Digital architectural archives - public institutions, architecture museums, university institutes, private foundations, by their continue improvement of their interoperability, proficiency and efficiency, contribute to multiply access to information and to promote cultural dissemination at large scale. The expansive process of multidisciplinary knowledge, experienced in today digital environment, combined with the ability to synthetize and recognize new or hidden patterns for new disclosures, is becoming the major asset also for architectural study. Technology supports today's learning process by offering new tools and interactive devices while making learning experience deeper and more informal at the same time. The ongoing global trend of digitization of the architectural heritage, has extensive applications: as conversion of items in visual files, as resources management, as user interface and interaction design, and as multimedia platforms where, at different levels (for curators, designers, scholars, final users, as well as simple amateurs), a creative interpretation offers to set up links among contents, objects, images, texts, audio-videos, via notions and emotions, augmenting exponentially the network effects. Digital archives, upon layouts and filters, allow not only to run digital data flow, to better display their contents and exploit their value (input), but also to create fluent and dynamic links and aggregations, as visual and synthetic mind maps (output). The most diverse architectural institutions around the world rely more and more on digitization, improving accessibility to their collections by creating digital repositories and making them available on websites. The potential of open source databases and powerful research engines, when combined with the imaginative, creative thinking of the user, opens new horizons of interpretations for multiple narratives. Virtual catalogs embrace the extensive heterogeneity of architectural materials - sketches, drawings, writings, models, photographs, videos publications, maps - arranged by funds, topics, typologies, geographic references, recent acquisitions, highlights, revitalizing the whole creative process of conceiving and designing architecture, investigating the evolution of the representation techniques (pencil, pens, ink, prints, 3D renderings, etc.) and revealing the multiplicity of interests of architecture as a multifaceted discipline. The directors of Architecture institutions like MAXXI, NAI, RIBA, MoMA, CCA, etc., during the interviews conducted by the author express their intention of making their institutions websites new cultural hubs, offering the opportunity to entirely rethinking the collections. These websites allow an easier, more extended, access to scientific documentary heritage, as well as contents of the activity programs run through links, multiple pages and files, building connections upon categories, thematic pathways, semantic associations. Larger e-repositories like Europe Archive, Europeana, Google Art, etc., take into consideration international standards and collective strategies, providing unique access to digital contents of any kind of media. They are the result of major digital projects (ex. Michael and Gau:di) dedicated to enhance cultural heritage at the European scale, linking disciplines much beyond architecture. In Italy, at the national scale, Sistema di Archivi Nazionali (SAN), online since summer 2012, connects public and private architectural archives, whose contents are related through thematic categories such as partners, architects, projects and chronology in a comprehensive virtual gallery. As digital technologies applications evolve to better articulate the rich contents of the institutions - collections as well as activities, the implementation of extensive collaborative programs becomes more and more feasible, expanding and magnifying the cultural horizons of the architectural heritage enhancement. This study highli
展开▼
