With the help of modern technologies and 3D-scanning, experts are working to preserve the memory of the destroyed historical monuments of Ukraine during the war. One of them is a French volunteer engineer Emmanuel Durand. He helps a group of architects, engineers, historical construction experts and the director of the museum to register buildings in Kyiv, Lviv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv, writes Le Figaro.
Durand is working on the restoration of an architectural monument, a former red brick fire station in 1887 in Kharkiv. In late March, it was damaged by enemy shelling of the city. A video of his work was published by Euronews.
An engineer installs a laser scanner (similar to a rotating head tripod) in a strategically important corner of a severely damaged building. The device records the building from all sides.
“The scanner records 500,000 pixels per second. We will get 10 million pixels from this place. Then change the place and scan the whole building outside and inside. In total – a billion pixels, “he explains.
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Durand then summarizes all the data on a computer, collecting it like puzzle pieces, to then create a 3D model of the building. The result is a perfect reproduction of up to five millimeters, which can be rotated in any direction or cut into sections. You can even see holes in the walls from bullets and damage from explosive waves.
“It allows us to plan the building for the future. This can help us understand whether something that is important for security is damaged and see what can be restored and what cannot. It is also historically useful, ”he said.
In Kharkiv alone, about 500 buildings have historical architectural significance. According to architect Kateryna Kuplitska, a member of the organization that documents damaged historical and cultural heritage sites, most of them are located in the densely populated historic center of the city. According to her estimates, more than a hundred such buildings have been damaged so far.
For two days, Durand scanned the fire department. He is currently working on the building of the Faculty of Economics of the Karazin Kharkiv National University. The current version of the building was built in Soviet times by Serhiy Tymoshenko. It is called the father of modern Ukrainian architecture of the early twentieth century, and the building of the Faculty of Economics is one of the first reinforced concrete structures in the country.