Archivi digitali e architetture scomparse. Procedure di ricostruzione e fruizione virtuale di un patrimonio archivistico

The possibilities offered by technological progress, from virtual reconstruction, starting from analogue images to access to three-dimensional environments and interaction with digitised heritage, constitute new frontiers of knowledge, and become an opportunity to compare with the current challenges of inclusivity and educational quality posed by the goals of Agenda 2030. With this purpose, the paper intends to present part of a broader research, aimed at structuring a method of study and documentation for the transformation and digitally-aware preservation of the drawings of the School of Drawing and Ornamentation's fund, contained in the archives of the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture of the University of Pavia.
In particular, the paper deals with the process of inventory and cataloguing, both physical and digital, of the drawings of Architect Sebastiano Giuseppe Locati, and then develops an in-depth study on the methods of three-dimensional reconstruction starting from two-dimensional analogue project drawings. The Pavilions, now disappeared, realised by Locati for the International Exhibition of 1906 in Milan, are configured as an optimal case study for the definition, starting from the design blueprints, of a digital duplicate, in which it becomes possible to move virtually and define interactions with the no longer existing architecture. The ambition of the project, made possible by the interaction of the disciplines of History and Drawing, is to allow students and researchers to avail themselves of material that was not available until now and a new knowledge tool, structured on a replicable methodology.