Abstract

The article proposes a strategy for the digitzing the design process of interventions of restoration, refurbishment and generally speaking any work on existing building stock. This field is normally identified by the definition of H-BIM (Heritage-Building Information Modeling): a research that was founded on the idea of 3D Modeling the typical architectural elements of classical language (entablature, columns, decorations and so on) starting from a raw digitized source (either 3D scan or photogrammetry). This implies moving from the scanned data to a object oriented model, through shape recognition and generation of a taxonomy and related semantic structure. This article challenges this approach of a single converted Bim model by introducing the concept of a “palympsestµ model (resident over the web), where segmentation in objects does not erase scanned data, and different levels of detail can co-exist. Two completed experiences of restoration works in Rome are presented as field research to test this strategy.