Geo-models for the PALLADIoLibrary: A shared archive in the making

This paper illustrates the objectives, methods, procedures, and results of the innovative digital database of Palladio's works: the PALLADIoLibrary project. The database has fifty-one 3D models which can be accessed and browsed using the Google Earth geosystem. The system was developed by four universities in collaboration with the Andrea Palladio International Centre for Architectural Studies in Vicenza. It provides a comprehensive, multifaceted, and logical semantic interpretation of Palladio's works using buildings realistically recreated based on surveys and historical sources, and then processed with Google Earth using Ambient Occlusion techniques instead of more traditional visualisation methods.