Abstract

This paper presents a comparative approach between a digital documentation workflow of a hyperbolic paraboloid heritage building using contemporary tools versus a traditional documentation technique. This documentation was undertaken to better understand the building’s structure, its evolution, and to assess the performance of this modern concrete structure for future seismic and damage analysis. Furthermore, this paper discusses the challenges related to producing a Heritage Building Information Model (HBIM) of this building using point cloud data in Autodesk’s Revit BIM-authoring software. This project states the importance of a parallel study between the traditional and the contemporary documentation methods; which led to discoveries about the current state of the extrados in the hyperbolic parabola after several earthquakes. Upon analyzing the HBIM and comparing it to the historical drawings, we discovered a gap between the moisture barrier membrane and the concrete shell. Visualizing the building in 3D provides a deeper and more accurate understanding of the currentstate of this pavilion and is one of many advantages of using digital technologies. The insights provided by digital documentation techniques and analyzing the historical images of the pavilion showed that the curvature of the pavilion had changed over time. The results that we found imply two hypotheses. First, the profile of the curvature had been modified due to earthquakes, and second that the modification was due to improper maintenance of the pavilion, namely, multiple additions of the membrane layers. This could not have been detected by solely relying on traditional documentation techniques.