UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

04/15/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/15/2021 07:38

60,000 images to save Beirut's architectural heritage

Carrying out a precise documentation - down to the millimeter - of the destruction of Beirut's cultural and architectural heritage after the double explosion of the 4th of August, 2020: this is the colossal bet launched by UNESCO to come to the rescue of the city and its historic buildings, many of which date back to the days of the French Mandate and Ottoman times. Financed by the UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund (HEF), the documentation project launched in September 2020 was carried out by the French start-up ICONEM, in close partnership with the General Directorate of Antiquities (DGA) in Lebanon, and as part of UNESCO's flagship action plan, Li Beirut. An emergency documentation which should lead to the realization of a three-dimensional geo-referenced model of the Lebanese capital, and which would be crucial on many levels in the process of rebuilding the capital.

'Making a 3D model is like creating a digital twin of reality, with all the textures and damage,' explains Joe Kallas, architect restorer specializing in 3D documentation of monuments and historic sites, and in charge of the project with ICONEM. This model will preserve the city in its current situation in case further damage occurs, since the reconstruction process will be quite slow. It also facilitates all assessments and structural analysis reports for architects when they approach the reconstruction works at a later stage. In fact, this documentation speeds up all operations.'

To complete this tedious project, it took over an hour to record each GPS point and obtain precise measurements. 'We are carrying out an urban-scale documentation of the entire damaged city, from the port to Medawar, Gemmayzé and Mar Mikhaël, over an area of ​​more than 3 square km, explains a member of the DGA team. We also note in detail specific monuments such as the Sursock Palace or the Bustros Palace, which have suffered greatly. We are currently finalizing this work, before getting down to the data processing for the realization of the 3D model, all for a period of 4 months. We have been delayed by the lockdowns, and the scale of the destruction makes the process even more difficult. Not to mention that the streets are very narrow, sometimes with a tangle of obstacles, trees and electric wires'. To cope with this tricky situation and to obtain more precise data, the team in charge had to resort, in addition to ground capture, to innovative technologies and drone flights, sometimes reaching an altitude of 150 meters. 60,000 images have been taken so far, reveals Joe Kallas.