Could Digital Twins support the conservation of historic assets?

[Guest]

Could Digital Twins support the conservation of historic assets? The team behind the restoration of Notre Dame seen to think so:

https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/a-digital-twin-for-notre-dame

[Guest]

It is certainly my view that Digital Twin's are an ideal way to support conservation works to historic buildings. We have now recorded all streetscapes within the mediaeval walls of Bath, and internally scanned a number of Grade I properties. We have been using the data to inform conservation plans, listed building applications, refurbishment proposals, tender docs, defect and structural remedials analysis, movement monitoring  etc. Much of our work thus far has been driven by specific technical need, but the opportunities for engagement and storytelling are enormous.

The main challenge is the scale of the data, and we would be interested in understanding the platforms others are using to host their twins.

Graham Lewis

Bath & North East Somerset Council

[Nicholas]

Hi Graham

Many thanks for your comment. The work you are doing with streetscapes, medieval walls and listed buildings sounds fascinating. It would be great to learn more about it - and if this feels like a twin (or something moving towards a twin) then I'd be happy to help you write about and share with this community. (I'm part of the facilitation team for the DT Hub).

Perhaps the question of platforms used to host twins is also another interesting topic for us to cover in future...

Thanks again, Nick Monnickendam 

[DRossiter87]

Hi Graham,

Thank you for this.  Interestingly (in my past life) I did a bit of work for the Houses of Parliament who told me about their point cloud for the Palace of Westminster.  Due to the density of points and the sheer size of the asset, the file was too large for anyone to open and interrogate.  At the time, they were using an external design consultant to resolve these issues. 

If you take @Nick up on his offer to write an article, I would be very interested to hear more about the decision process you went through around density, accuracy and frequency of collection to capture this information to support use cases.  I think that'll really help inform a discussion about suitable platforms.