Digital records for the conservation of heritage buildings at risk: challenging replication in Tarapacá, Chile

After earthquakes, the rebuilding processes that follow are usually unquestioned due to the necessity of providing housing to the affected population. This can have a long-term impact on heritage buildings, especially housing in historic settlements, due to the large number of units that need intervention. When new constructions are required to replace those destroyed and demolished, their reconstruction is usually aimed to be a replica of the previous. This implies issues of authenticity, sustainability and funding, where previous records are key, although scarce in the case of nonmonumental heritage. Advanced recording technologies — such as 3D-laser-scanning or LiDAR — offer unprecedented capabilities for documenting buildings regularly, as a form of digital preservation. They are also used to inform physical intervention, conservation strategies, post-disaster assessment, and mitigation, among other applications. Such records are usually invested with the capability of informing reconstruction 'as before' in case of destruction. While this is something that has been debated for centuries, the latest technological advances can facilitate uncritical applications. In response, this paper challenges the replication of buildings as replicas in contexts of constant change, such as those produced by earthquakes, with the case study of Tarapacá, Chile, a heritage village affected by a 7.9 Mw earthquake in 2005. This settlement used to feature a sustainable and climate-appropriate construction culture, but was reconstructed years later in a manner that did not follow those principles. To evaluate its long-term impacts, this study uses an architectural analysis based on 3D laser scan records and photography of the destroyed and rebuilt buildings — from 2005 (post-earthquake) to 2013 (finished reconstruction) — complemented with social surveys, proposes a critical method for the re-construction of built heritage, with further implications regarding what was considered 'traditional' before the seismic event and how the historic village is currently perceived and listed.