Digital Inventory of the Wooden Neighborhood of Raksila in Oulu, FInland

The material concerns the investigation made on the case study of Raksila, wooden historic neighborhood in Oulu, Finland.

For each building it has been elaborated a census card by fixing the information on a sketch book, the analysis has included several specific aspects: dates of construction, function, materials used for the facades, structure, colours of the facades, typologies of frames and analysis of the open areas. For the analysis of Raksila two different types of card have been designed: one type for the residential buildings and another one (more simplified) for the description of the services located around the neighbourhood.

The recognition on field represent a fundamental part in the elaboration of the census card, the operator needs to make an appreciation of the main aspects by producing lists of different typologies connected to a same category, i.e. elaborate different lists of values. Categories and list of values represent the main elements in the formulation of the census card. When the analysis is finished the entire categories analysed with the related lists need to be transfer to a digital card by using FileMaker software. This programme gives the possibility to create detailed digital databases by including specific data sets. After the recognition phase and the elaboration of the card in digital form, the operator can start the acquisition of the information on field. Each building is identified with a specific code that can be elaborated by the operator or, as in this case, by using the existing codification system (for the analysis of the buildings in Raksila it has been used the same codification elaborated by the Municipality of Oulu in order to deliver to them an updated material easily consulted).

When the acquisition of the information is finished the result is a digital archive which can be navigated and used for different types of purposes. Moreover, the software gives the possibility to recover all those cards, which have the same information or group of information. In the final part, they have been then put in mutual dialogue through the support of a 3D model realized on the base of the laser scanner.

This step produced thematic maps and interesting consideration for the understanding of the place with its intrinsic dynamics.