From analog to digital Palladio: a project methodology

Between 2001 and 2003 the Department of Industrial Design, Arts, Communication and Fashion (INDACO) of Politecnico di Milano has joined the project Digital Palladio of the International Centre of Architectural Studies (CISA) Andrea Palladio of Vicenza, Italy, entirely financed by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage. The Vicenza State Archive, Bertoliana Library and Civic Museum were also involved. Goal of the project was the gathering, enhancement and accessibility of the whole of visual items (photographs, drawings, engravings, surveys, maps, archival materials) documenting the activity of the architect Andrea Palladio, using digital methodologies and tools. More than 33.000 items have been digitized and stored in the CISA, as a data base for future publishing, educational, exhibition and research activities. INDACO’s collaboration regarded the definition of methodologies for the digitization phase, their application and the operative activities coordination, entirely performed by a number of Vicenza institutions holding the documents to be digitized. The challenging research key-point has been the formation of a digital visual archive, specular to the real-world system, digitizable at low cost and by unqualified operators (typically architecture historians, archivists etc).