A Collective Reconstruction.
PhD project of Beatrice Vaienti.
This thesis aims to develop a novel structure and pipeline for the 4D reconstruction of cities in the past, considering Jerusalem between 1840 and 1940 as a case study.
This historical moment represents a time of profound transformation for Jerusalem, characterised by high population growth and urban expansion outside the walls, making it a particularly interesting period to reconstruct the city’s urban development. However, linguistic complexity, conflicting narratives, and the difficulty of accessing primary sources require a new approach to a complete reconstruction of the city’s evolution.
The reconstruction process must evolve from a linear individual pipeline to a collaborative, continuous flow process. In other words, the 4D model must become a shared geodatabase whose 3D geometry is dynamically regenerated whenever geometric information changes, using procedural modeling modules. Furthermore, in order to foster collaboration, this incremental and collective 4D modelling must also be scientifically sound and incorporate additional metadata, paradata, and non-geometric information.
The envisaged structure will be designed from a subset of the city. It will then be tested in the community to get feedback and draw conclusions about its implementation. This work, which is part of the EPFLGlobaLeaders Fellowship program, will ultimately aim to answer methodological and historiographic questions related to the possibility of promoting the use of local sources through crowdsourcing of 3D geodatabases of cities from the past.