy, i.e. 40 cm for a 20 m façade, included the metric data inaccuracy). The method is of interest for architecture, archaeology, reverse engineering and virtual reality.

A 900-year pollen-inferred temperature and effective moisture record from varved Lake Mina, west-central Minnesota, USA

Drought is endemic to the North American Great Plains, causing severe economic consequences. However, instrumental climate data only exist from ca AD 1890, and limited tree-ring, paleolimnological, archeological and eolian records document the last two millennia. To address this lack of monitoring and paleoclimatic data, the pollen preserved in the varved sediments of Lake Mina, Minnesota, on the northeastern border of the Great Plains, were analyzed. May and February mean monthly temperatures and “annual precipitation minus potential evapotranspiration” were reconstructed at a 4-year resolution using a pre-settlement pollen–climate calibration set. The period of the so-called Little Ice Age (LIA) (AD 1500–1870) was colder than the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) (AD 1100–1500) in west-central Minnesota. Winter temperatures in the LIA declined more than summer ones. The pollen record suggests that the LIA occurred in three phases: an initial cold phase from AD 1505 to AD 1575, a warmer phase, and then a very cold phase from AD 1625 to AD 1775. There were severe droughts detected in the Lake Mina record from AD 1660 to AD 1710 and AD 1300 to AD 1400, suggesting that high-resolution pollen records can detect events previously defined from the tree-ring records. This latter century-scale drought is concurrent with the widely reported “AD 1250–1400 mega-drought”, which exceeds the severity of 20th century droughts.

Milestones in the evolution of the atmosphere with reference to climate change*

The history of life on Earth is critically dependent on the carbon, sulfur and oxygen cycles of the lithosphere – hydrosphere – atmosphere – biosphere system. An Archean oxygen-poor greenhouse atmosphere developed through: (i) accumulation of CO2 and CH4 from episodic injections of CO2 from volcanic activity, volatilised crust impacted by asteroids and comets, metamorphic devolatilisation processes and release of methane from sediments; and (ii) little CO2 weathering-capture due to both high temperatures of the hydrosphere (low CO2 solubility) and a low ratio of exposed continents to oceans. In the wake of the Sturtian glaciation, enrichment in oxygen and appearance of multicellular eukaryotes heralded the onset of the Phanerozoic where greenhouse conditions were interrupted by periods of strong CO2-sequestration through intensified capture of CO2 by marine plants, onset of land plants and burial of carbonaceous shale and coal (Late Ordovician; Carboniferous – Permian; Late Jurassic; Late Tertiary – Quaternary). The progression from Late Mesozoic and Early Tertiary greenhouse conditions to Late Tertiary – Quaternary ice ages was related to the sequestration of CO2 by rapid weathering of the emerging Alpine and Himalayan mountain chains. A number of peak warming and sea-level-rise events include the Late Oligocene, mid-Miocene, mid-Pliocene and Pleistocene glacial terminations. The Late Tertiary – Quaternary ice ages were dominated by cyclic orbital-forcing-triggered terminations which involved CO2-feedback effects from warming seas and the biosphere and albedo flips due to ice-sheet melting. Since ca AD 1750 human emissions were ∼305 Gt of carbon, as compared with ∼750 Gt C in the atmosphere. The emissions constitute ∼12% of the terrestrial biosphere and ∼10% of the known global fossil fuel reserve of ∼4000 Gt C, whose combustion would compare to the ∼ 4600 Gt C released to the atmosphere during the K – T impact event 65 million years ago, with associated ∼65% mass extinction of species. The current growth rate of atmospheric greenhouse gases and global mean temperatures exceed those of Pleistocene glacial terminations by one to two orders of magnitude. The relationship between temperatures and sea-levels for the last few million years project future sea-level rises toward time-averaged values of at least 5 m per 1°C. The instability of ice sheets suggested by the Dansgaard – Oeschinger glacial cycles during 50 – 20 ka, observed ice melt lag effects of glacial terminations, spring ice collapse dynamics and the doubling per-decade of Greenland and west Antarctic ice melt suggest that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's projected sea-level rises (<59 cm) for the 21st century may be exceeded. The biological and philosophical rationale underlying climate change and mass extinction perpetrated by an intelligent carbon-emitting mammal species may never be known.

Introduction. The boreal forest and global change

The boreal forest is the second largest biome in the world containing 33% of the Earth's forest cover ([FAO 2001][1]) of which approximately 25% is natural. It is circumpolar and shares similar taxa across its range. It has approximately 20 300 identified species. Along with the tropics, the

A Structured Analysis of caad Education

After more than four decades of its beginnings, Computer Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) has already reached a level of maturity in both the education and the profession. There is an ever-growing amount of literature on the subject; however, relatively few studies have taken a systematic approach to analyze CAAD education. Moreover, design institutions often view CAAD merely as a technical issue ignoring socio-cultural and theoretical aspects. In order to alleviate these problems, this paper presents a structured analysis of CAAD education based on Prof. Necdet Teymur's theory of architectural education. Prof. Teymur claims that the components of architectural education should be studied in terms of objectives (why), contents (what), methodology (how) and management (who) along with four different knowledge and disciplinary levels (viewpoints); namely, sociological, ideological, epistemological, and pedagogical. In this paper, current issues of CAAD education are addressed within this framework and several proposals are presented.

Detailed 3D Modelling of Castles

Digitally documenting complex heritage sites such as castles is a desirable yet difficult task with no established framework. Although 3D digitizing and modelling with laser scanners, Photogrammetry, and computer aided architectural design (CAAD) are maturing, each alone is inadequate to model an entire castle in details. We present a sequential approach that combines multiple techniques, each where best suited, to capture and model the fine geometric detail of castles. We provide new contributions in several areas: an effective workflow for castle 3D modelling, increasing the level of automation and the seamless integration of models created independently from different data sets. We tested the approach on various castles in Northern Italy and the results demonstrated that it is effective, accurate, and creates highly detailed models suitable for interactive visualization. It is also equally applicable to other types of large complex architectures.

E-Learning Documentation of Historical Living Systems with 3-D Modeling Functionality

The innovations and improvements in digital imaging sensors and scanners, computer modeling, haptic equipments and e-learning technology, as well as the availability of many powerful graphics PCs and workstations make haptic-based rendering methods for e-learning documentation with 3-D modeling functionality feasible. E-Learning documentation is a new term in computing, engineering and architecture, related to digital documentation with e-learning functionality, and introduced to literature for the first time within this paper. In particular, for the historical living systems (architectures, monuments, cultural heritage sites), such a methodolgy must be able to derive pictorial, geometric, spatial, topological, learning and semantic information from the target architectural object (historical living system), in such a way that it can be directly used for e-learning purposes regarding the history, the architecture, the structure and the temporal (time-based) 3-D geometry of the projected historical living system. A practical project is used to demonstrate the functionality and the performance of the proposed methodology. In particular, the processing steps from image acquisition to e-learning documentation of the Aghios Achilleios basilica, twin lakes Prespes, Northern Greece, through its 3-D geometric CAAD (Computer-Aided Architectural Design) model and semantic description are presented. Also, emphasis is placed on introducing and documenting the new term e-learning documentation. Finaly, for learning purposes related to 3-D modeling accuracy evaluation, a comparison test of two image-based approaches is carried out and discussed.