Marco Vitali

• Polytechnic University of Turin

The research was carried out in the framework of the project PRIN 2022 called INFORTREAT, which aimed to create 3D information models that could make accessible constructive knowledge related to military architecture to scholars, professionals, and the community. This paper develops previous work dealing with the graphical reconstruction and 3D mod...

Architecture archives constitute an invaluable source of knowledge and an essential pillar for scientific research dedicated to understanding architecture in all its nuances. This resource interests a wide spectrum of disciplines, including the history of architecture, conservation, design theory, and representation. In recent years, we have witnes...

This contribution follows previous research about the recognition and geometric and morphological analysis of more than 70 Baroque atria covered by unitary and complex vaults in Turin city centre, the digital survey, and the AR experiments aimed at the presentation of the research’s results. The current proposal aims to communicate, spread, share,...

This paper presents the activity carried out as part of the Ph.D. program in Architectural and Landscape Heritage at the Politecnico di Torino entitled “An Integral Approach to the Study of Fortifications”. A survey was conducted on a still-existing seventeenth-century portion of the fortifications of the city. The course included the organization...

The project is born from a research agreement between the Department of Architecture and Design of the Politecnico di Torino and the Municipality of Turin to realise an augmented reality simulation of Castello di Mirafiori and cultural accompaniment for citizens. The building and the gardens are documented by archival and bibliographical sources th...

This research is realised in the framework of a project recently funded as part of the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) in the Accessibility sector. The working team has been established in the framework of the scientific agreement between the Museum of Villa della Regina in Turin, the Department of Architecture and Design at Politecnic...

Galata, one of the oldest districts in Istanbul, still shows a historical and multi-layered urban texture. In 2019, within the “Urban Facade-Istanbul Waterfront” international workshop, a 3D laser scanner survey of Galata’s city walls was carried out. The raw data therein collected became the basis for a thesis in Architecture, as part of a joint r...

This contribution intends to propose the study, undertaken through digital representation tools, of an unrealized work by architect Sergio Hutter, active from the Second World War until the end of the last century. The analyzed design was proposed by Hutter for the international competition of the Euro-Kursaal in San Sebastian (Spain, 1964). The re...

Starting from the arguments that link the spaces for mixed use (public-private) of the noble palaces to the quality and decorum of the urban scene, we try here, on the basis of previous research on complex vaulted systems, to identify in the repertoire of Baroque buildings surveyed and found within the historical fabric of the city of Turin, some r...

The proposed research aims at a comparison of the main historical surveys conducted on the Porta Palatina by different authors, with the data of a current digital survey. Through a work of redrawing and superimposition of information deducted from historical drawings, the analysis will highlight the consistency, discrepancies and inconsistencies of...

This contribution intends to focus attention on the banded vault (‘a fascioni’) that characterizes the atrium of the Capris di Cigliè Palace in Turin, whose construction is dated around 1730 and is attributed to Gian Giacomo Plantery (1680–1756).The work of survey, analysis, interpretation and digital modeling has been organized in phases (detailed...

This contribution illustrates the results of research that aims to connect the workflow for knowledge – survey, interpretation, modeling – to the transmission of this knowledge and enhancement of Cultural Heritage by physical models, demonstrating its potential in a “Design for All” perspective. Palazzo Mazzonis, the current seat of the MAO (Museo...

This paper shows the results of research advances on complex vaulted systems produced by the integration of laser scanner survey techniques and three-dimensional modeling for the geometric interpretation of built architecture to recognizing the geometric matrices of the design conception. The integration between TLS techniques and digital modeling...

Nexus Network Journal guest editors Roberta Spallone and Marco Vitali introduce the papers in vol. 22 no. 4, a special issue dedicated to Complex Vaulted Systems.

Plastic models of military architecture: value of a cultural heritage to be preserved and enhanced in the digital ageThe contribution intends to bring to the attention of the scientific community the important Heritage made of plastic models, more or less homogeneously spread throughout Europe, which constitutes a patrimony of knowledge that links...

Este documento pretende presentar los primeros resultados de la digitalización y representar la Ciudadela de Turin, conservada en el Museo de Arte Histórico Nacional de la Ciudad de Turin. Esa puede ser la base (implementable) para la creación de rutas de museos virtuales. El objetivo es crear los soportes digitales adecuados útiles para una compar...

This paper presents the methodological framework set up for the analysis, interpretation, and representation of the banded vaulted systems recognized in eleven Baroque atria in Turin. In these atria, the banded vaults, locally named “a fascie”, are featured by a series of arches orthogonal to the perimeter walls on which they rest. The arches divid...

“New Technologies Aimed to Analysis and Conservation of Architectural Heritage” is the title of a research project in progress, which involves the research group supervised by prof. Spallone (Politecnico di Torino) and prof. López (Universitat Politècnica de València) winner of the call for "Stays of senior professors and researchers in foreign cen...

Complex Vaulted Systems: Geometry, Design, Construction is the title of PhD Excellence course promoted in 2019 by the PhD course in Architectural and Landscape Heritage of the Department of Architecture and Design and funded by the Doctoral School at Politecnico di Torino. The research on vaulted systems through descriptive geometry and new digital...

This contribution aims to present the first results of a work of digitization of the physical model representing the Citadel of Turin, preserved at the National Historical Artillery Museum of Turin. The aim is to constitute the appropriate digital supports useful for a more agile comparison with archival and historical sources, for the production o...

