Observations on the historic documentation process /
Documentation is a critically important step in understanding any cultural artifact. In architecture, the rehabilitation and adaptive re-use of structures can lead to the loss of important architectural details. Also, fragile structures that are historically significant but deteriorating need to be...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
2000.
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Link to OAKTrust copy |
| Summary: | Documentation is a critically important step in understanding any cultural artifact. In architecture, the rehabilitation and adaptive re-use of structures can lead to the loss of important architectural details. Also, fragile structures that are historically significant but deteriorating need to be documented and stabilized. Historic documentation teaches architects, historians and archeologists to identify the significant historic features of manmade structures. The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) is the primary collection of measured drawings and histories of historic structures in the United States. The majority of HABS work is carried out in summer projects with architecture students at American universities. One concern with this arrangement is the short amount of time available to train new teams of documentors each year. Time in the field and in production of architectural drawings must be spent efficiently. Therefore it is vital to establish the important skills of successful documentation projects, and ensure those skills are being taught in the HABS project environment. A second challenge is the changing nature of documentation technology. New equipment may promise improved accuracy over traditional techniques, but there may be a higher overall investment of time. While the field documentation phase may go more quickly, the production phase may take longer to distill the greater amount of data into HABS-quality drawings. Today new technology and equipment are used to construct accurate virtual models and representations of buildings. Effective instruction in these technologies, as well as the traditional methods of documentation, is critical to the success of a documentation project. In the field, the documentation team must understand and recognize useful information, and then record it in an efficient manner. The data must then be organized in the laboratory under controlled circumstances, to exacting graphic standards. A successful documentation team possesses a good understanding of the scope of their project so they can gather and process data, good organizational skills to work efficiently in the field and in production of the finished work of the project, and good communication among themselves and with professionals and experts to produce documentation that meets HABS standards. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | "Major subject: Architecture". Vita. |
| Physical Description: | ix, 60 leaves : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm. Also available online. Issued also on microfiche from Lange Micrographics. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-59). |