Digital Records, Heritage Conservation and Post-earthquake Re-construction in Chile

Bernadette Devilat L., also known as Bernardita, is an assistant professor at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment of the University of Nottingham, part of the Architecture, Culture and Tectonics Research Group, where she teaches and leads research projects as Principal Investigator. She graduated as an Architect in Chile with a Master’s in Architecture at the Pontificia Universidad Católica, followed by a PhD in Architectural Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Her research includes critical and novel uses of accurate recording technologies – mainly 3D-laser-scanning – to conserve built heritage at risk with case studies in Chile and India. She co-founded the Tarapacá Project, created after the 2005 earthquake in Chile; and DLA Scan Architectural Studio with built projects in Chile. She has research and teaching experience at all the universities listed, and Nottingham Trent University. She has published, given guest keynotes and lectures, exhibited and presented her work internationally, and received prestigious awards.

It is easy, in countries where buildings can be expected to last for thousands of years if they are very well built and maintained with care, to believe that restoration back to the original is the be all and end all of preservation. But buildings of this nature are rare, and historical continuity over long periods to support continuous maintenance is close to non-existent. In addition, buildings are continually repurposed, and this will inevitably have an impact on their fabric.Chile, with highly active earthquake zones and a rapidly developing culture and economy, is a petri dish in which concepts of conservation can be exposed to extreme challenges, and this book is a really welcome, erudite, and significant contribution to the subject. As society moves forward, it is plausible to believe that in many cases, a complete record of past buildings will become more significant than the retention of a few of the actual buildings.Professor Stephen Gage, The bartlett School of Architecture, UCLRelics, remnants, and records are something of the past that remains in the present, thresholds of knowledge that signify possibilities of the future. Bernadette Devilat’s book is bringing a novel and much needed discussion on the nature, form, and urgency of records, memory in the digital age as some form of contemporary Noah’s Arch to interpret the past to preserve some form of future of architecture and built environment in general. She is offering care and cautions, erudition and innovation with what she calls re-construction to a field of practice often left in a hurry to measure success, evidence, and novelty. Across disaster studies, architecture and digital design, Bernadette Devilat’s book is a needed reading for all interested in an architecture of hope.Professor Camillo Boano, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy; and Development Planning Unit, London

• List of figuresList of abbreviationsAcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroductionSituating the argumentEarthquakes in ChileRe-construction and recordStructure of the bookChapter 1: Built heritage conservation1.1. A brief history of conservation1.1.1. Initial attempts1.1.2. Rome and beyond1.1.3. Middle Ages1.1.4. From the Renaissance1.1.5. The becoming of heritage1.2 Why conserve?1.2.1. Living heritage: tangible and intangible1.2.2. Sustainability and economic value1.2.3. Tourism1.2.4. Memory and the construction of history1.3 How to conserve?1.3.1. Concepts of intervention in built heritage1.3.2. Reconstruction and re-construction1.3.3. Time in built heritage restoration1.3.4. Continuous conservation1.3.5. Two intervention extremes1.4. Concluding remarksChapter 2: Recording heritage buildings2.1. Architectural representation, building and measuring2.1.1 Building as recording2.1.2. Architectural treatises2.1.3. Other records2.2. Surveying buildings2.2.1. Hand-measuring method2.2.2. Photography2.2.3. 3D imaging2.2.4. 3D scanning using projected light2.2.5. 3D-laser-scanning2.3. The rise of digital recording technologies2.3.1. Products from the 3D record2.3.2. Designing from the 3D scan data2.3.3. The paradox of the complete record2.3.4. Record and archive2.3.5. Continuous modelling and design2.3.6. Visual replica2.4. Concluding remarksChapter 3: Record and reconstruction in the face of destruction 3.1. Potential destruction3.1.1. The record3.1.2. Rebuilding as replica3.1.3. The paradox of the original3.2 Recording for re-construction3.2.1 Documenting to manage risk3.2.2 Post-destruction assessment and documen3.3 Post-earthquake intervention of heritage areas3.3.1 Building techniques in reconstruction and re-construction3.4. Concluding remarksChapter 4: Reconstruction of heritage areas in Chile4.1. Built heritage in Chile4.1.1. Continuous destruction because of earthquakes4.1.2 Heritage stance4.1.3. Recording heritage buildings4.1.4 Mitigation of heritage damage4.2. Case studies4.2.1. Two earthquakes4.2.2 Chilean heritage areas4.2.3. Tarapacá4.2.4. Zúñiga4.2.5. Lolol4.3. Reconstruction after earthquakes in Chile4.3.1. Emergency period4.3.2. Permanent housing4.3.3. Post-earthquake surveys4.3.4. 2005 Earthquake4.3.5. 2010 Earthquake4.4. Persisting challenges4.4.1. Emergency period4.4.2 Reconstruction process4.5. Concluding remarksChapter 5: The record5.1. Data capture on-site5.1.1. Documenting the built environment5.1.2. Inhabitants' perception5.2. Visualisation5.3 Limitations5.4 The record for analysis5.4.1. Post-earthquake surveys5.4.2 Architectural design, heritage elements and the sustainability of the new “heritage” dwellings5.4.3. The paradox of authentic reproduction5.5. Concluding remarksChapter 6: Re-construction alternative6.1. Documenting to mitigate risk6.1.1. Mitigation retrofitting6.1.2. Integrating inhabitants6.2. Designing from the record6.2.1. Time6.2.2 Spatial use: the inhabited record6.2.3 Sustainability and materiality6.3.2. Spatial use: the inhabited record6.3 Re-construction6.3.1 Tarapacá – memory6.3.2 Zúñiga – use6.3.3. Lolol – in-between6.4. Concluding remarksConclusionsMethodologyAs a post-earthquake documenting toolAs a basis for analysis and designGoing beyond the buildingsImplicationsNew Buildings for oldMitigation as conservationContinuous transformationProjectionsReferencesIndex