Technology is everywhere today, and heritage architecture is no exception. And it’s quite fascinating to see how we’re using cutting edge technology to preserve, restore and display the UK’s historic buildings.
From the falling walls of ancient castles to the spires of old theatres, digital technologies are helping us preserve our heritage for posterity.
So let’s see how the industry is being changed by technology.
3D scanning – a game-changer for historic architecture
It helps conservators make precise digital models of buildings and objects. But they aren’t static photos, they are 3D representations that can be interrogated and analysed in ways that were unthinkable even 10 years ago.
Consider the recent excavations at York Minster, for instance. Experts had laser-scanned every inch of this Gothic masterpiece. This digital modelling isn’t for entertainment; it’s essential for determining the state of the building, planning restoration projects and even designing replacement components. Its precision works at its finest and without that technology, it would be a much harder thing to preserve such fine details.
The Past in Virtual Reality: Virtual Tours of the Future
Let’s move to virtual reality (VR), but not just for gamers and geeks. The future of heritage architecture has a strong education and engagement aspect. Let’s say you put on a VR headset and go walking around a building that in fact might be in the middle of some restoration or simply too dangerous for us to view.
The virtual reality tours have been developed for some of these notable sites, such as the Roman Baths in Bath. We can literally rewind in time to discover the Baths as they were during the Roman era – full of Roman citizens and lively. It is an experiential approach that also edifies and provokes interest and affinity towards the past.
Augmented Reality: A Nice Double-edged Sword
AR is another tech phenomenology that melds the physical world with the digital. While VR renders a realistic virtual world, AR imprints digital data on real things. It’s as if you’re reading a super handy, interactive guide book at your fingertips.
Take the Tower of London, for instance. Those who have an AR app are able to place their smartphone in certain locations on the Tower and get up-to-date historical details. The view enables them to see the characters of the past, to discover the locations of historical events, and to have a glimpse of life in the Tower centuries before. It’s an evolving form of making the visitor experience more engaging, without taking the built environment into consideration.
Photogrammetry: Detail at Large Scale
Photographic documentation and restoration of heritage properties has played a growing role for the technology, photogrammetry. It’s the process of photographing and measuring the fine point of spaces and things. With many photos from various perspectives, experts can make detailed 3D representations of buildings or artefacts.
For example, photogrammetry has been used at Hadrian’s Wall to record the precise extent of the wall’s present-day conservation. This model was not only preserved as a record but it also enabled analyses, and potential digital tourism, with people around the world having access to an extremely precise virtual representation of the site.
Building Information Modeling (BIM): Driving Management and Operation Enhancement
BIM is transformative for the care of heritage sites by establishing high-level virtual images with physical as well as functional features. BIM models are dynamic – they help architects and engineers to virtualise projects and anticipate effects, even before the actual intervention takes place.
One of the most notable uses of BIM is the rehabilitation of ancient buildings such as St Paul’s Cathedral in London. BIM allows you to capture the structure, down to the things you cannot see, like the wiring and supports. This standardised information also allows for efficient maintenance and restoration planning, with all updates being aesthetically faithful to the original designs.
Infrared Thermography: A Hidden Warped Secret?
The infrared thermography is another axe that’s turning out to be invaluable in preserving historical buildings. It detects the heating and cooling movement within a structure through infrared cameras that cannot be touched or broken to the fabric.
This technology has been applied to The Royal Pavilion in Brighton in particular, which has been reconstructed using it to identify places of loss of heat and wetness so as to have an idea of where you should be working to conserve. Through these fixes, conservation architects can prevent the damage in the long term without resorting to expensive, intrusive replacements, which over time save the building’s integrity.
Drones: Reaching the Unknown Making It Invisible
UAVs – unmanned aerial vehicles – are becoming an indispensable tool for mapping and monitoring heritage sites, particularly those large and complex. The drone can have cameras, scanners or other sensors on board to harvest information that conventional approaches would be inaccessible, lethal or otherwise unreachable.
For instance, the roofs and upper floors of castles and cathedrals in the UK, including Durham Cathedral, have been surveyed by drones to provide an eyewitness perspective on what cannot be observed at ground level. This technology not only assists in ensuring that heritage properties are regularly cared for and inspected, but also in producing adverts and education content for the sake of public participation.
