Abstract
Preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage symbolizes a problem already present before the pandemic period and amplified during the COVID-19 crisis. As a result, the dematerialisation of architecture by digital technologies is the approach to connect Society 5.0 and architecture in cyberspace. The ambition of this chapter is to achieve an approach aimed to explain the impact of ICT during the pandemic and post-pandemic period, using HBIM technology, an essential tool for the approximation of Society 5.0 to the tangible smart heritage. On the other hand, the creation of a virtual tour breaks down architectural barriers (physical and spatial) allowing access to all users as a benefit of the dematerialisation of the asset. The work represents the use of technologies to create new knowledge and values, generating connections between people and tangible and non-tangible things.
TopIntroduction
Contemporary challenges of (post)modern societies are multiple and strongly related to the significant progress of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), competitiveness, productivity, connectivity, and welfare. This society is moving towards a resilient approach, especially in a post-pandemic era immersed in an environment of increasing risk and uncertainty. In consideration of these statements, it is reasonable to assume that contemporary societies require a “broad” or “general” concept of resilience that is transdisciplinary and applicable to multiple contexts.
With these assumptions, after a comprehensive analysis of the state of the art, the ambition of this paper is to clarify how in a context of crisis and instability, societies look to adapt to the actual situation by using the success of ICT during the pandemic and post-pandemic period moving towards the concept of the society 5.0, explicitly or implicitly, by the government policies and standards implemented. Technologies should be used to create new knowledge and values, generating connections between people and tangible and non-tangible things. Also, ICT become an essential tool for the approximation of the society 5.0 to the tangible Smart Heritage.
The case study under analysis is The Castle of Baia, a landmark of southern Italy where the immersion of the user in cyberspace is made possible thanks to the use of Heritage Building Information Modelling (HBIM) and the creation of Virtual Tours (VT), being fundamental components for the knowledge and dissemination of the historical heritage in a period where physical tours are impossible. With this aim, an accurate methodology was established: a main digital survey of the entire building was developed, resulting in a high-resolution three-dimensional point cloud that will become the geometrical basis for the two paths to be followed.
In the first instance, the present research aims to provide an informative and geometrical integration of the HBIM model of the Cavaliere Pavilion previously developed. The main goal is to respond to the problem of fragmentation and lack of information, improving the tools provided by HBIM technology in addition to the results of the integral survey: archiving, digitization and systematization of historical data, interoperability between disciplines in the implementation of interventions, management of costs, time and resources. This final model will be mainly oriented towards the AECO (Architectural, Engineering, Construction, and Operations) sector. Also, to this integration, a library of BIM families will be developed, to standardise the complex morphology of historical architecture and be able to support heritage conservation planning and restoration and enhancement interventions.
On the other hand, the creation of a Virtual Tour, directly linked to the model, breaks down architectural barriers (physical and spatial) allowing access to all users as a benefit of the dematerialisation of the object, which however will never replace the physical experience but will allow its optimal dissemination in the cyberspace.
The preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage represents a problem already present before the pandemic period and amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. As a result, the dematerialisation of architecture achieved by digital technologies is the resource to link society 5.0 and architecture digitally, articulated in the concept of Smart Heritage. The implementation of ICTs allows the fruition of the asset by all users, not only the technical sector, even at a distance with the possibility of creating virtual tours to make the spaces accessible for everyone, anytime, anywhere (Trillo, et al., 2021). Ethically, these virtual tours should never be considered as an alternative way to experience the architecture, but simply as promotional tools to strengthen and widen the accessibility of Cultural Heritage exploring the role of digital tools during and mainly after the COVID-19 crisis finding an alternative way to enjoy it even in times of impossibility. It is crucial to highlight the importance of high-quality surveys, otherwise, an incorrect “Digital Twin” is created, generating misinformation and uncertainty in the database created for management and dissemination of Cultural Heritage.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Resilience: Process and outcome of successfully adapting to a new reality determined by a single traumatic event or challenging experiences for the human being, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioural flexibility.
Building Information Modelling (BIM): Approach for optimising the management of a built asset in its entire lifecycle with the help of software that allows different professionals to work interdisciplinarity on the same database.
Intangible Cultural Heritage: Voices, values, traditions, oral history, dress, forms of shelter, traditional skills and technologies, religious ceremonies, performing arts, that define and characterise a culture in a determined time and space.
Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM): Reverse engineering process that, starting from data obtained with appropriate survey and investigation techniques from the existing building, allows its digital representation integrated with all significant information for its interdisciplinary management.
Tangible Cultural Heritage: Artefacts or physical assets produced, maintained and intergenerationally transmitted in a society and which determine the sense of identity and belonging to a community, region, or nation.
Smart Heritage: Management system aimed at responding to the challenge of cultural heritage conservation through the use of advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) by generating new immersive experiences for interacting with digitised historical sites, works of art and objects in museums, galleries and public spaces.
Society 5.0: Anthropocentric society that strongly integrates cyberspace and physical space to balance economic and technological progress with the resolution of human social problems by promoting the idea of a Smart Society based on the use of ICTs, in line with the future sustainable strategies developed in the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.