Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

Cities change dynamically, adapting their architectural image to the social and economic conditions that characterise their community and the cultural signs adopted by societies. The old historical centres of the Middle East manifest evidently this condition, showing an architectural identity strongly influenced by the socio-political management of the urban territory in the last century. The research focuses on case studies of historical centres of the Holy Land, such as Jerusalem and Bethlehem, where the architectural image of historical aggregates has been strongly influenced by a social and infrastructural adaptation. To map and understand the configuration changes from the 19th century, it is possible to rely on analogue photographic documentation, available across widespread historical archives and online libraries, and on digital photographic documentation, to catch the present urban image and to process spatial data in a 3D format through Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry applications. Fast survey documentation has included expeditious processes of 3D photogrammetric modelling, such as from spherical cameras or UAVs aerial cameras, applied to the historical cities’ centres. The objective is to build an updatable digital database extended to the territorial scale, relying on sustainable digital skills for its management, and to conduct comparisons overtime on the urban elements, social conformations and archaeological traces. The pursued 3D documentation project, funded under Horizon Europe program, wants to develop an up-to-date visualisation of the Holy Land cities, introducing representation models for the study of Cultural Heritage to support the preservation of Cultural Heritage through developing programs activated by NGOs.