Optical Documentation Techniques for Condition Assessment of Facades: A Tentative Evaluation of Three Case Studies Executed in Göteborg and Vienna

Abstract

A growing need for relevant information for long-term planning is a vital issue for the actors involved in management and maintenance of built heritage, as well as of built environments at large. Through its subsidiary companies, the publicly owned real estate and housing corporation Förvaltnings AB Framtiden, Inc., in Göteborg, Sweden, is administering 70,000 apartments. In Vienna, the Wiener Wohnen is an Austrian municipal housing corporation, administering 220,000 apartments. The dimensions of such building stocks indicate the relevance of user-friendly yet stringent methods for acquisition of valid information about types of construction, materials, and related issues of deterioration. A combination of existing and new methods for documentation and condition assessment of building facades, primarily based on optical techniques, has been designed and tested in accordance to the needed information indicated. This article reports on the outcome of three case studies comparing three methods for developing digital image, textured three-dimensional-models of existing buildings.

Keywords:

• long-term maintenance
• built environments
• built heritage
• facades
• documentation
• optical techniques

4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The following persons are gratefully acknowledged for their kind support and contribution: Managing Director Wolfgang Kippes, PhD, Schloss Schönbrunn, Vienna; Professor em. Dr. Peter Waldhäusl, Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, University of Technology Vienna; Dr. Gerhardt Forkert, Technical Director, Met Geo Info GmbH, Inc., Vienna; Dipl. Ing. Christian Sevcik, Met Geo Info GmbH, Inc., Vienna; Director of Technical Maintenance Johan Niklasson, Civil Engineer, Bostads AB Poseidon, Inc., Göteborg; Property Manager Michael Pirosanto, Civil Engineer, Bostads AB Gårdsten, Inc., Göteborg; Department Manager Sven-Olav Johansson, Civil Engineer Surveyor, Ramböll Sweden AB, Inc., Göteborg; and Department Director Gunnar Blide, Civil Engineer Surveyor; City Surveying Office, City of Göteborg.