Parametric Thinking: Recognizing the "Architectural Formulas" in Cultural Built Heritage by Parametric Digital Modelling

Parametric digital modelling is today at the center of interests by architectural designers and critics. Increasing potentialities and developments of hardware and software allow applying parametric methods in the whole design process. But the definition of Architettura Parametrica has an older origin: it was coined by Luigi Moretti in the Forties. Moreover, some examples of parametric thinking were found by several scholars almost since the origin of architectural history. The idea of verifying the presence of a "parametric thinking" in the Cultural Built Heritage, recognizing the parameters that could have guided the architectural composition and re-creating their relationships using tools of parametric digital modelling is the focus of the present proposal. It follows, deepens and develops a research carried out on the complex unitary vaults in Turin baroque atria.