Towards a Methodology for the Digitisation of Unbuilt Cities: from ‘Drawn’ Architecture to 3D Landscape

The paper illustrates the first step of a methodological workflow under development for the valorisation and communication of the documentary heritage. Archival drawings offer numerous insights into the past. Still, they often remain hidden from a broader audience in favour of specific and disciplinary studies that pertain to the history of architecture but also overlap with the science of representation. Digital technologies now allow the reconstruction or reinvention of a past that never existed, made up of ‘drawn’ architecture that, thanks to 3D modelling, can take shape and be narrated interactively and engagingly. Studies of this nature have often been undertaken by the discipline of Disegno, facing the complexity of virtual reconstruction at an architectural scale. This work illustrates a process that aims to systematise hypothetical virtual reconstruction within an urban context. This approach was made possible thanks to the Atlases of Mauro Guidi (1761-1829), an Italian architect from Cesena (Emilia Romagna) who, from the 18th century until his death, dedicated himself to the study of numerous architectural themes: public buildings, palaces, temples and churches. In particular, in Atlas 48, conserved at the Malatestiana Library of Cesena, project drawings can be consulted, accompanied by a textual description of two utopian projects for the cities of Cesena and Cesenatico: New Cesena and New Cesenatico.