THE ASSESSMENT OF THE BAROQUE VAULT CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE BY SCAN-TO-BIM PROCESS: ST. BERNARD’S CHAPEL IN THE PLASY MONASTERY

Abstract

The article focuses on the analysis of the construction technique of the star vault designed by the famous Bohemian architect from the Baroque period, Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel. The vault covers St. Bernard’s Chapel in the Plasy Monastery and represents a masterpiece in Santini’s late career. The authors try to understand its construction technology with the help of modern surveying methods. The shape of the vault structure is complex, therefore a detailed geometrical survey of both intrados and extrados was performed. The data collected in situ, photogrammetric blocks, were used as a basis for the modeling of the vault shape. An accurate 3D model and HBIM of the structure were generated, using a novel Scan-to-BIM process based on the integrated use of a different Grade of Generation and primitive extraction to support the modeling. This survey is part of a program to implement a vault database addressed to detect permanencies and mutations in the construction techniques across Europe, that gives back unexpected, and mostly unknown, richness of vault construction patterns.