HBIM Implementation for anOttoman Mosque. Case of Study: Sultan Mehmet Fatih II Mosque in Kosovo

National Strategy For Cultural Heritage 2017–2027 is a Kosovo Government document that aims the enhancement of the system for the protection and preservation of Kosovan cultural heritage. Among the listed goals, one can find the promotion of an integrated data management approach towards cooperation platforms that involve advanced technologies and information systems applied to cultural heritage. In a country with a low technological progress, as Kosovo is, an innovative information management system like HBIM is a huge challenge. This research contributes in opening the debate about the use of HBIM even for historical architecture, illustrating a methodology of information management promoting the conservation and the valorization of a Kosovan ottoman mosque. The workflow pipeline started with the close range photogrammetric survey, obtaining first spherical panoramas and then the wire-frame processed in a 3D modelling environment, suitable to implement the HBIM project. Basing on the accuracy of the data acquisition, the availability of information about the building and the related level of knowledge, we proposed a semantic representation of the complex structure integrating in an HBIM collecting in an “ad hoc” database the geometrical building components, enriched with attributes as images, materials, decay, interventions, etc., linked to each features. Our approach is an example of how efficient semantic classification can be repeated for the analysis and the documentation of other similar ottoman mosque, simplifying the management of construction by a sort of unique and searchable archive. The advantage of the interoperability concept allows the data sharing is now stressed by HBIM.