METHODS

01 — DIGITAL FORENSICS

Documenting the Building

Digital documentation is used to preserve geometry, material conditions, spatial relationships, and visible evidence before they are altered or lost.

Depending on site conditions and research requirements, documentation may include:

LiDAR scanning
Spatial capture of building geometry and relationships among walls, roofs, openings, courtyards, and other architectural elements.

Photogrammetry
Image-based reconstruction of architectural surfaces, material conditions, and spatial detail.

Thermal imaging
Observation of surface-temperature distributions and thermal behavior under defined conditions.

Environmental sensing
Measurement of temperature, relative humidity, air movement, and other environmental variables over defined observation periods.

Digital tools do not replace architectural interpretation.

They preserve evidence that can be revisited, measured, and compared.

02 — ARCHIVAL & ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

Reconstructing the Building's History

A building is more than a physical object.

Its history may survive through photographs, measured drawings, maps, government records, ethnographies, publications, oral histories, craft knowledge, and other forms of documentation.

A|WA therefore treats archival research as part of architectural reconstruction.

Sources are evaluated according to:

Provenance
Where did the evidence originate?

Date
When was it produced?

Authorship
Who created or recorded it?

Purpose
Why was it created?

Condition
What information survives?

Corroboration
Can the information be supported by other evidence?

Bias
What assumptions or institutional perspectives may shape the record?

The objective is not simply to collect historical sources.

It is to understand what each source can legitimately tell us.

03 — ORAL AND CRAFT KNOWLEDGE

Documenting the Process

Architectural knowledge is not contained only in drawings.

Construction can also survive through memory, practice, terminology, material recipes, maintenance routines, craft organization, and intergenerational instruction.

Where appropriate and ethically permissible, A|WA may document this knowledge through interviews and field observation.

Particular attention is given to:

Material preparation
Construction sequences
Craft techniques
Maintenance practices
Material sourcing
Repair strategies
Local terminology
Transmission of knowledge

Oral and craft knowledge is treated as evidence with its own context, limitations, and attribution.

It is not extracted from communities and separated from the people who hold it.

04 — RECONSTRUCTION

Making Uncertainty Visible

Historical buildings are rarely documented completely.

A|WA therefore separates reconstruction into distinct evidence conditions:

KNOWN
Directly documented.

CORROBORATED
Supported by multiple independent sources.

INFERRED
Reasonably reconstructed from available evidence.

HYPOTHETICAL
Plausible but not presently demonstrated.

UNKNOWN
Insufficient evidence exists to support a reconstruction.

This distinction allows reconstructed drawings and digital models to communicate uncertainty rather than conceal it.

05 — ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

Testing Architectural Performance

Once a building or system has been sufficiently documented or reconstructed, A|WA may investigate its environmental behavior.

Depending on the research question, analysis may include:

Thermal performance
Solar exposure
Airflow
Natural ventilation
Relative humidity
Moisture behavior
Hydrology
Material response
Comparative environmental performance

Computational models are treated as analytical tools rather than direct substitutes for field evidence.

Every major model should document:

Geometry
Climate data
Material properties
Boundary conditions
Occupancy assumptions
Ventilation assumptions
Simulation period
Software / method
Validation approach
Known limitations

06 — DATA & COMPARISON

From Individual Buildings to Comparative Knowledge

A|WA organizes architectural evidence into comparable records.

The objective is not to reduce architecture to a single performance number.

It is to identify relationships among:

Material
Geometry
Climate
Construction
Use
Maintenance
Environmental behavior

Where possible, findings are documented in forms that allow future comparison across sites and building traditions.

07 — PROTOTYPE & APPLICATION

From Research to Experiment

Some A|WA investigations may lead to contemporary design or material experiments.

These applications are treated as experiments—not as proof that historical systems can simply be copied.

Contemporary prototypes may test questions emerging from the research through:

Material assemblies
Compressed earth construction
Digital fabrication
Environmental monitoring
Construction workflows
Design-build experiments

The application stage therefore remains connected to the research record while maintaining a clear distinction between historical evidence and contemporary intervention.

THE HUMAN FEEDBACK LOOP

A|WA does not treat communities as sources of extractable data.

The research process should create pathways for knowledge, documentation, findings, and practical outcomes to return to the people and places from which the research emerges.

Where appropriate, this may include:

Documentation returned to local partners
Attribution of knowledge holders
Shared research materials
Training or technical exchange
Collaborative interpretation
Applied design experimentation

The objective is reciprocal research rather than one-way extraction.