The digital transmission of heritage values: lessons from the absent, the fragmentary and the ever-changing.

Heritage evaluation and digitization of heritage are two research axes of the DIVA group (University of Liege, Belgium (1)). At the convergence of these two fields lies the question of how far digital tools can transmit the heritage values, material and immaterial, of a property. Unfortunately, this question remains little studied today: while the use of digital survey techniques (LiDAR, photogrammetry) are almost generalized for the documentation of the heritage (upstream of a project), and that increasingly sophisticated technologies allow the communication of this heritage, once the project is completed, our research considers the structural integration of some of these digital tools as complementary processes to the acts of conservation, restoration or reconversion, which may change the scale or nature of these acts. To illustrate the questions raised by this ongoing research, we will use three complementary case studies: the Hotel Rigo, a building now demolished (Liège, Belgium), the Hotel Aubecq, a masterpiece by Victor Horta, now preserved in a fragmentary state (Brussels, Belgium) (2), and the Abode of Chaos, a threatened atypical and evolving site mixing architecture and artworks (Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d’Or), in France (3). When confronted with the typology of values proposed in 2016 by H. Fredheim and M. Khalaf (4), each of these cases poses specific challenges regarding the transmission and even safeguard of these values. This paper will present the methodological avenues we have identified to integrate digital techniques as integral components of valorization projects.

(1) https://www.diva.uliege.be
(2) P. Hallot & C. Houbart, « May digital reconstruction tools help preserving the material and evocative value of fragments? The case of Victor Horta’s Hôtel Aubecq in Brussels », in Das Fragment im Digitalen Zeitalter. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen neuer Techniken in der Restaurierung. Proceedings of the interdisciplinary conference of the HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen in cooperation with ICOMOS AG Konservierung-Restaurierung and the Verband der Restauratoren e. V., May 7-8, 2021 in Hildesheim, Schriften des Hornemann Instituts, 21, p. 107-123.
(3) https://www.demeureduchaos.com ; C. Houbart & M. Verbeeck, « The Abode of Chaos: a Refreshing Challenge for Conservation Theory and Practice », in ICOM-CC Modern Materials - Contemporary Art Newsletter, 12, Triennium 2021-23, p. 27-28.
(4) L. Harald Fredheim & Manal Khalaf, « The significance of values: heritage value typologies re-examined », in International Journal of Heritage Studies, 22, no. 6, 2 July 2016, p. 466-481.