Rolando Volzone

@iscte-iul.pt

Department of Architecture and Urbanism - ISCTE-IUL
ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa

Rolando Volzone


                        Download Compact PDF  
https://researchid.co/rolandovolzone

RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS

Arts and Humanities
11

Scopus Publications

66

Scholar Citations

5

Scholar h-index

1

Scholar i10-index

Scopus Publications

  • Connecting adaptive reuse with cultural resilience frameworks: assessing monastic and conventual heritage in Southern Portugal
    Rolando Volzone, Sofia Costa Macedo, Elisabete Tomaz
    Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, 2026
    Purpose This study investigates how the adaptive reuse of religious heritage, particularly monastic and conventual buildings, can promote cultural resilience and sustainable development in low-density rural areas. Focusing on the Alentejo region of Southern Portugal, it addresses a gap in heritage literature by moving beyond tourism-centric models to explore socio-cultural dimensions of reuse. The research aims to understand how such reuse can enhance community well-being, foster identity and contribute to inclusive territorial development. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining quantitative and qualitative techniques. The study systematically mapped 131 monastic and conventual sites in Alentejo, analyzing ownership, conservation state, current use and relevant heritage policies. This was complemented by three in-depth case studies employing comparative ethnography to examine cultural reuse initiatives. The triangulation of data allowed for a comprehensive understanding of the drivers, barriers and outcomes of adaptive reuse practices in rural heritage contexts. Findings The research highlights both opportunities and constraints in reusing religious heritage in rural areas. Key barriers include restrictive regulations, insufficient funding and conflicts between conservation standards and innovation. However, successful case studies illustrate that participatory, multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder reuse processes can revitalise heritage sites. These practices enhance local identity, strengthen social cohesion and promote ecological awareness, revealing adaptive reuse as a viable tool for fostering resilience and inclusive rural development. Research limitations/implications While offering valuable insights, the study is limited by its geographic focus on the Alentejo region, which may affect generalisability. Further research in diverse rural contexts is needed to test the applicability of the findings. Additionally, longitudinal studies could better assess long-term impacts of reuse initiatives. Nonetheless, the study provides a solid foundation for expanding theoretical and practical understanding of cultural resilience in heritage management. Practical implications The study offers actionable recommendations for policymakers, planners and heritage practitioners. It underscores the importance of integrating adaptive reuse into territorial development strategies and fostering community-led governance models. Findings advocate for diversified funding mechanisms and cross-sectoral collaboration to overcome resource and policy barriers. The research also supports capacity-building among local stakeholders to ensure sustainable and inclusive heritage reuse. Social implications Adaptive reuse of monastic heritage can reinforce cultural identity, encourage civic participation and facilitate intergenerational knowledge transfer in rural communities. By promoting local engagement and inclusive decision-making, reuse projects can help rebuild social networks and enhance community resilience. These initiatives not only preserve the physical fabric of heritage sites but also contribute to social sustainability and democratic heritage stewardship. Originality/value This study presents an original integration of adaptive reuse and cultural resilience frameworks in the context of rural religious heritage. By focusing on both tangible and intangible dimensions, it contributes a holistic perspective to the heritage reuse discourse. The work is among the first to systematically explore non-tourism-based reuse in low-density regions, offering a replicable methodology and strategic insights for advancing community-centered heritage practices.
  • Comparative Approaches of Fast 360-degree Video-Based Survey of Inaccessible Heritage
    Francesca Galasso, Rolando Volzone
    International Archives of the Photogrammetry Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ISPRS Archives, 2025
    Fast survey documentation of inaccessible environments often forces surveyors to choose between acquisition speed and geometric accuracy of digital databases. 360-degree panoramas go in the direction of this problem, as they can capture every visible surface in a single video, while the operator's movement through the space remains a variable factor. This paper explores whether changing the trajectory in a straightforward way has a practical impact on the final 3D record. The experiment was conducted in the cloister, church and upper and lower choirs of the abandoned Convent of Nossa Senhora da Saudação in southern Portugal. The instability of the site's structure leaves little tolerance for extensive fieldwork. Experience shows that a short, regular route is sufficient for a general overview, while a more complex route provides a richer description of recessed or highly decorated elements, despite longer processing times. Under artificial or evenly diffused light, the simpler route produces even better results because stable exposure eliminates many of the radiometric breaks that complicate outdoor footage. Therefore, this study provides the first practical recommendations: while path design is important, it can be adapted to suit the scope of the project. This enables 360-degree video-based photogrammetry to be used for tasks ranging from fast condition surveys to more detailed recording.
  • Sacred Vaulted South: Proposing GIS-powered vaults cluster analysis and cultural itineraries into religious heritage buildings
    Cidades, 2025
  • Religious Heritage: Sites, People, Challenges Spring Special Issue 2025 Editorial
    Rolando Volzone, João Luís Fontes, Henrik Lindblad
    Cidades, 2025
  • Toward the Reconstruction of Sacred Medieval Spatialities: Multiscale Analysis of the System of Eremitical Landscapes in Southern Portugal from Historical Records
    Rolando Volzone, João Luís Inglês Fontes, Aurora da Conceição Parreira Carapinha
    Historical Archaeology, 2023
    Reconstruction of the landscape of late medieval southern Portugal is hampered by the scarceness of physical evidence after the subsequent centuries of evolution. The aim of this article is to understand how the spread of eremitical communities in this region interacted with the existing landscape, contributing to its transformation. A multiscale analysis is carried out through the examination of historical records containing scattered data about the landscape system. This methodology is applied to a specific case study, the Portuguese eremitical congregation of São Paulo da Serra de Ossa, in southern Portugal. Although fragmentary and dispersed, primary sources from between 1366 and 1578 are useful in reconstructing the components of this landscape. Initial results show the definition of a typical Mediterranean form of settlement: “agro-sylvo-pastoral.”
  • Smart Thinking on Co-Creation and Engagement: Searchlight on Underground Built Heritage
    Carlos Smaniotto Costa, Rolando Volzone, Tatiana Ruchinskaya, Maria del Carmen Solano Báez, Marluci Menezes, et al.
    Smart Cities, 2023
    This paper aims to explore public participation for activating underground built heritage (UBH). It describes and analyses practices of stakeholders’ engagement in different UBH assets, based on experiences gathered in the scope of the European COST Action ‘Underground4value’. It brings together five inspiring cases from Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, in which digital and mobile technologies were used as tools to improve community experiences in UBH. Thus, the paper discusses ‘smartness’ from the perspective of people and communities around cultural assets, where ‘smartness’ becomes a new connotation and a pathway to advance (local) knowledge and know-how. Therefore, this paper takes on the challenge to define a smart city as an ecosystem for people’s empowerment and participation, and, in particular, to explore social tools for creating new values in heritage placemaking—where sharing knowledge becomes a fundamental principle.
  • Reuse of Unoccupied Religious Monuments for Tourist Accommodation: Santa Maria da Ínsua (North of Portugal)
    Rolando Volzone, Soraya Genin, João Estêvão, Mafalda Patuleia
    Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences, 2023
  • Correction to: Reuse of Unoccupied Religious Monuments for Tourist Accommodation: Santa Maria da Ínsua (North of Portugal)
    Rolando Volzone, Soraya Genin, João Estêvão, Mafalda Patuleia
    Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences, 2023
  • Integration of knowledge-based documentation methodologies and digital information for the study of religious complex heritage sites in the south of Portugal
    Rolando Volzone, Olimpia Niglio, Pietro Becherini
    Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 2022
  • The Legacy of Franciscan Observance Convents in Portugal: Overview of Their Reuse Towards Sustainable Development
    Rolando Volzone, Soraya Genin
    Regenerating Cultural Religious Heritage Intercultural Dialogue on Places of Religion and Rituals, 2022
  • The Portuguese eremitical Congregation of the Serra de Ossa: spatial analysis of the monastic settlements
    Rolando Volzone, João Luís Fontes
    Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 2020

