GIS OR BIM? A COMPARISON APPLIED TO THE CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT PLAN OF A 20th CENTURY ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE

Abstract. This paper discusses the impact of the advanced systems of architectural survey and modelling to the research on the Conservation Management Plan (CMP) for architectural heritage, particularly when such a tool is applied to the 20th century architectural heritage. The authors focus on a comparison between the Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology and the Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The Conservation Management Plan for the National Art Schools of Havana in Cuba is used as case study. Given the plurality of buildings and various levels of interest in such a context, conservation and management needs, the need to share the results with non-specialized stakeholders, the need to combine different scales of analysis and different typologies of materials, the results point out the advantages of a GIS platform. The conclusions open to further possibilities of integrating GIS and BIM to the specific task of effectively conserving and managing the 20th century architectural heritage.