Computer graphics for building archaeology: An interdisciplinary approach for conservation of Brazilian cultural assets

This article presents an experience in São Paulo, Brazil, conducted on a historical house with more than 120 years with different kind of alterations (morphological and ambient decorations), difficult to explain to the common visitor. Acknowledged as an important city heritage, related to Italian immigration history in São Paulo, it´s today a university house dedicated to heritage research and education. Because of its importance as also a research centre, it´s a national reference on methodological studies on building archaeology, with more than 20 years of stratigraphical studies for the conservation of its multi-layered mural paintings and procedures for identification of architectural chronology. Today, it holds an important database of photographs, drawings and paper documents about the building that should be available to a general public and to specialized scientists. Because of these very different groups to address to, computer graphics were a tool that sought to combine database organization needs, documentation of in situ reconstructions of general ambiances and representation discussions on heritage studies, being aware of historical, archaeological and scientific restoration approaches towards the building. With these premises, it was possible to understand that, independently of the tools used, any geometric model should be a critical synthesis that must turn possible, for the common viewer or for the expert, to clarify and analyze scientifically the fabric that is being represented, the true reality of the architectural “document” that matters as heritage itself.