HBIM as an Active Tool for the Study of On-Paper Architecture: The Case of the Unbuilt Project for a Maritime School in Cagliari

The research stands in continuity with the processes of valorization and communication of the architectural heritage of the twentieth century, already undertaken during the last years through the use of the digital medium. The digitization of archives, conducted through the development of models derived from the critical reading of architectural drawings, has led to the need to define new approaches to the translation of geometric and semantic components. Indeed, such translations develop from a complex process of interpretation capable of communicating a whole series of unseen values and significances that have remained latent. Digital models today must therefore be able to preserve and convey such complexity. This research proposes a workflow focused on the use of typical HBIM processes and tools, declined for the particular case of on-paper architectures, as active tools of study and interpretive reinterpretation. The case study is the model project for a Marinara Professional School, designed by architects Salvatore Rattu and Bruno Virdis, for the city of Cagliari during the early second half of the twentieth century. The digital reconfiguration in the HBIM environment allowed the opening to new paths of semantic redefinition of the drawings, facilitating the decomposition, documentation and communication of values related to the architecture of the twentieth century.