Digital 3D reconstruction as tool for architectural history research

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Sander Münster
• Subject Area: Art History
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 395536813

In architectural research, digital 3D reconstructions have been used for more than 30 years as knowledge bearers, research tools and display media. On the one hand, the number of digital reconstructions has steadily increased during the past years. On the other hand, these have very different technical, graphical and contentual qualities. In addition, neither the development process nor the quality of the underlying research work is made transparent in most cases. While a diversity of models and tools is desirable not least due to the plurality of questions examined, the question for criteria and aproaches arises, to assess and validate the use of tools and results.In view of this, the use of methods of digital reconstruction in architectural history research has always been ambivalent. Impressive application examples and research potentials are opposed by highly legitimate scientific-methodological reservations and desiderata. Accordingly, the goal of the scientific network "Digital 3D Reconstructions as Architectural-Historical Research" is to investigate digital reconstructions in the context of the architectural history and from the perspective of embedding in scientific contexts. The concrete question is: How can digital reconstruction methods be validated as scientific tools in the context of architectural research?Initial question complexes were developed with the participation of about 30 scientists at the end of 2014 in a workshop of the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Digitale Rekonstruktion des Digital Humanities in German-speaking countries (DhD) e.V.". The participants in the network are concerned with six meetings with the following topics:• Location and systematization as a research tool• Scientific-critical methodological understanding• Documentation of the reconstruction process and result• Presentation and discussion• Standards and guidelinesThe results are incorporated into a jointly developed "manual of scientific digital 3D reconstruction".

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks