Algorithmic modelling processes in scan-to-BIM workflows

The benefits brought by the application of the BIM philosophy to built heritage are now widely recognised, so much so that a closely related methodology, Heritage BIM borned. The HBIM finds practical confirmation in the so-called Scan-to-BIM processes; the data of architectural organisms, in the form of point clouds, are the basis on which the modelling of information is developed, to arrive at geometric models within which all the information necessary for the reading and interpretation of the architectural artefact as well as for its preservation and management is collected. In the paper some of the problems that arise from the application of the Scan-to-BIM processes to complex historical elements are analysed, particularly related to the phases of creation of three-dimensional models. In addition, a reasoning is made about how such problems can be solved or at least mitigated, thanks to the use of algorithmic modelling; the aim is to parameterise the generative process of the models, when the model itself cannot be parametric. In order to do this, a classic typology of historical architecture was examined: late-gothic vaulted systems.