Digitisation of built heritage to be discussed at RGU lecture

The lecture, ‘Digital engagement and collaboration in built heritage’, will be delivered by Richard Laing, Professor of Built Environment Visualisation at RGU’s Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment,

The free event, which takes place at RGU’s Sir Ian Wood Building on Wednesday, February 20, will focus on digital engagement and visualisation and how it can be used within the public evaluation of open space, built heritage and urban design.

Professor Richard Laing will present a highly visual and accessible overview of his work in the field, and will discuss how the methods he is using signal ways to connect people and heritage, and support wider participation in discussion and debate.

Prof Laing commented: “Recent years have seen the rapid development of digital tools which can be used to record, present and document the built heritage.

“While a great deal of research has concentrated on the improvement of devices and software, work at RGU has tended towards using the tools to explore methods of community engagement.

“This can be regarded as an important pathway to demonstrating and encouraging the use of research findings in practice, and has formed a key strand of explorations across the past 10 years.”

The work of Prof Laing and his colleagues has included studies which looked at a wide range of buildings and artefacts, including ruins, monuments, streets, industrial buildings and examples of heritage suggested by the community. 

A main strand of the research has involved engagement with community groups, schoolchildren and through open meetings. This has often led to new ideas being proposed, and has been especially useful within the promotion of tourism in community planning.