Abstract

The paper presents a novel digital 3D GIS web-based system entirely founded on Google Earth, built to offer a deep insight into Palladio's opera for restitution of its architectural surveys, reconstruction for historical reasons, analysis for structural and other options, and assembly and presentation of all certified Palladian documentation.The development of the application follows the philosophy of visual computing and it is based on an architectural knowledge representation.The information system is conceived as a typical Rich Internet Application and it is based on the digitalization of the complete Palladian corpus documentation implemented by the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio (CISAAP).The 3D geodatabase system is, actually, in use at the Centro as the Palladian information system for researchers and in two expositions at Barbaran da Porto Palace in Vicenza, and at Villa Poiana at Poiana Maggiore, where is widely used by tourists for virtual visits to Palladian buildings.