SPACE DATABASE AND URBAN VIRTUAL MODELS: METHODOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND CASE STUDY APPLIED TO MAR DEL PLATA'S URBAN FRAGMENT

Abstract

The 3D (three-dimensional) virtual urban fragment models are a simplification and a space reduction of a significant urban fragment. These models allow for other ways to study the city and the changes produced in it. The focus will be in the analysis of the uses and applications related to urban areas identified as reservoirs of patrimonial value, and which in turn might be subject to preservation or development projects. The study highlights the contributions of the virtual models given special attention to the wide range of uses they have, such as: the creation of models with documental value for presentations and communication – for both expert and non-expert users-, they provide a virtual environment where intervention projects can be developed and tested, they recreate interactive inventories, and act as hyperlink to related contents. The case study here presented makes reference to the development of a three-dimensional virtual model which constitutes a space and hypermedial data base of documentary value. It contemplates future link and networking with the Internet. It is a combination of precise geometric patterns associated with alphanumeric georeferenced data, whose referent is an environment of patrimonial value of an urban fragment belonging to the city, of Mar del Plata in Argentine. The study’s main intention is to visualize, recognize, examine and obtain relevant information from this important urban fragment.