3-D modeling and visualization of architectonic elements for urban recovery and re-qualification: the Sanuti-Bevilacqua Palace

Laser scanning can now be defined without doubt as the newest frontier in the field of survey technique, and recent technological developments of instruments and processing software have encouraged the introduction of this technique in the world of applications connected to architecture and other related disciplines. The study we have carried out clears up the advantages and problems generally encountered in the use of laser scanning techniques in architectural applications. In order to evaluate the potential of this new laser technology we used three different three-dimensional scanners in a survey of the façade of the Sanuti-Bevilacqua Palace, an historical landmark building found in Bologna (Italy). The instruments make use of different methods and are usually used in distinct sector; in particular, we wanted to test both instrumentations that make use of the “time of flight” system and triangulation system. In the following processing of the data, we gave particular importance to three-dimensional modelling working with the point cloud, but studying then the way to extract from this the two-dimensional graphic necessary for architecture. The other fundamental subject was the passage from the 3d model to the “Rapid Prototyping” techniques that lead to the physical reconstruction of the object, in the prospect of a choice of architectural project that allows the substition and integration of degraded parts.