Historic buildings hold significant cultural value and their repair and protection require diverse approaches. With the advent of 3D digitalization, drones have gained significance in heritage studies. This research focuses on applying digital methods for restoring architectural heritage. It utilizes non-contact measurement technology, specifically unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), for data collection, creating 3D point cloud models using heritage building information modeling (HBIM), and employing virtual reality (VR) for architectural heritage restoration. Employing the “close + surround” oblique photography technique combined with image matching, computer vision, and other technologies, a detailed and comprehensive 3D model of the real scene can be constructed. It provides crucial data support for subsequent protection research and transformation efforts. Using the case of the Santo Stefano Church in Volterra, Italy, an idealized reconstructed 3D model database was established after data collection to preserve essential resources such as the original spatial data and relationships of architectural sites. Through the analysis of relevant historical data and the implementation of VR, the idealized and original appearance of the case was authentically restored. As a result, in the virtual simulation space, the building’s style was realistically displayed with an immersive experience. This approach not only safeguards cultural heritage but also enhances the city’s image and promotes tourism resources, catering to the diverse needs of tourists.

Historical villages bear historical, cultural, architectural, aesthetic, and landscape values, but they are facing a series of dangers and problems during the process of urbanization. Digital survey for traditional villages plays a crucial role in the preservation, planning, and development of this kind of heritage. The introduction of the terrestrial laser scanning technique is essential for heritage surveying, mapping, and modeling due to its advantages of noncontact measurement, accurate sensing of complex objects, and efficient operation. In recent years, TLS and related processing software (“SCENE”) have been widely presented as effective techniques for dealing with the management and protection of historical buildings in Fenghuang village. Thus, this paper highlights the process of using laser scanning to obtain architectural data, process point clouds, and compare the characteristics of historical buildings in Fenghuang village. The cloud-to-cloud registration technique is applied to build point clouds. As a result of model construction, some architectural patterns are summarized in this village, such as the spatial sequence of ancestral halls, the dominant position of memorial halls, and the character of building decorations and roof slopes. Furthermore, a BIM model is also explained to fulfill the statistical function for architectural components. In the future, more research can be fulfilled based on the built point cloud model, which will be beneficial for the development of the whole village.

The architectural relics of ancient vernacular residences and villages with brick–timber structures are at great risk of fire; if one occurs, they cannot be recovered. To protect this cultural heritage, this study takes a southern Guangdong He Xinwu building complex as a case study. It focuses on four indicator systems: human factors, facility factors, environmental factors, and social management factors, and 20 sub-indicators to establish an assessment system for fire risk in vernacular residences. Combining triangular fuzzy hierarchical analysis and the entropy weight method to determine weight values reduces evaluation subjectivity, allowing for both qualitative and quantitative measurements to derive the safety level and determine key fire risk factors. The results showed that human misconduct and social management of fire had the greatest impact on fire risk (29% and 25.8%, respectively). The most important secondary indicators were the ability to fight fires early on, the fire resistance level of building materials, fire rescue capability, fire load, and electricity use by villagers. Moreover, comparing differences in protection between ancient houses and high-rise buildings provided targeted policy recommendations that offer a new perspective for protecting architectural heritage from fires.