Digital model, acquisition and processing; the new tecnologies for architectural survey

The “state of art” in the architectural survey proves how Information Technology, laser scanning and photomodelling represent the three essential technologies that have produced a basic transformation in the survey methods. Last in order of appearance is the possibility of using drones (UAV, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) equipped with cameras, able to acquire data in places hard to reach. This complex revolution is producing different results, once relegated to the two-dimensional representations and currently enriched by new forms of three-dimensional and immersive fruition. The entire process would need a deep knowledge of the operators in order to identify the right way of the final product depending on the different purposes. The main problem of the survey is the apparent removal of all intermediate phases that lead the subject to its representation and description. Too often a mesh model with mapped images is considered the result of a survey, indeed two-dimensional drawings have been replaced with navigable 3D numerical models. Although this transformation seems an evolution of the whole process (certainly from the emotional point of view), the survey is losing one of the main purposes represented by the Knowledge. The architectural survey is an archive of knowledge, a container of cognitive actions made through the wider range of researches. The application of the new technologies needs to be addressed with competence, so that each action can be adequately placed in the "Survey System" that is the ordered set of the documentation concerning an architectural subject. The knowledge of the processes involves both the acquisition and the processing steps. For that reason it is essential to know and manage laser scanning, photomodelling and flying systems beyond the data elaboration and the post production of the results. The transformation is just begun and all the possibilities and the results achieved by the several technologies should be adequately assessed.