Miles Lewis
Heritage Building Materials
Client: Architecture, Building and Planning Library, University of Melbourne & Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage
The Miles Lewis Heritage Building Materials Collection consists of over 300 objects ranging from nails to roofing sheets, collected by Professor Miles Lewis throughout his career.
Used by the Architecture, Building and Planning Faculty in its teaching program for many years, the collection provides an insight into common construction materials and techniques in Australia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
3D scans of the objects enable exploration of their scale and texture (noticing, for example, the thumbprint in one of the bricks) and trace the European influences on Australian architectural methods.
Objects, ideas and histories : building ways to engage with the collection
The project involved evaluating and developing building materials to determine their significance and capture metadata, followed by creating 3D visualizations of the materials and recording their oral history in audio-visual format. The aim was to gain a deeper understanding of the materials used in the building's construction and their historical context. The project required careful examination of the materials and consultation with experts in the field to identify their properties and assess their significance.
Once the materials were evaluated, 3D visualizations were created to provide a detailed representation of their physical characteristics. Additionally, the project involved capturing the oral history of the materials, including information about their production, transportation, and use in the construction of the building. The resulting audio-visual recordings provided a rich source of information for researchers and historians interested in the building's history and the materials used in its construction.
