HBIM and matching techniques: considerations for late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century buildings

Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM) is limited by the irrelevance of object libraries and the inability of 3D scans to determine structures in buildings of dissimilar age and construction. The potential for energy conscious initiatives to make informed judgments regarding the ‘deep renovation’ of traditional buildings requires development of better non-invasive appraisal methods. Presumptions are dangerous for the majority of forms of historic building construction, yet older buildings benefit from better statutory control against alteration in any event. Here it is proposed that the pre-existing standard methods of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century construction could improve capacity to build data for a significant number of buildings of that era. The matching of images to develop place recognition algorithms has been deployed in a number of contexts. Standards, Patents and Specifications provide the means for developing new object libraries nested and shared from the surface to the structure. The example of decorative finishes, commonly used in public buildings at the turn of the twentieth century, demonstrates a traceable route whereby classifications could be determined using historic specifications and product data. The wider potential for such groundwork to enhance capacity to model energy performance of these less well protected buildings is suggested.