For the conservation of Lorenzo Nottolini’s aqueduct in Lucca: survey and representation of historic infrastructure

There has been a growing interest for some years about the territory and landscape survey and representation. It is impossible to reduce to geometrical data the elements that make up such multimatters systems because they are complex and changeable. It’s necessary to find new parameters both to measure and describe the components of the natural environment - altimetrical variations, water, vegetation - as well as the artificial ones, that is the building environment. This paper illustrates some considerations deriving from the survey and the analysis of a complex system: the aqueduct commissioned to the architect Lorenzo Nottolini by Maria Luisa di Borbone in Lucca. It is a particularly interesting structure because it was built with the attempt not only to supply the necessary water to the town but also in order to decorate and to embellish it. The close relationship and interaction between natural elements and architectonic structures and this particular “territorial” scale of intervention made it necessary to prepare a detailed plan of survey but, above all, to have a new approach to the representation. The relevant area is surveyed in three dimensions; that is manufacturs are located in the three space coordinates and each of them is fixed according to the volume and in its main architectonic details. The result is that the model shows a perspective view, from any point in the space, the whole valley or part of it so that we can realize how complex the space is and be aware of its morphological and dimensional peculiarities. This formulation has a double aim: to represent the Upstream Works having at our disposal the dimensional and geometric information of the site; to create a complete support to the preservation state survey.