Building a Reflexive Space for Scientific Dialogue through the Digital Reconstruction Case of the Palais Stoclet Dining Room

AlICe lab, Faculty of Architecture La Cambre Horta, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium

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Abstract

Digital three-dimensional reconstructions of architectural heritage have become increasingly used as research tools, yet their visually coherent representations often conceal the interpretive processes, uncertainties, and evidential gaps underlying their production. This paper proposes a method for visualising evidential proximity, defined as the distance between the reconstructed geometry and the documented sources that support it, within three-dimensional architectural restitution models. The method is based on the systematic evaluation of heterogeneous historical sources according to their integration modes (transposition, interpretation, and extrapolation), across multiple analytical aspects of the architectural elements. These evaluations are represented directly within the 3D model using a source-based visual encoding approach implemented through native tools in Blender, an open-source 3D modeling software. Its application is demonstrated through the digital reconstruction of the dining room of the Palais Stoclet, a UNESCO World Heritage building that is inaccessible for direct survey and only known through documentary sources. Embedding interpretive metadata within the model itself frames 3D reconstruction as a reflexive space for scientific exchange, contributing to transparency, critical evaluation, and the projection of reconstruction hypotheses across time.