New Methods Innovative Strategies
Or perhaps you’ve walked among the ruins of an old castle or abbey and wondered about the stories carved into its cracked stone? We can find such ruins in abundance in the UK, each one a beacon to the future, surviving through the centuries. But to sustain these giant slices of history isn’t as simple as stacking up old stones: it is a combination of veneration of the past and a little modern-day tech know-how. Let’s explore some of the new techniques that are giving these ruined monuments a new lease of life.
First, fixing these dated structures is of paramount importance. You can’t have the dust of the past blowing away every time the wind picks up. Even simple fixes such as mortar repairs aren’t always enough. Then came contemporary engineering that is almost antiquated in appearance. For example, stainless steel rods and grouts now generally support internal walls. It’s a bit like putting a new skeleton on these crumbling remains, sturdy but unremarkable, so they may last forever.
Consider the case of Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire. Engineers have used such techniques invisibly, so that time does not scratch the castle’s dominant presence against the horizon. The interference is too invisible for you to see, but it’s necessary to keep the structure on its feet, let it live a little longer.
Archival Files and Digital Sculptures Online Simulated Reconstructions
Then there’s digital, transforming the ways we inhabit and preserve past ruin. And thanks to laser scanning and photogrammetry, we can now see the finest of these structures rendered 3D. It’s this digital record that matters not only for preservation, but also for learning and scholarship as it serves as the foundation for virtual reconstructions, to be incorporated into live visitor encounters.
As if you put on a VR headset and strolled the reconstructed rooms of Tintagel Castle while Arthurian mythology played out all around you. This is not about collecting tourist dollars; it’s about keeping the past accessible and interesting, especially for the young generations who can be bored with boring old ruins.
This sustainability is a further focus of historical ruins conservation. Conservation practices increasingly turn to eco-friendly methods, whether in the form of locally sourced repairs or the adoption of green technologies in the upkeep of the sites. At Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, for instance conservation teams employ sustainable techniques to treat the surrounding landscape, as much part of the history as the ruins themselves.
Furthermore, natural and salvaged materials in supporting or repairing elements make interventions environmentally sustainable and aesthetically consistent with original structures. Architecture and nature both deserve this restitution of history.
But what brings new life into these ruins is community engagement. Across the UK, local volunteer organisations also help to maintain and restore these monuments. They aren’t savage volunteers, though: these are the protectors of local tradition with brushes and spades, and a passion for the history within the walls.
It isn’t just maintenance – guided tours, educational sessions, even re-enactments – that come to the foreground, these buildings are sites of activity. It’s human interaction that does actually re-invigorate these ruin, converting them from a hodgepodge to cultural life in the city.
Problems and Moral Questions
These technologies do not come easily, of course, when integrating into heritage buildings. And that’s the expense, first off, which can be prohibitive for many heritage sites that already lack funding for basic conservation. And then there’s the pedagogy, and specialist knowledge not only of technology but its use in historic preservation.
A tension also rages about the extent of technology adoption. It’s perfect for visiting and learning, but it also needs to do something without making it a sacrifice in what it actually feels like to be immersed in history. It’s a matter of finding the right middle ground, where those tools are complementary rather than distorting the heritage experience.
The Way Forward for Heritage Technology?
These technologies have led to an evolution in the way we restore and conserve heritage architecture. By blending historic techniques with cutting-edge technologies, conservation architects can both retain the physical materiality of old buildings while making them more usable and accessible to their users.
Such technologies promise to provide a more holistic and knowledge-driven approach to heritage architecture, where our old buildings won’t be left behind as archetypal things but tended as vital parts of our culture. The technological frontiers of possibilities in heritage conservation will only continue to broaden with the future of technology, and we’ll have yet more ways to save and appreciate our past places.
The possibilities for more technology being applied to heritage architecture are limitless as we progress. From predictive analytics that could tell us when structural failures are going to occur, to even more immersive AR and VR environments, the opportunities are just as numerous as they are exciting. It’s a very exciting time for heritage architects and for me it’s fascinating to see where it goes.
Our historic buildings exist in the present but, for us, they are always being positioned in the future. Online tools allow us to appreciate, understand and preserve our history in ways that previously constituted mere fantasy. And as we perfect these technologies, they’ll inevitably be employed more in heritage architecture so that our historic buildings remain not mere monuments but living and breathing parts of our heritage.
