Published 2025-12-23
Keywords
- Architectural Survey,
- Cultural Heritage,
- Palimpsest,
- Architectural Order,
- Critical Interpretation
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2025 Matteo Bigongiari
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
This paper dialogues with the traditional historiographical reading of the Laurentian Complex, seeking to complement the established studies on the abstract modular Order by focusing on its material implementation. The essay advances the thesis that the Laurentian site – defined by pre-existing structures and a complex "piecemeal" evolution – is a "palimpsest" whose current form is the result of a continuous process of material adaptation.
The Renaissance "module" is framed not as a rigid grid, but as an ideal norm (regula) constantly mediated by constructional practice (facture) and the inevitable in situ adaptations. This essay presents a "knowledge project" based on an integrated digital survey (TLS, GNSS, UAV). This apparatus is not aimed at a purely abstract verification of the module, but rather at scientifically measuring the discrepancy between the ideal norm and the reality of the construction site. The unified metric infrastructure allows, for the first time, for the mapping of three-dimensional discontinuities. This approach quantifies the structural and altimetric differences between the foundations, the transept of the first phase, and the subsequently built nave, as well as the physical constraints of pre-existing elements. This process transforms the Survey from a documentary act into a hermeneutic investigation. The Drawing (Representation) thus becomes the critical synthesis that "puts in order" the palimpsest, making legible the complex stratification of adaptation, which constitutes the material realisation of the Order on the site.
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