Digital Scenarios and Virtual Environments for the Representation of Middle Eastern Architecture

The study of historical architecture compares in Holy Land with representations of Orientalists in the communicative value of symbols and sacred places, developing into photographs and 3D models in its intangible formal value. In recent years, Universities of Pavia and Florence have conducted some research on monumental complexes of Middle East for the development of heritage analysis and documentation systems. The survey focused on the analysis of constructive elements in complex Islamic architectural spaces with the application of virtual scenarios, recreating 3D shapes used and lived as real spaces. From the roads of maqam in the desert of Dead Sea to the fortified complexes on Mediterranean coasts, the experimentation of digitalization techniques of architecture underlines the role of drawing as methodological structure and graphic experience of research and cultural promotion. Integrating geometric data with SfM Structure from Motion approaches for morphological and colorimetric documentation, the research wants to highlight the ability to process and reconfigure information into NURBS and mesh interactive models as historical and architectural drawn information. The results consist of three-dimensional virtual environments of synthesis for the remote enjoyment of monumental complexes, giving further reflections to contemporary conflicting events involving Middle East and its landscape.