A.I.M. - Informative Archives for architectural renovation

The information technology applied to the architectural surveys makes acquiring analytical and quick multimedia documentation about the built environment possible. Huge amounts of data, stored into computer memory using digital formats for textual or audio-visual contents, can be easily processed without computational slowdowns or limitations as well. The aim of this paper is to introduce a possible logical sequence for the acquisition and storage of images, text files and interviews collected for technical analysis, using a technological framework called “Multimedia Informative Archive” (A.I.M.), destined to Institutions interested in cultural heritage preservation. A.I.M. can manage analytical information embedded into digital databases, referencing it in a geometric environment and arranging a visual path together with a technical one, in order to document the general context in which a monument, or an historical building, is placed. Interactive panoramas derivable from photographic shots, easily taken in difficult circumstances too, are used as virtual reconstructions producing scenes which are subsequently layered as a table of contents for elements, hyperlinked to analytical files hosting more detailed information. Investigated components are placed into a hierarchical information framework routed to a central database. The capability of compiling and finalizing the archive directly from the survey site, through an optimized station expressly developed to gather digital contents destined to the central database, sets A.I.M. up as a complete system dedicated to harvest architectural information on site. This way, the whole dataset stored using A.I.M. becomes available for interactive communication systems, through much more complex threedimensional digital models as well, which can be directly evoked and viewed from database records, by means of various electronic devices, once they are modeled after a much more detailed survey if needed. A.I.M. is substantially a tool destined to designers for built environment, specifically prepared for building restoration themes. Possible further developments of this framework include generation of operative flow ported to mobile devices: the increasing versatility and reliability of PDAs, mobile phones and hi-tech tablet computers allow a wide number of data gathering stations, connected to the same central archive, making easier collecting, viewing and storing architectural information.