Using the semantics of architectural objects for XML/VRML exploitation of heritage documentation

International audienceWith the development of Web-based data management and visualisation platforms, people in charge of studying the architectural heritage and its documentation face a new challenge to better exploit their data collections. Moreover, solutions exist in order not only to manage access to the data but also to dramatically enhance its interfacing by using the architectural morphology as an anchor to which one may attach pieces of information. In this paper we present solutions we have investigated in order to use the 3D representation of architectural objects as interfaces to heritage documentation. <br />Elements discussed will be a theoretical, semantic, model of architectural elements, its XML-based interfacing and instance persistence mechanisms, as well as the VRML-based solutions we have developed in order to visualise the instances with regards to domain specific visualisation issues such as shape uncertainty or hypothesis justification markings. This research is experimented on data sets concerning the city of Kraków (Poland) and its architectural evolutions