Andrea LEONARDI1 | Stéphane GIRAUDEAU1 | Teresa GIL PIQUERAS2
(1Dipartimento di Architettura, Florence University, Italy | 2Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain)

Abstract:
The system of the towers along the Mediterranean coast is a specific and well planned network working in the same way in different countries and defending them from the pirates. Starting from the XIX century, the gradual resolution of this menace has reduced or cancelled the need for many of these fortifications and people started to consider them in different ways, sometimes demolishing them, sometimes using them for housing or other urban use. The case study presented here, the so called “Torrenostra” (“our tower”) in Torreblanca, shows the peculiar aspect of being included as a part of a block of houses. The environment around the tower has seen significant changes, the seaside extended, the tower transformed by its new users. After a recent restoration the tower shows itself as probably it was in its original condition if not for its totally decontextualized condition and the “not so easy” connection to the contiguous houses. In the occasion of the research project TOVIVA “Torres de vigía y defensa del litoral valenciano. Generación de metadatos y modelos 3D para su interpretación y efectiva puesta en valor”, (funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitivity MINECO, Spain, reference HAR2013-41859-P) this tower has been digitally surveyed using 3D laser scanner and terrestrial and aerial photogrammetry (using a drone). This poster will present the main characteristics of the documentation work and the processing of the data aimed to reread the original context of the tower and how to present it to local inhabitants, visitors and tourists bringing back suggestions about the original role and features of the tower in its original territorial and historical environment. At the same time, the significant rule of the tower as determinant element in the urban plot will be underlined.

Keywords: Coastal towers; digital survey; urban pattern; Mediterranean; military architecture