Translating Preventive and Planned Conservation Needs into Digital Implementation: A Requirement-Driven Framework for Architectural Heritage

Preventive and Planned Conservation (PPC) of architectural heritage requires coordination between multidisciplinary needs and digital implementation. This study develops a requirement-driven framework to reduce misinterpretation and unsupported individual judgements during requirement translation, improve collaboration, and support standardised, traceable and comparable information across stages. PPC knowledge and organisational, asset, project and exchange information requirements inform a role-appropriate question library and a rule-supported translation mechanism. Clients provide project purposes and conditions; specialists supplement professional facts. The system assesses applicability and translates applicable PPC Needs into Digital Requirements. Configuration rules generate Recommendation, and professional review establishes Target. Configuration templates and implementation lists guide digital personnel. Implementation evidence supports Actual assessment, and comparison against acceptance criteria identifies Gap. A software prototype supported application to the Galleria Grande at the Reggia di Venaria Reale, Italy, within HERITALISE, an EU-funded project on cultural heritage digitisation. The knowledge structure contains 34 PPC Needs and 320 Canonical Facts. Case records cover 58 type groups and 1532 Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM) objects. Shared outputs included building information modelling execution-plan configuration content, naming rules, 12 common data environment directory categories and 13 configuration self-check entries. Linked requirement, configuration, implementation and assessment records supported decision traceability and quantitative comparison within the assessed scope, informing progress checks and subsequent task planning. Project practice also indicated reductions in document interpretation, coordination and duplicated work; their magnitude requires quantification. Complete workflow coverage and cross-case applicability require further validation.