The present contribution proposes the study of the 'a fascioni' vaults, which derive from Guarini's experience, that characterized, between the seventeenth and eighteenth century, part of the baroque architectural production in Piedmont. Such unitary vaults are characterized by the subdivision, through twisted arches, of the intrados into regular f...

The present work focuses on the study of vaulted systems by Guarini, by virtue of the paradigmatic role that Guarini assumes in the field of studies dedicated to this topic. The research has been compared in-depth analysis aimed at connecting relevant data with archival drawings, historical studies and treatises in order to use digital representati...

The Extraordinario Libro by Sebastiano Serlio (Extraordinario Libro di Architettura, Per Giovan de Tournes, Lyon, 1551) contains 50 plates that represent models of portals (30 ‘rustic’ and 20 ‘delicate’). These portals are the results of the combination of the five orders’ elements—subject of Book IV (1537)—with rustic ornamentation. The portals th...

The object of the research is to recognize the application of the seven rectangular ratios described by Serlio in Book I on Geometry (1545) in the designs of the 24 villas presented in the Vienna Manuscript (Codex Ser. n. 2649 conserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, preparatory to his Book VII on Architecture published posthumously in...

Turin Baroque atria, characterized by complex vaulted systems, are a unique case in the architecture of the time. These atria have been realized with particular spatial schemes that present: unified spaces, absence of intermediate pillars, and composite vaults made of brickwork masonry. Three main types of vaulted systems established: the “star-sha...

This paper presents the most recent developments in a project aimed to the documentation, storage and dissemination of the cultural heritage. The subject of the project are more than 70 Baroque atria in Turin, recognized by critics for their particular unitary vaulted systems Our research team is currently working on digitizing documents and studyi...

The current contribute focuses on parametric digital modelling applied to Curioni’s studies in order to in depth analyze the relationships between vaulted surfaces and Geometry. Specifically, the research focuses on the investigation, interpretation and parametric modelling of the intersection between homogeneous surface classes for the definition...

In this chapter are developed some considerations about the heuristic potentialities of parametric digital modeling as a tool for analyzing and interpreting architectural heritage. Observed that the parametric thinking in architecture could be recognized almost from the origin, new parametric modeling software allows to verify the design criteria o...

The book "Palatium Vetus: The broletto recovered in the heart of Alessandria" is the theoretical, scientific and cognitive achievement of the complex restoration and enhancement, that have returned to the building its role of town prominent features, one of the main focal points of its architectural and urban history. The volume is presented as a r...

The practice of drawing always involves a process of interpretation and analysis, knowledge and synthesis, structured in relation to educational aims and methods involved. In this paper we intend to make some disciplinary remarks on the teaching of “Fundamentals and applications of Descriptive Geometry” for the “Laboratory of Representation of the...

This contribution arises from the interest (on the themes of semiotics and communication of architecture, even in its deep meanings) derived from studies and comparisons with Renato De Fusco, Maria Luisa Scalvini, Pio Luigi Brusasco, Pier Tosoni, Alberto Borghini. A question has been confirmed: what can be the meanings of architecture, especially i...

In the baroque Turin it is possible to identify routes aimed to discover atria of palaces and houses, freely accessible, whose unitary vaulted systems made of brickworks show an admirable combination of geometry and architecture, making them a case of interest in architectural history (Callet & Lesueurs 1855, Norberg Schultz 1980) for quality, quan...

Between the end of the 17th century and early eighteenth centuries Guarino Guarini and Gian Giacomo Plantery produced a revolution in the way vaulted systems for atria of palaces in Turin were conceived. ‘Star-shaped’ and ‘planterian’ vaults created a new trend that would persist for nearly sixty years. The wide-spread use and variety of planterian...

The book "Palatium Vetus: The broletto recovered in the heart of Alessandria" is the theoretical, scientific and cognitive achievement of the complex restoration and enhancement, that have returned to the building its role of town prominent features, one of the main focal points of its architectural and urban history. The volume is presented as a r...

The aim of the research is to better integrate survey instruments, methods and graphic representation tools. They have been compared studying two similar courtyards in the City of Turin: the courtyard of the University Of Turin belonging to the first baroque enlargement of the City (XVII century), and the courtyard of the Seminario Arcivescovile, s...

The birth in Roman times, the development in the Baroque season and the massive Napoleonic demolition of the fortified wall of Turin constitute the phases of an event still clearly readable in the current urban fabric of the historical city center: the extant elements, even if portions of a highly fragmented layout, are punctual statements of an ar...

The present research, concerning Plantery's vaults in Turin, connects different questions related to their geometric shape referred to architectural culture, centering and building methods used in masonry structures, decorative styles at that time. Survey works and representation by 3D digital modelling allow formulating different geometrical hypot...

Plantery's vaults, by the name of the architect working in Turin since first years of '700, are composed by a main vault intersected by some axial and angular secondary vaults. Plantery's vaults allow to roof over unitary spaces obtaining effects of lightness also by small rises. Their diffusion, up to the '80s of the century, in boardrooms as pala...

This paper describes an experience of survey (baroque church of San Giovanni Decollato in Turin-Italy) that focused on the search for a useful integration of several techniques in a digital data stream from data capture to the final model. In order to respect the scheduled time and constraints, the project is characterized by: a) the use of differe...

Within the historical urban fabric of Turin, the Porta Palatina is the most conspicuous part of the Roman boundary walls and towers still preserved: the research proposes the analysis of an architectural monument that belongs to the cultural heritage buildings, linking integrated survey techniques and representation methods. This work starts from S...