Recording the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
In collaboration with the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, EPFL and Iconem
2020
© Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation
From 6th to 17th July 2020, a team from Factum Foundation spent twelve days in Venice recording the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in its entirety.
This ground-breaking ARCHiVe project, linked with EPFL's Venice Time Machine, involved the collaboration of Factum Foundation, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Iconem. The aim was to demonstrate that technologies such as aerial and ground-based photogrammetry and LiDAR recording could eventually be used to record the whole of Venice.
After the acqua alta of November 2019 reached the highest recorded level in fifty years, ARCHiVe's aim of efficiently and effectively aiding the preservation of Venice's fragile cultural heritage acquired a new note of urgency. Swiftly convened discussions between the partner institutions led to this project being undertaken as soon as the COVID-19 emergency allowed for the respective teams to travel once again.
The island was recorded from more than 600 different recording spots, from which a massive 60,000 million-point cloud was generated. The data acquired through photogrammetry is currently being merged with the point-clouds - with the aim of creating a 3D model of the whole island.
The first phase of the project involved recording the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore. To do this, Factum Foundation's Pedro Mirò and Otto Lowe, aided by Emanuele Zampieri during the first week, employed LiDAR scanning (using a Leica RTC360) and ground-based photogrammetry (using a Sony A7Riv camera). The first day saw the recording of the interior of the Palladian church, the apse and the inside of the bell tower, while the following days were dedicated to the exterior of the church and the crypt.
Recording the façade of the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore © Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation
First processing of the 3D model of the façade of the basilica © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe
First (right) and final (right) data processing of the render of one the statues on the façade © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe
Recording the altar inside the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore © Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation
3D model of the San Giorgio Maggiore altar © Factum Foundation
3D model of the altar and the lectern © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe
Point cloud of the inside of the flooded crypt © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe
Point-cloud render of the Longhena Stairs © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe
3D model of the palladian refectory of San Giorgio, housing Factum Arte's facsimile of 'The Wedding at Cana' by Veronese since 2007. The floor uses data taken from a 2015 recording of the Longhena Staircase floor tiles © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe
Pedro Miró recording the library with a LiDAR scanner © Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation
3D model of the Sala del Soffitto's ceiling without colour (left) and with colour (right) © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe
Point cloud of the Borges Labyrinth © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe
Press features:
- Cutting-Edge Technologies are being used to help save Venice, Architectural Digest, October 2020
- Preserving the floating city of Venice digitally, The World, September 2020
- 'New laser-scanning project will allow Venice to live on forever as a digital avatar', by Anna Somers Cocks, September 2020
- 'La Magnifica Preda' by Anna Somers Cocks, Il Giornale dell'Arte, September 2020
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