Scan2BIM methodology applied to the Faculty of Theatral Art of La Habana

This paper shows some results of an international cooperation project named “¡Que no baje el telón”, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and the Ministry of Culture of Cuba (main partners: Department of Architecture, University of Florence and Universidad de las Artes de La Habana) and developed between 2019 and 2023. The Project was divided into two components. Component A (Rehabilitación y Difusión) had its specific objective at the restoration and refurbishment of the building of the Faculty of the Theatral Art (FAT), as well as the dissemination of the results achieved. Component B (Capacitación y Monitoreo) aimed to contribute to the capacity building of all operators in the field of documentation, conservation, management and enhancement of cultural heritage. The FAT was designed in 1961 by the Italian architect Roberto Gottardi and was never completed. It is composed of various pavilions, all of them constructed with facing brick walls, irregular geometric plans and different decorative details. The organic design of the complex is accentuated by the vaulted roof, which uses the traditional “tabicada” vaulting technique, with alternating layers of cement and bricks arranged in slabs. To date, the building is in an advanced state of decay and large parts remain unfinished. The presented research activities concern the creation of a BIM model of the FAT, aiming to the Facility Management of the main assets (spatial and systems items). All the data and information, derived from previous survey and diagnostics activities, were acquired to implement an “AS-IS” BIM model, conceived as a repository of information for the future operational and maintenance phases of the recovery assets. To achieve these objectives, the work was supported by a Building Execution Plan (BEP) for the definition of information exchange operations, coding of elements, materials and project outputs. Within this document, the geometric details and information content were defined at a level of development appropriate to the available knowledge. The open-source software, CloudCompare, was used for the geometric validation of the BIM model. Individual sample elements or their aggregates were compared with the initial geometric data captured from the point cloud to determine the gained level of accuracy. As far as the information part is concerned, we relied on photographic survey, archive documentation, research project elaborations to compile or prepare parameters useful for future management functions.