(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)
Abstract
At the intersection of digital heritage, conservation, art history and architecture, the view on the past has many commonalities but is also somewhat different. The humanities naturally also pursue giving buildings a role beyond their historiography, to inform the future. Architecture considers the experience in the present to have a further potential than the play of identities, namely the disclosure of the architectural idea as insight and inspiration for future planning. The very idea behind architecture, even more than its realisation, which is often altered, destroyed or even completely lost, is a hybrid experience of the tangible and the intangible. The distinction between idea and realisation becomes particularly clear in VR simulations, namely when scientific visualisations with an appropriate abstraction not only mediate the scientific content, but at the same time convey precisely through the abstraction that they are not a simulation of what has been built, but a visualisation of ideas; ideas in the sense of hypotheses from archaeology or art history or ideas of architecture derived from them, design stages that are much easier to reconstruct, since the intention of the buildings can generally be revealed much more reliably than the actual appearance. It is nothing less than the nature of the heritage. Is it the lost building, or is it the intention of the builders? Digital technologies in particular are able to mediate both, to interlace them in material existence and to engage today’s designers of cities and buildings. The authors have developed a method of visualising hypotheses executed in collaborative projects like Cologne Cathedral and its Predecessors (by order of and exhibited in Cologne Cathedral), The Metropolis of Pergamon (within the German Research Fund Excellence Cluster TOPOI) and the Palatine Palaces (by order of the German Archaeological Institute, both latter exhibited in the Pergamon Museum Berlin).
Dominik Lengyel is full professor and chairholder for Architecture and Visualisation. He studied one year Mathematics and Physics at the Universities of Essen and Stuttgart and subsequently Architecture at the Universities of Stuttgart, Paris-Tolbiac and ETH Zürich. He graduated in Architecture. After working as architect in the construction planning at Prof. O. M. Ungers he founded an office for architecture and visualisation with Catherine Toulouse in Cologne. In 2002 he began teaching as first substitute and then full professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne. Since 2006 he holds a chair at the BTU University in Cottbus. His major research areas are the visualisation of abstract spatial information, in particular hypotheses in archaeology, building history and art history, the Digital Humanities, design research, product and graphic design and crime prevention. Granted research fundings by the German Research Foundation DFG, the Gerda Henkel Foundation for the preservation of cultural heritage, the Federal Ministries of Education and Research BMBF, of Economic Affairs and Energy BMWI and of the Interior, Building and Community BMI. He was member of the DFG research program Exzellence Cluster TOPOI. Since 2018 he is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg.
Catherine Toulouse is assistant professor at the Chair for Architecture and Visualisation at the BTU University in Cottbus since 2006. She studied Architecture at the Universities of Stuttgart, Paris-Tolbiac and ETH Zürich. After working as architect in the construction planning at Prof. O. M. Ungers she founded an office for architecture and visualisation with Dominik Lengyel. Since 2006 she works and teaches at the University of Cottbus. Her major research area is the visualisation of archaeological hypotheses and the architectural design of energy facilities. She was member of the research program Excellence Cluster TOPOI led by the Freie University and the Humboldt University in Berlin and funded by the German Research Foundation DFG. Currently she works on a three year research program granted by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, on a two year research program in cooperation with nine chairs of engineering, one chair of physics and the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS granted by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy BMI and on a three year research program in cooperation with the Art History Institute of the Philipps University Marburg granted within the Priority Programme The Digital Image SPP 2172 by the DFG.
9:30 am - 11:00 am
Wednesday 15th June, 2022