ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the role of interpretation and preserving the potential meaning of a site must be a key element of Heritage Building Information Modelling (HBIM), as compared with its equivalent. HBIM must embrace, if it is to be an effective heritage tool, interpretation, narrative, value and identity after all, which make heritage what it is. The survey of the heritage site can, then, include the recording of elements which are no longer there, due to un-designed or accidental interventions, inhabitation and the passage of time. Within the context of HBIM, information includes not just fact but site readings and recognition of the fuzzy qualities of historic places – fuzzy in that their physical and metaphysical edges shift. Much has been written about heritage and authenticity, and the increasingly broad frameworks in which these terms can be framed.
