The adaptations of the true-to-form survey method

Abstract

The following study is about the method of surveying historic buildings applied by the Department for History of Architecture and of Monuments of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The true-to-form architectural survey is based on the method used in ``Bauforschung´´, the building archaeology practice developed and widely used in Germany. In this context, survey is not only a tool of documentation but is considered as a research method in itself. The authors discuss the importance of the on-the-spot analysis of the building and the role and place of architectural survey in the whole process of monument preservation, as well as the possible adaptation of the method presented under different circumstances. The examples are stages of the monument documentation work carried out on the Cathedral of Saint Michael in Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár), Romania.