The remains of the Horrea Agrippiana in the Roman Forum, from survey to virtual reconstruction

The digital survey at the base of this research was originally taken during “The Roman Forum: Architecture and Archaeology” ISAR summer school in 2020, the very specific situation at that time, just in between the first and second pandemic waves, pushed the teams participating to the workshop to operate from the distance, basing all the communication on online platform, sharing the digital survey data taken in place by a specific survey group. The digital survey turned out to be very versatile for this task, even if in its huge amount of data, it allowed both a virtual exploration than a perfect base for supporting all the activities in the online classes. The area of the survey was the “Horrea Agrippiana” a sector of the Roman Forum characterized by a very variable level of details, with both large and massive remains but even thin walls, mosaics, and complex overlayed structures. The fascinating shape of the remains, strongly altered, were a difficult challenge to any interpretation of the past phases and states of the buildings before their state of ruin. After the completion of the summer school, mainly aimed to enhance the fruition of the area using new architectural interventions, the digital survey was used as a base reference for applying the procedures for an accurate reconstruction: the area was represented in its present state, interpreted, analysed, and then developed into a virtual reconstruction capable to present in a more coherent way the development of the building and their relationships through their various phases. This contribution will present the various phases from the infield survey to the data treatment, to the various post-processing, to the making of the digital reconstruction and its use for creating new contents to better understand this part of the Roman Forum.