Digitizing Vanishing Architectural Heritage; The Design and Development of Qatar Historic Buildings Information Modeling [Q-HBIM] Platform

The documentation of vanishing architectural heritage includes intensive information and data gathering, filtering, classification and digitization. Enabling such an endeavor necessitates the act of documentation, which requires the cooperation of several professionals from different fields, extensive resources, precise organization, and robust structuring. Therefore, the design and development of an innovative digital platform to facilitate the interaction between users from different specialties is highly desirable to enable dynamic real-time preservation and protection of such invaluable heritage. The aim of this study is to investigate the existing Qatari built heritage, urban conservation methods and the principles of modern digitizing and archiving techniques to create a sustainable and interactive archiving platform—Qatar Historic Buildings Information Modeling (Q-HBIM) platform. This unique digital platform aims to respond to the needs of the society as well as the experts in the fields of urban heritage conservation and buildings restoration. A literature review was conducted on topics relating to Qatar urban heritage and the principles of three-dimensional digitization technology including an exploration of the aspects of sustainable urban preservation. Accordingly, site analysis (physical, photogrammetric and 3D scanning techniques were used), and in-depth interviews were adopted as the main data collection techniques. The findings of this study elucidate the principles of innovative architectural heritage digitization tools involving Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology and processes. It is anticipated that the present work will formulate an advanced and unique interactive archiving tool in the context of Qatar and GCC/MENA regions in the shape of the: Qatar Historic Building Information Modeling (Q-HBIM) platform.