Understanding the transformations of a historic building is a complex but necessary operation to plan future, more aware maintenance works that preserve the architectural quality. This study proposed to analyze the changes undergone by an edifice over time by virtue of the Vitruvian triad, namely the criteria formalised by Vitruvius to judge architecture: firmitas (construction system), utilitas (utility), and venustas (aesthetics). These criteria depend on the designer’s mindset but also the influence of historical, cultural, or local factors. The theme required a prior reflection on the mutations of the Vitruvian triad over time. Based upon these relationships, the analysis of the architectural heritage of Messina was started because it is emblematic due to historical events: buildings constructed after the earthquake of 1908, subject to war damage repairs, and then maintenance. Their firmitas, utilitas, and venustas changed for historical, cultural, social, and normative reasons. In this regard, the former Fascist House has significant features: the repeated changes in intended use that produced planimetric variations, technical-constructive modifications sometimes connected to formal choices, and to the abolition, albeit partial, of fascist symbols. The current appeal to experiment with digital technologies has led to examination of the opportunities of the BIM methodology, finding in the model historicisation a way to document and record the triad variations of an existing building in the virtual environment. The research topic proposes an operative approach for more incisive analysis and digitalisation of historical buildings, trying to make a contribution to Target 4 of Goal 11 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: to strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard cultural heritage.

The existing built heritage is excessively energy intensive compared to the standards required by European policies that promote zero- or near-zero-energy buildings. Hence the need to promote a radical energy requalification of the existing stock through ad hoc solutions. In the modelling of buildings undergoing redevelopment, the boundary conditions considered by the designer are often underestimated, resulting in a digital model that does not perfectly adhere to reality, due to a lack of historical and documentary knowledge. The present work—which concerns the Santa Maria Micaela residential complex built in Valencia by architect Santiago Artal Ríos, a representative work of Spanish Modernism—aims to overcome this vulnus with modelling that also takes into account historical and archive information. The housing complex was studied using a multidisciplinary approach with historical–archival analyses and site surveys that allowed BIM modelling and localisation in a WEB-GIS platform. The modelling took into account the peculiarities of the original design (exposure, windiness, and shading) and data from historical research (stratigraphy of building elements, dimensions, types of materials). The energy simulation, on the other hand, referred to a representative dwelling unit of the complex, and using SolidWorks software the ventilation flows were evaluated, which made it possible to create a model that was more in keeping with reality and to more correctly identify the performance upgrading proposal. The energy improvement was then evaluated according to the hypothesised interventions using two different analysis methodologies, TerMus and CE3X, for direct comparison. The transposition into WebGIS then made it possible to assess the potential of a digital platform to enhance information sharing.

The architectural heritage of the 20th century has proved to be highly vulnerable to the test of time, with slight variations in different geographical contexts. The lack of value recognition, restrictions imposition, and resulting protection has led to the loss of memory of material and immaterial values. Restoring dignity has been the primary goal of those who have given substance and vitality to the theme of Modern Restoration, inheriting from the past the method that requires, in order to catalogue each work, the essential stages of knowledge and documentation, preliminary to conservation and enhancement. It is precisely in this scenario, after analysing the experiences of institutions, bodies and associations in the field of filing and cataloguing, that the needs brought about by the digital transition were taken on board; the aim is to define, within the PRIN 2022 DIMHENSION project, an innovative operative protocol that is economically, socially and technically sustainable, aimed at the computerised management of 20th century architectural heritage. The steps are the identification of the global description of the history of the building, translation of the entire body of data into information assets (H-BIR), and the possibility of consultation using parametric models (H-BIM). A Digital Register has therefore been designed, initially for an international sample of late 20th century façade systems, which goes well beyond their dynamic documentation, creating the conditions for a platform for consulting the complex of information, structured in an H-BIR archive interfaced with an H-BIM object library.

Messina: story of a town "expert" on earthquakes Via Risorgimento, a palimpsest of "anti-seismic" building systems

The analysis of tools for the digital consultation of cultural heritage has highlighted the need for a dynamic approach between the architectural asset and digital knowledge, in order to promote conservation, restoration, enhancement, and communication actions. Within the framework of the PRIN 2022 – DIMHENSION project (DIgital twin and Modern HEritage modelliNg towards Sustainable InfOrmed maNagement), the collaborative platform DIMHENSION Library was developed, capable of facilitating interaction between the cataloging of 20th-century works, the H-BIR digital repository and H-BIM. In this way, users can interactively engage with the history of the construction, technical and construction aspects, and the parametric model of the recorded architecture. For the development of the web platform, which brings together multidisciplinary skills, a methodological approach traceable to LOIN – Level of Information Need – was adopted, with the aim of establishing a structured and dynamic relationship between the Real Twin and Digital Twin models. This approach allows the methodology and framework to be reproducible, not only in the twentieth century but across different historical periods of architecture, from antiquity to the contemporary era, without the need for code refactoring.