HBIM for Planned Conservation: A New Approach to Information Management

HBIM (Historical Building Information System) represents a very promising tool for the management of Cultural Heritage, both for daily operations and for the planned preservation of the asset itself. However, it requires a specific effort to adapt tried and tested tools and methods for new construction to existing Cultural Heritage buildings. First of all, the starting point of the process (new construction projects versus surveys of existing buildings) changes, and consequently the requirements for geometric and informative modelling change. Especially in the field of Cultural Heritage, an in-depth and reasoned design of such (geometric and informative) models is necessary, to respond properly to the needs identified in the processes for planned conservation. To this end, an appropriate semantic classification of the building elements must be carried out prior to modelling, taking into account both documentation and geometric description requirements. The aim here is to propose a system for managing the information component of the model that takes its cue from the internal logic of BIM (Building Information System) Authoring (Autodesk Revit©) software and takes into account the operating practices of professionals in the conservation sector. In particular, a system which no longer takes into account the traditional two-dimensional classification of elements, but which directly affects threedimensional technological elements is proposed. This is the case of the remains of the convent of S. Maria, near Lake Garda, where the geometric modelling was structured according to this new model of management of information content. In this way it was possible to give a complete description of the reality of the building (and its surroundings), making it more usable and readable by the operators.