Procedural Modelling of Aged Buildings: A Case Study of Mudbrick Houses in Cyprus

Simulating aging effect phenomena on buildings, such as weathering or degradation, is a challenge for computer graphics that may bring great visual value for both realism and analysis of cultural heritage. We propose a system for procedurally generated aged buildings. Our system relies on a finite element analysis, which can simulate a wide range of common construction materials and consider in a simplified way a variety of aging mechanisms such as material degradation, weathering, and climate erosion. It can be fully integrated into any procedural building generator, seamlessly adding weathering effects to buildings as they are constructed. We illustrate the applicability of our method for mudbrick houses, taking typical constructions of Cyprus as a prototype. We analyze simulations according to parameter variations such as the material stiffness or the aging time. We also include internal structural stability for the study. We believe that extending procedural building modelling for aging inclusion could be an interesting avenue for cultural heritage visualization and analysis.