Ricerc@Sapienza

The use of digital technologies to study architecture and landscape has begun to represent an innova- tive aspect of the research when it started to allow the dynamic association (as input and output) of images and alphanumeric data: the different combination of this information through inferences and algorithms and the consequent generation of new data has freed digitisation from a strictly instrumental role making it a new methodological approach in itself.
As a matter of fact, recently architectural research has begun to take an interest in the problem ‘from within’, working not only on the application of computer tools but, more consciously, on their configu- ration. The work carried out by the Sapienza research group is aimed at developing ontologies and inferential models specifically dedicated to the representation of historical buildings and is devoted to the implementation of a national GIS platform for the historical centres, the Risk Map of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.
This kind of work involves a series of methodological issues specially oriented to the definition of the role of the history of architecture in itself and its use for the conservation project. These arguments are developed within this essay, mainly focused on: type and quality of information deriving by the new procedures; interpretative components that fuel the new research methods; cost/benefit ratio in the use of ‘analogue’ and ‘digital’ approaches; future prospects of the two different (traditional and digital) investigative strategies. Moreover, both of the fields of digital research developed by the group (ontology and Risk Map) are here summarised.