This undated photo shows the garden villas at 100 Wukang Road in Shanghai's Xuhui district. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)
Technology normally signals change, but it can also safeguard history by preserving architectural heritage.
The garden villas at 100 Wukang Road in Shanghai's Xuhui district are proof of that. With the villas' pebble-textured facades, doors and windows framed by red bricks and exquisite interior decorations like wooden stair handrails, visitors could be forgiven for believing they are too well-preserved to have been built more than a century ago.
Covering 2,450 square meters, the villas were built in 1918 as staff apartments for a US petroleum company and were then turned into homes for Shanghai residents after 1949.
In 2016, they were included in one of several architectural heritage preservation projects launched by the city. The project was completed last year and the villas are now guesthouses.
Modern techniques, including 3D laser scanning and Building Information Modeling solutions, are used to preserve architectural heritage
Despite damage due to neglect and the ravages of time, they were preserved thanks to modern techniques including 3D laser scanning and Building Information Modeling solutions.
Lasers scanned every centimeter of the villas, inside and out, to obtain data on such fine details as cracks or termite damage to help the architects come up with a preservation solution. BIM serves as a platform for storing the digitized information and real-time monitoring and can also be used by architects to simulate restoration.
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3D laser scanning and Building Information Modeling solutions are advanced architecture preservation technology used globally in recent years, according to Shen Xiaoming, chief architect at Shanghai HNA Architects, which was in charge of the restoration of the villas.
"To restore the heritage to the greatest extent, we preserved some original parts and replicated the others, which relied on accurate analysis of the heritage," Shen said.
"Modern techniques enhance the precision of the process, boost its efficiency and help avoid dangerous situations in restoration."
For example, traditional surveying uses rulers and laser range finders to find the height of each point of a structure, and architects then use software to make two-dimensional drawings. Most rely on experience.
"You have to admit it may cause omissions," Shen said. "The problem can be solved when the process is aided by technology."
In the case of the villas, the laser scanning was able to show how much of the carved floral decoration on the wooden handrails of the stairs was damaged or missing.
"We don't have to count. We can easily tell the replicated ones from the originals based on the data in the BIM system," he said.
Covering 2,450 square meters, the garden villas at 100 Wukang Road in Shanghai's Xuhui district were built in 1918 as staff apartments for a US petroleum company and were then turned into homes for Shanghai residents after 1949. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)
Heritage preservation
As the world heads toward a digital future, China has been promoting the use of digital and information technology to preserve cultural heritage.
"We treasure the value of architectural heritage, such as its historical, artistic and economic value," said Cao Yongkang, director of the International Research Center for Architectural Heritage Conservation at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
"The traditional preservation approaches, mainly depending on manual work and incomplete historical data, seem to be inefficient, while technology makes preservation more scientific."
Modern techniques enhance the precision of the process, boost its efficiency and help avoid dangerous situations in restoration.
Shen Xiaoming, Chief architect at Shanghai HNA Architects
Drone aerial photogrammetry, a technique used to update maps of historical buildings, has been used in collecting data on the historical area at Xida Street in Jiading district. The map, with real-time geographic information, provides the possibility of establishing a historical building database.
The geographic information system, a framework for gathering, managing and analyzing spatial data, is utilized in the management of the East Siwenli area－a cluster of buildings in Jing'an district dating back to the mid-19th century known as shikumen, a Shanghai architectural style featuring Western and Chinese elements.
Building and environmental elements, covering windows and pillars, are classified and numbered in the system, forming an online management platform.
Based on big data, an experimental platform has been developed for the digital management of 4,000 immovable cultural relics in Shanghai.
Cao said digital and information technologies have been applied in around 20 percent of the city's architectural heritage preservation projects.
"It will likely cover the vast majority of projects in the future," he said.
Key challenges
But the relatively low rate of using these smart tools in the industry nevertheless points to some key challenges. Shen said a major one is the high cost.
Digital and information technologies are said to have been applied in around 20 percent of the city's architectural heritage preservation projects
"The construction industry is already highly integrated and standardized, meaning that material suppliers, for instance, provide standardized components and materials. Each item of architectural heritage, in contrast, has distinct features," Shen said.
"Once the most accurate preservation models are generated by the BIM system, the burden on construction teams will surge in order to manufacture exactly the same components, which involves more investment, more time and higher labor costs.
"However, the resources for a project are normally limited. Architectural heritage preservation requires more extensive support and attention from society."
Wang Xiaobing, manager of Shanghai-based Jiangfan Technology, said the city is exploring the application of the internet of things in the preservation of architectural heritage, connecting data acquired from sensors and other devices to the internet to enable the exchange of information.
The company, in cooperation with the local government, is in charge of preservation work in Songjiang district on architectural heritage such as the Square Tower－a pagoda built during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
"Standards for utilizing technology in protection in different regions should be set up based on factors such the location and climate," he said.
