The multidisciplinary Atelier addresses the integration of some disciplines that contribute to the realization of a sustainable, aimed-at-re-functioning, Restoration Project, with a particular focus on the innovative techniques for survey and the communication of the project. The disciplines of Restoration, Survey and Representation (Drawing and Geomatics) are coordinated within a design exercise that students are asked for to develop, at different scales of study, facing the relevant themes related to:
- preservation,
- structural rehabilitation,
- compliance with codes,
- design of new functions
- cultural, economic and environmental sustainability.
The Restoration unit aims at contributing to the formation of the student’s design experience in the field of built heritage. From the knowledge of the territory, and of the processes that led to its current configuration, up to the detection of the building chosen for the exercise, one can outline the general framework within which the design activity will take place. The analysis of the built environment and landscape transformations, read together with the historical evolution of the building, defines the first cognitive phase, and is followed by the direct knowledge of the building itself, according to the restoration principles and methods.
Such a knowledge is based the historical research, the survey of constructional techniques and structural apparatuses, the analysis of decay and disruption phenomena of the building. All these aspects are investigated in the first part of the Atelier, and are followed by an in-depth analysis regarding the potentials of the building from the viewpoint of the objectives of conservation and enhancement.
The project develops constantly relating to the other modules, and continuously verifying the principles of (environmental, economic, cultural, social) compatibility and sustainability, moreover trying to share the enhancement process with local authorities.
The main objective of the New Technologies for Survey and Drawing unit is to provide students with the methods for evaluating and selecting the survey and representation techniques which are the most suitable for the development of the restoration design, offering theoretical knowledge and operational tools to detect and represent architecture in its various components.
Firstly advance techniques concerning 3D survey will be analyzed that will be based on digital photogrammetry and LiDAr acquisition devices. Moreover different representation techniques will be experimented, in particular digital 3D modeling techniques, considering them not only as fundamental means to describe and comprehend reality, but also as key communication systems for educating to the view of the built environment, at different scales, and to its metric control.
The teaching activity is aimed at providing theoretical and practical knowledge of the most proper and advanced drawing softwares for the representation of reality, describing their correct and conscious use.

The expected learning objectives essentially concern the following topics:
- Theories and techniques for the restoration design of architectural heritage;
- Fundamentals and basic theoretical principles of the 3D survey methods (digital photogrammetry and LiDAR);
- Survey theories and techniques for managing the design process of restoration;
- Fundamentals and theoretical principles of Cartography (projection systems and reference systems, elements of digital mapping);
- Principles of Geomatics;
- fundamentals of architectural 3D modeling.
The students will be able to apply their knowledge for the achievement of the following objectives:
- Recognizing the formal, structural and material features of historical architecture;
- Identifying meanings and uses of architectural heritage, in both tangible and intangible aspects;
- Verifying the compatibility of re-functioning choices in the restoration project;
- Checking autonomously the sustainability of the conservation project;
- Drawing properly the restoration project (virtual image and real image);
- Exploiting properly 2D and 3D representation systems;
- Using representation methods and scales suited to the different needs of the project;
- Managing IT protocols and representation systems for the collection, organization and processing of information as a support for knowledge and sustainable management of architectural and environmental heritage;
- Using Geomatics as a methodology to acquire an ever wider and more accurate knowledge of the existing buildings, optimizing survey and monitoring techniques.

Preliminary to the Atelier are considered the skills and abilities acquired in the three-years degree course (theory and history of restoration, drawing and survey, structural and technological disciplines, architectural composition and history of ' architecture).

The LAB activity that students are requested to develop concerns the Church of San Giuliano in the municipality of Savigliano, a small building with two aisles dating back to the early eleventh century.
The object will be dealt with by direct (on the building) and indirect (on bibliographic and archive sources) methodologies continuously flanking, in both cases, advanced techniques and traditional tools.
By virtue of its location – next to the walls of the villa Viancina, whose park is reported in the atlas of Piedmont historical gardens – as well as its architectural and constructional type – small dimensions and constructional apparatuses easy to survey – the church can be analyzed at both territorial and architectural scale. The former turns out to be essential in order to comprehend the relationship of the church with its natural and built context, in the latter the church is examined in its constructional and structural consistency.
The two scales are strictly related to the subsequent designing phase in which the theme of the sustainability will be expressed taking into account, on the one hand, the need for integration at the urban and territorial scales and calibrating, on the other hand, the specific design choices in accordance with the peculiar nature of the building.

The Atelier comprises lectures, seminars, exercises. The teaching methods include frontal, mono and multi-disciplinary, lectures focused on the real experience of the restoration project. The examination of study cases assigned to individual students, or small groups of students, will allow dealing with specific methods of intervention sharing and deepening them in collective discussions. On-field inspections are provided for, aiming at allowing the knowledge of the architecture, as well as the direct survey of it.

References will be reported during the individual learning activities, in relation to the addressed issues. The basic material for the exercise will be constantly updated on the website of the course, where students will also find excerpts of the lectures.

The attendance of the Atelier is essential to develop positively the planned activities.
The attained knowledge will be checked by discussing the exercise papers requested by the professors and through an oral examination concerning theoretical and applied aspects of the different disciplines of the Atelier. In-depth studies on monographic issues, or specific reports on technical topics, could be required, always aimed at preparing the project.
The assessment of the performed work and the evaluation of the results, will take into account not only the degree of learning and maturation of the students, but also the ability to properly present ideas and proposals and promote the comprehension and participation of future partners to the proposed project.
The final evaluation will take into account the intermediate assessments, the total amount of work, the final discussion of the exercise and the acquisition by each individual student of specific abilities regarding the Atelier topics as well as its participation in every phase.
The exam may be passed only with a positive judgement in both disciplines of the Atelier.