Survey and representation laboratory

The Laboratory of Surveying and Representation operates as a research structure in the sector of Drawing and Surveying, also offering support to the teaching activities of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture through courses, theses and internships.

The Laboratory's activity focuses on the detection and representation of realities at different scales, from sculptural to architectural, urban and environmental, aimed at volumetric understanding, the analysis of the laws that govern the formal and relational structure, as well as the potential and critical issues, also through non-continuous monitoring operations.

From a teaching perspective, the Laboratory is a space for critical-operational sharing between teachers, researchers and students where the use of different survey methodologies, from the most traditional to the most advanced, and their integration become an opportunity for experimentation aimed at evaluating and recognizing the most appropriate techniques in relation to the object surveyed and the contribution that each of these methodologies contributes to offering to the construction of its documentary heritage. Ample space is also reserved for the field of prototyping, with reverse modelling techniques, through digital modelling and 3D printing, a topic of particular interest for the student and scientific community, as can be seen from the large number of degree theses on the topic and the practical applications in various funded research projects, currently underway.
The integrated use of innovative techniques and instruments in charge of the Laboratory, in fact, has the aim of building ad hoc digital models of interpretation and consultation, fundamental in the current processes of knowledge, communication and valorization of the investigated realities, as well as an essential tool for supporting and verifying the design process, but also for recognizing and interpreting possible deviations and/or deformations between the detected object and its geometric-design correspondent. The Laboratory provides, thanks to its highly specialized personnel and the modern instruments it uses, fundamental transversal support to many of the research, prototyping, documentation and functional activities for building processes in general, internal and external to the University of Enna Kore, also carrying out activities on behalf of third parties.

The research activity has as its constant objective the exploration of themes and contents related to the area of Representation:

the urban, architectural, archaeological heritage and territorial realities survey, carried out by critically integrating traditional methods with topographic instruments and advanced photogrammetric and 3D laser scanning techniques; the graphic analysis and representation through graphic models, CAD or GIS, plastic and virtual, intended as essential tools for investigation and knowledge of the complexity of reality, and for verification and validation, step by step, of the design transformation hypotheses.

The desired goal is not only knowledge in itself, but the democratic diffusion of that process of "adequate knowledge, understood in a complex sense, capable of grafting that symbiosis between cultural development and economic development that […] becomes fundamental to insert a territory, however well-known and emblematic, into a vital circuit that must be self-sustaining" (Valenti R. 2011); a vital circuit that can be triggered only by spreading new profitable relationships of interaction between operators and users of the territory, as hoped for by the current directives for the support of research and sustainable development, which promote ideas and projects aimed at the creation of smart cities and smart communities, or characterised by the application of new information and communication technologies in order to improve the governance, management and use, sensitive and sustainable, of goods and services.
The Laboratory carries out teaching and research activities for students during internships, degree theses and doctoral research.
The Laboratory of Survey and Representation has carried out its activity within the framework of several funded research projects, in which the University of Enna Kore has been partner or leader, in particular:

• Project "PRISMA – Interoperable cloud platforms for SMArt-government", (duration 32 months) financed under the National Operational Programme PON Research and Competitiveness 2007-2013 for the Convergence Regions – Axis II "Support for innovation", Project code: PON04a2_A/5, CUP: J71H12000020005;
• Project "SINAPSIS- National System for the Protection of Sensitive Sites", (duration 36 months) financed under the National Operational Programme PON Research and Competitiveness 2007-2013 – Action II "Interventions to support industrial research", project code PON01_01063;
• MARTE Project – Remotely controlled aircraft for the detection of the Territory", (duration 39 months) financed under the Intervention Line 4.1.1.1 of the POR FESR Sicily 2007-2013 – Actions to Support Research and Experimental Development Activities, Department of Productive Activities of the Sicilian Region, Department of Productive Activities, (DDS n. 3413/3 of 04 August 2011;
• Project ARS01_00926 "eWAS – An early warning system for cultural heritage" (duration 36 months) funded by MIUR – PON RESEARCH & INNOVATION 2014-2020 pursuant to notice no. 1735 of 13 July 2017, "Industrial Research and Experimental Development Projects in the 12 areas of Specialization identified by the PNR 2015-2020";
• Project ARS01_00158 "TARGETED TOPICS – Innovative Technologies and Models for Risk Mitigation in Critical Infrastructures" (duration 36 months) funded by MIUR pursuant to notice nn1735/Ric. of 13 July 2017, "Industrial Research and Experimental Development Projects in the 12 areas of Specialization identified by the PNR 2015-2020.

Research agreements have been activated with:

• University of Catania, agreement entitled "The Baroque Domes of Catania: Geometric-Architectural and Technical-Construction Analysis";
• University of Catania, agreement entitled "Multidisciplinary investigations on the Roman architecture of Eastern Sicily";
• Regional Museum Service of the Roman Villa of Casale in Piazza Armerina, for scientific collaboration activities pursuant to the coordinated text of the Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code;
• Archaeological Park of the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento, for scientific collaboration activities pursuant to the coordinated text of the Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code;
• Leonardo Solutions srl, for collaboration in experimental research activities in the field of interventions and techniques for the restoration of walls affected by capillary rising damp;
• "Centre for The Study of Ancient Sicily", University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada), and University of Catania, for "Agreement of Cooperation and Protocol for International Scientific Research;
• Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas of Bari and the Municipality of Nicosia, agreement for technical-scientific consultancy activities aimed at creating a digital platform for the knowledge, virtual use and valorization of the Painted Wooden Ceiling of the Cathedral Church of Nicosia.

A one-year research grant was funded by FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano – for the development of the program of survey and digital representation of the Garden of Kolymbethra, in the Park of the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento.
Over the years, the Laboratory has participated in archaeological survey campaigns at the sites of Piazza Armerina, Megara Hyblaea, Gerace, Agrigento, while several surveys on an urban-architectural scale, with particular reference to the system of Sicilian castles, have been carried out at the sites of Aci Castello, Maletto, Nicosia, Forza d'Agro, Paternò.