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 and Francesco Cigognetti, 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.

Render of the façade of San Giorgio Maggiore © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

© Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

Point-cloud render of the apse © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

Francesco Cigognetti recording the altar and the lectern © Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation

3D model of the lectern © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

Pedro Miró and Emanuele Zampieri recording the Longhena Stairs © Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation

Individual details were recorded using photogrammetry © Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation

The data acquired using photogrammetry was merged to the LiDAR dataset, creating a 3D model of the Longhena Stairs © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

Render of the Longhena staircase © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

Render of the Longhena staircase © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

Render of the Longhena staircase © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

Point-cloud render of the Longhena staircase © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

Video of the first processing of the 3D model of the Longhena Staircase © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

Point cloud of the cloister of San Giorgio Maggiore © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

Point cloud of the damaged walls of the cloister © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

(Detail) Point cloud of the damaged walls of the cloister © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

3D model of the bust of Ezra Pound by Henri Gaudier-Brezka (authorized copy by Isamu Noguchi), one of the contemporary sculptures in the Fondazione Cini’s courtyards © Factum Foundation for ARCHiVe

Following a radio programme on the ARCHiVe project, discussing the digitisation of the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice (The World, September 2020), Factum Foundation was contacted by Divirod, a start-up from Boulder, Colorado.

Divirod have developed a passive radar sensor that uses satellites and locally recorded data to generate accurate hydrological models. The software uses harmonic recordings to create dynamic representations of tide, wave activity and wind speed to predict erosion and flooding. Divirod have provided one of their advanced sensors to monitor the relationship between land and water on the island, with the data being accessible in real-time on desktop and mobile devices. The installation of the sensor in late August is part of ARCHiVe's work to document and study both cultural heritage and natural changes on and around the island.

The advanced sensor installed in Venice detects the unique signature of satellite signals bouncing off the water of the Lagoon. This provides a local, accurate and dynamic image of the relationship between a fixed point on the land and the water. The data is uploaded to the cloud in real-time, where a machine learning software developed by Divirod aggregates and processes it. The more sensors that are installed, the greater our understanding of the relationship between the land and the water: a slow-moving but still dynamic body, versus a dynamic fluid that is animated by many forces, from gravity and the wind to the energy released by the passing of large boats. The accurate hydrological models generated from the harmonic recordings are used to create constantly updating representations of tide, wave activity and wind speed, to predict erosion and flooding.

It is hoped that with time, this collaboration will link ARCHiVe to Factum Foundation's AALTOSIILO projects in Oulu, Finland, which focuses on the recording of natural heritage in the Arctic Circle. Venice is sinking about half a centimeter a year, while Oulu (the city of the AALTOSIILO) is rising at almost 2 centimeters a year due to glacial rebound.

As the sensor starts to log vast quantities of dynamic information, we will be working with the Cini Foundation to find new applications and develop tools that will help provide answers to practical needs.

Press features:

- On Digital Technologies, Our Cultural Heritage and Global Warming. How do they come together in Venice? (British Library, October 2021)
- Venezia, l'isola di San Giorgio diventa digitale (Repubblica, September 2021)
- Venecia se inunda, y la tecnología de este ingeniero español ayudará a saber a qué velocidad para prevenir posibles daños al patrimonio (Business Insider España, September 2021)
- Sunken Treasures (Project Management Institute, March-April 2021)
- Cutting-Edge Technologies are being used to help save Venice (Architectural Digest, October 2020)
- New technologies might save Venice's cultural heritage from the floods (ArchDaily, 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 (The Art Newspaper, September 2020)
- La Magnifica Preda (Il Giornale dell'Arte, September 2020)
- Un visionario sull'isola di Borges (Il Giornale dell'Arte, Vernissage, July-August 2020)