3D preservation of buildings - Reconstructing the past

The digital reconstruction of buildings is a hot topic in many fields, such as archeology, architecture, civil engineering, computer vision, computer graphics, surveying, photogrammetry and many more. A variety of approaches has been developed and is currently used, in parallel and independent from each other. This paper will bridge the gap between architectural computer graphics using just photos and photogrammetry and laser scanning, which uses digital imagery to get high density coloured point clouds for 3D modelling. It starts with the workflow of laser scanning and photogrammetry and finally delivers 3D Virtual Reality models of buildings. On the other hand, those buildings can be augmented with 3D models reconstructed from old photos using architectural computer graphics to reconstruct the past. The validation and the automation of workflows brings together both disciplines, which will definitely benefit from each other.