From Image to Investigation 3D Reconstruction with Perspective Restitution

The memory of hundreds gone buildings is preserved by few photographic images. Perspective restitution with digital representation tools can be used today to reconstruct these buildings directly in 3D space. Digital representation has overcome many limitations that affected perspective restitution in the pre-digital era. In this paper the inner space of the church of San Michele in Trapani, destroyed at the end of the 50’, is reconstructed with the aid of three period photographic images. Some architectural elements that escaped destruction and are today located in a new church near Trapani have been surveyed with laser scanning and SfM photogrammetric techniques. Surveyed elements provided the metric information needed to scale the reconstruction model and to verify the accuracy of perspective restitution. SfM photogrammetric techniques have been furtherly used to generate and orient in 3D space a panoramic image of the survived elements in their present location; the image can be overlaid to the reconstruction model and thus display these elements in their original location inside the lost church.