Historic Gasholder 3D Documentation

3D Laser Scanning and Architectural Documentation of D15 Gasholder in Technopolis City of Athens, Greece

Purpose

The complete architectural 3D documentation of the historic D15 Gasholder, located in Technopolis City of Athens, was an essential prerequisite for its maintenance and restoration works. The project was assigned to Astrolabe Engineering in 2014 by Technopolis City of Athens SA, and led to the monument’s current status, finalized in 2016.

Technopolis City of Athens, one of the most renowned cultural hubs in the city nowadays, is house in the historic Gasworks Plant of Athens, which was established in 1857. It is considered to be the most recognizable and important monument of the industrial heritage in Athens. The unique industrial monument has now transformed into the most vibrant cultural multispace in the heart of the city, open and accessible to all, with more than one million visitors per year. Concerts, exhibitions, performances, screenings, educational programs and actions of the Industrial Gas Museum, seminars and workshops dedicated to new technologies, initiatives for the development of entrepreneurship and innovation and events of social nature are only some of the 900 events that take place every year in Technopolis.

The D15 Gasholder was the largest of the four gasholders of the historic plant, with a capacity of 15.000 cubic meters. It is also the largest gasholder ever constructed and operated in Greece. The metallic structure was built in 1909 in a telescopic form with an open spaceframe by the French company Bonnet Spazin & Co.

Project tasks

• 3D laser scanning using a Faro Focus3D scanner:
  • 60 scans
  • 5mm resolution
  • intensity and RGB color
  • +/-2mm accuracy
• Georeferencing in HGRS’87 (EGSA’87) coordinated system
• Data processing for the final poincloud generation
• 3D architectural documentation and preparation of deliverables

Conclusions – Results

A complete set of digital documentation products was generated, which was used as background information for subsequent design and construction works:

• 3D RGB georeferenced pointcloud
• 360 panoramic images interactive dataset
• Orthoimages (elevations, unfolded elevations, layouts, sections, details)
• Architectural vector drawings
• Architectural documentation report

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