Shaping the Future of Urban and Architectural History in the Digital Age

Urban and architectural history are key areas in digital humanities and digital heritage. With respect to these research areas, digital repositories, data and research methods play an important role, especially when hosting visual media like photographs, paintings, or drawings, and last but not least physical and virtual models. Due to the wide field of possible research, different approaches, methods and technologies have emerged – and are still emerging.

The purpose of the 4^th issue of the Urban History in the Age of Digital Libraries (UHDL) workshop is to provide a full picture with regards to epistemics, technology and framework conditions. We aim to discuss crucial challenges for further research and encourage exchange and debate about humanities research and education, technologies and data and particular trends as BIM or FAIR and 3D Publication/Sharing. We would like to invite contributions on theoretical and methodological issues, application scenarios and projects, as well as novel approaches and tools.

This includes the following four areas:

• Data and technologies for architectural and urban history
• Humanities research and education on architectural and urban history
• The Future of 3D Cultural Heritage: Are We FAIR Enough?
• Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age: HBIM and the Challenges of Climate Change and Innovation 

To this cause, we are seeking original and innovative contributions in theoretical and practical applications on Digital Cultural Heritage.

TOPICS

Data and technologies for architectural and urban history

Urban and architectural history are key areas in digital humanities and digital heritage. With respect to these research areas, digital repositories, data and research methods play an important role, especially when hosting visual media like photographs, paintings, or drawings, and last but not least physical and virtual models. Due to the wide field of possible research, different approaches, methods and technologies have emerged – and are still emerging. We would like to invite contributions on theoretical and methodological issues, application scenarios and projects, as well as novel approaches and tools in the following areas:

• Data handling and data schemes
• Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
• Visualization and Presentation 

Humanities research and education on architectural and urban history

Urban and architectural history are key areas in digital humanities and digital heritage. With respect to these research areas, digital repositories, data and research methods play an important role, especially when hosting visual media like photographs, paintings, or drawings, and last but not least physical and virtual models. Due to the wide field of possible research, different approaches, methods and technologies have emerged – and are still emerging. For the proposed session we would like to invite contributions on theoretical and methodological issues, application scenarios and projects, as well as novel approaches and tools in the following areas:

• Digital urban and architectural history and heritage research applications, theories, and methods.
• Education in urban history

The Future of 3D Cultural Heritage: Are We FAIR Enough?

The field of virtual reconstructions has experienced significant growth across architecture, archaeology, and cultural heritage domains. These reconstructions serve diverse purposes, ranging from popular dissemination to scientific inquiry, and from recreational to commercial applications. Utilizing various visualization methods—2D, 3D, static, or dynamic—they act as pivotal tools for encoding and transmitting knowledge in numerous contexts. Despite their widespread adoption, the absence of common standards and methodological guidelines limits the application of core principles such as transparency, reproducibility, verifiability, and long-term accessibility, aligned with FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). This session seeks to investigate the scientific foundations and methodological approaches underpinning virtual and hypothetical reconstructions, specifically within architectural, urban, and archaeological heritage contexts. We aim to gather contributions that address both theoretical frameworks and practical applications, emphasizing the ability to:

• Represent confidence levels in 3D geometric modelling of hypothetical reconstructions,
• Address various degrees of uncertainty while ensuring transparency regarding source data, archival materials, and interpretative conjectures,
• Metadata schemas tailored for 3D cultural heritage models,
• Best practices for archiving and preserving 3D projects,
• Ontologies and data models specific to 3D cultural heritage,
• Developing critical and semantically structured 3D models,
• Ensuring transparency in scientific processes,
• Validating the quality and reusability of 3D models,
• Documenting scientific and operational workflows,
• Proposing documentation standards and protocols,
• Defining Uncertainty Scale to assess hypothetical reconstructions,
• Promoting interoperability of data,
• Defining methods of digital representation and modelling techniques,
• Defining 3D Models typology in the field of Virtual Reconstruction

Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age: HBIM and the Challenges of Climate Change and Innovation 

The Charter of Venice presents a pivotal opportunity to critically assess the preservation and documentation of cultural heritage in the digital era. With historical assets increasingly vulnerable to climate change, extreme weather events, environmental degradation, conflict, and other global challenges, innovative tools like Building Information Modelling (BIM) under the ISO 19650 standard offer promising solutions. This session dives into the transformative potential of BIM in safeguarding built cultural heritage through digitalization. Focusing on the standardization and interoperability of 3D data sets, the session invites contributions exploring BIM’s role in historic preservation, documentation, and conservation. Topics of interest include:

• Case studies of BIM applications in cultural heritage projects, preferably those addressing climate change impacts or resilience.
• Environmental monitoring and simulation using BIM for heritage preservation. 
• Climate change risk assessment and adaptation strategies through BIM.
• Advanced methodologies for data acquisition and 3D modeling of historical structures.
• Integration of BIM with technologies such as laser scanning, photogrammetry, and AI for enhanced visualization and interpretation.
• Development of heritage-specific BIM databases for detailed analysis and planning and monitoring.
• Ethical and legal dimensions of digitizing cultural heritage

Paper Submission

The 4th Workshop on Research and Education in Urban History in the Age of Digital Libraries uses the CHNT paper management system (Link).

Please submit an extended abstract of 1000 words (~ 2 pages)  via the electronic upload submission procedure of the CHNT(Link).

All submissions will be peer reviewed for their originality, validity, methodology, writing quality and overall contribution to the research fields of the conference. The workshop adopts a double blind reviewing process. The authors must ensure that any information such as affiliations, contact details, e-mails or other type of information that can help identify the authors of the papers are removed from the submitted version.

Selected submissions are proposed to be published in the Springer CCIS series – previous issues can be found here.

Timeline

Commitee

Organizing Committee

Programm Committee

Previous Proceedings

Selected submissions are proposed to be published in the Springer CCIS series – previous issues can be found here.

• Research and Education in Urban History in the Age of Digital Libraries, Conference Proceedings for the 3rd International Workshop, UHDL 2023, Munich, Germany, March 27-28, 2023, Revised Selected Papers. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-38871-2 
• Digital Research and Education in Architectural Heritage, Conference Proceedings for the
   5th Conference DECH 2017 and the 1st Workshop UHDL 2017, Dresden, Germany, March 30-31, 2017, Revised Selected Papers
• Research and Education in Urban History in the Age of Digital Libraries, Conference Proceedings for the 2nd International Workshop UHDL 2019, Dresden, Germany, October 10–11, 2019, Revised Selected Papers

For any questions about paper submissions and the workshop itself you may contact the organizers by email to uhdl2025@visualhumanities.org

Contact

Prof. Dr. Sander Münster
 J. Professor for Digital Humanities (Images/Objects)
 Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

Leutragraben 1
 D-07743 Jena (Germany)

For any questions about paper submissions and the workshop itself you may contact the organizers by email to uhdl2025@visualhumanities.org

In cooperation with

Supported by the European Commission under Grants No. 101173385, 101132488, 101135556, 101132481, 101180388, 101195149 and the DFG under Grant No. 439948010.