Urban design strategies for the upcycling of urban infrastructure residual pockets: 3D city modelling from open data and low-cost rapid mapping tools

This paper deals with the 3D City Modelling specific procedure developed as a tool to support strategies for urban regeneration, within the framework of the B-ROAD research project. The B-ROAD research project, whose acronym stands for Below the Road, is developing urban design strategies for upcycling urban infrastructure residual pockets. The B-ROAD’s methodology is conceived as research by design as it is carried out by creating pilot scenarios, disclosing the latent and still unexpressed potential of these wasted areas and displaying their potential transformations, to turn them into precious resources for the contemporary city. The 3D City Modelling of the study area has proved to be essential and strategic yet often complex and critical as most of the spatial and architectural features of B-ROAD spaces, as well as their potential, cannot be detected nor represented through the traditional means of representation of urbanised land, as aerial survey-based representations, or GIS. Likewise, traditional, or even cutting-edge, survey techniques that can be used to acquire missing data are often costly and time-consuming, thus making it hardly impossible to achieve the purpose of extensive and deep knowledge of such a vast area. Thus, 3D City Modelling aimed at examining spaces and providing a final representation of pilot scenarios has been a crucial stage requiring a specific in-depth study.