Connexed information: the hyper-representation of Andrea Palladio's Villas

Classical or digital representation is not just a simple mean of reproduction or imitation of reality, its enormous potential passes through complex mechanisms of interpretation, creating new possible worlds: the purpose of representation, therefore, lies in its creative potential. If we consider the planning process, at any architectural scale, it is also evident that the representation has an important role of virtual mediation, in fact, it communicates the spatial, aesthetic, material, functional and metric information: the architecture becomes reality only if it is represented. Another important function, which representation may successfully cover, is the mapping of the historical architectural heritage, which today is losing the link with its culture, in fact, even in the most intact town centre there are a lot of appearances which have altered or destroyed the original space and the system of signs; we always see all around new changed landscapes not only from a naturalistic point of view but also considering infrastructural and architectural aspects. It is not Semantics (the system of signs), which are changing, but how to read them: Media have influenced our experience of the visual world with fluid images. For all these reasons and to coordinate the vast amount of existing data, we can broaden the definition of the usual hypertext, which is seen as a combination, which changing values run free from all kind of references, the information is exchanged outside the constraints of specific locations. Sailing within a hypertext can be read as a metaphor for the dynamic and discontinuous perception of current space (architecture, city and landscape), because hypertext allows reading reality through many codes, all valid at the same time and all bringing legitimate messages – we can consider the vision of a spatial configuration not like the result of a single author, but as the sum of the individualism of each reader-authors – . Another example of connected reading is the Augmented Reality, it combines the images of the world with computer data, creating a virtual reality in which computer graphic objects are blended into real footage in real time: in other words, AR uses live video imagery 'augmented' by the addition of computer graphics. If we refer to hypertext as an extraordinary coexistence of text, tells, documents, biographies, repertories or if we refer to the Augmented Reality in order to show and analysis of the characteristics of an actual reality, adding computer qualities; then it would be better to use an Hyper-representation to study architecture and landscape, because they are not only exterior entities. In fact, as the hypertext – the textual information arrives usually to the reader in a linear and sequential manner – is an associative and interactive link between information placed in different points of the same document, and as the Augmented Reality is an overlap of virtual and real images, then Hyper-representation of architecture, city and landscape, can be seen as a new tool not only for visualization, but also for knowledge and communication of a rapid and accurate analysis of complex data and variables. Only the Paper is inadequate for representation of all aspects of architecture and urban configurations, to which we add the dynamic space, so it is necessary to turn our attention to a 'digital organization', an Hyper-representation of a 3D model, in which one can find connections between measurements, iconographical images, historical maps, movies, synthetic reconstructions of CAD; this management allows to provide the highest level of completeness through the analysis of the available resources. In this context, we suggest the following procedural steps: • planning the GIS – Geographic Information System – of the space, where the studied architectural object is, verifying the real functionality; • testing the GIS and its standards, identified by the digital formats for architecture, city and landscape; • testing Hyper-representation as a tool to show, know and communicate data; • defining the possible procedures to validate a digital architectural model in its landscape.