APPLICATIONS OF INTEGRATED SURVEY FOR HISTORICAL HERITAGE'S KNOWLEDGE: DIGITAL MODELING OF THE VILLA RUFOLO'S MOORISH CLOISTER IN RAVELLO

Abstract

Within a more general research topic, with reference to the possibilities offered by new technologies in terms of documentation and knowledge of the historical architectural heritage, it is interesting to test the utility of a congruent use of several detection techniques; and is not meant as pure addition but as integration of systems, to each other complementary. With specific reference to the survey's techniques, analyzing for each methodology the definition of general and specific checking's procedures of the results' correctness, we intend to test the possibility of an integrated use of these, especially in complex architectures. An interesting field of application of the proposed methodology was the cloister of Villa Rufolo in Ravello, in Amalfi Coast, in which fragments of the past, more or less intact, coexist along with structures built in later periods. Here, various survey's methods have been applied – topographic, photogrammetric, laser scanners – each in reference to their own specificities. The obtained data from each application were then correlated, thanks to the presence of a points' network that allow the integration of information, at first separately processed. The 3d model, generated by the union of each processed part, was then the starting point for the elaboration of an infographic space that is an important step of documentation. In fact, critically interpreting the previously acquired data, we can imagine to make accessible, albeit virtually, the lost space, digitally reconstructing its original architectural shapes. The research has led to particularly significant outcomes, in terms of techniques' integration and, also, validation of each used method for the digital documentation.