Stefano COLUMBU1 / Giorgio VERDIANI2
(1 Dept. Scienze della Terra, Facoltà di Scienze Matematiche Fisiche e Naturali, Università di Cagliari, Italy / 2Dept. Architettura Disegno Storia Progetto, Facoltà di Architettura, Università degli studi di Firenze, Italy)
Outline: Inside the Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, it is possible to read multiple networks aimed to create systems for moving people and supplies, to create spectacular spaces, to give welfare and security to the court and to the people living in this urban scale monument. The reading of these networks sometimes is not easy, but the main idea in this project is to start from the small evidences in the single buildings, find rules and solutions to combine them into a global digital survey based on a 3D digital model and then start using this model for the formulation of some hypothesis. The evidences will come from the analysis of the materials (stones, mortars, concretes, bricks) and from the architectonic shapes study. Combining these two parallel paths into the rich digital survey of the area gathered by the “Dipartimento di Architettura” since 2004 it becomes possible to create a multi-level environment aimed to be shared by scholars from different branches to start their analysis
Abstract: The Hadrian’s Villa is a luxurious residence from the Roman Imperial Age, over time it was a laboratory for architectural and artistic creativity, where technological and architectonical innovations were experimented to create an enviroment characterized by advanced urban and technical solutions. This is also due to the Hadrian interest about architecture showing a particular fondness for the dome structures. The great efforts made in experimentation has caused many time the need to rethink some buildings and to reinvent solutions. The ruins of the Villa were carefully surveyed with digital tools starting from 2004, and now it’s possible to use this large scale survey as the base for further collaborations and experimentation. The study of single elements characteristics is here the base for start developing some new hypothesis, starting from the geometric shape of some main architectural parts and from the materials used to build this monument. The work will start from the baths network, where three important building, like the Heliocaminus, the Small and the Great Baths, were erected. Through a petrophysical study of materials, the macroscopic analyses data of structure wall textures, all linked to the 3D digital documentation based on the use of laser scanner technologies, it’s possible to reconstruct the construction stages of the ancient baths. The petrographic, mineralogical and chemical characterization of the wall and floor mortars and concretes and their physical properties (total and open porosity, real and apparent density, mechanical strength, aggregate granulometry, binder/aggregate ratio, etc.) allowed to classify the function and the compositional variations of the same within the structure of the thermae. In parallel to this the study of the architectural shapes, starting from the accurate digital survey, allowed to identify geometric constructions, with variable and constants in the architectural choices, tracing some interesting paths in the deep knowledge of this monument.
Keywords: Roman baths, Stones, Petrophysical, Laserscan, 3D modelling