Capturing a Cabinet of Curiosities: 3D Scanning a Building Heritage Collection

The use of 3D technologies in architectural research has long centred on capturing building sites and structures, however at the University of Melbourne a unique collection of heritage building materials has been the focus of an ambitious 3D scanning project. Conceived by Naomi Mullumby in collaboration with the Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage, the project team consisted of University staff and professionals with architectural backgrounds. Ben Waters and Belinda Yang of S-I projects undertook the 3d scans and Meher Bahl from Restore Conservation Services created the metadata, videos and forthcoming website. The objects in the Heritage Building Materials collection were accumulated by Professor Miles Lewis during his professional career and donated by him to the Architecture, Building and Planning (ABP) Faculty (Fig. 1). The collection consists of over 300 objects ranging from small nails to large iron roofing sheets, categorised under five broad headings: bricks, cement & plaster, ironmongery, decorative finishes and roofing. These objects were collected by Lewis or were gifted to him by his colleagues and students. The physical objects have been used to complement teaching of built heritage within the Faculty where they enable students to gain an understanding of the evolution of construction materials and their use in Australia, and of global influences on Australian architectural methods. The physical objects are held in glass cabinets within the Faculty, with limited curation, visibility and accessibility (Fig. 2). Their digitisation as 3D objects, with highly descriptive metadata and accompanying video interviews with Lewis, has been significant in opening up a specialised and largely unknown collection to a potentially global audience of researchers who can now visually interrogate the objects and understand their historical and environmental context.