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • Connecting adaptive reuse with cultural resilience frameworks: assessing monastic and conventual heritage in Southern Portugal
    R Volzone, SC Macedo, E Tomaz
    Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, 1-21 , 2025
    2025
  • Comparative Approaches of Fast 360-degree Video-Based Survey of Inaccessible Heritage
    F Galasso, R Volzone
    The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial … , 2025
    2025
  • Blended Intensive Program Unveiling Medieval Monastic Dynamics (M_Dyn)
    R Volzone
    Medievalista, 457-472 , 2025
    2025
  • Sacred Vaulted South: Proposing GIS-powered vaults cluster analysis and cultural itineraries into religious heritage buildings
    M Pacheco, APF Flor, R Volzone
    Cidades. Comunidades e Territórios , 2025
    2025
  • Religious Heritage: Sites, People, Challenges
    R Volzone, JL Fontes, H Lindblad
    Cidades. Comunidades e Territórios , 2025
    2025
  • Digital vaulted territories: development of a cross-tool platform for vaults’ knowledge
    MB Pacheco, AP Falcão, M da Glória Gomes, R Volzone, MP Folgado, ...
    Revista de História da Arte, 96-119 , 2025
    2025
    Citations: 1
  • A conversation with Luc Noppen, the “hero of Quebec churches”
    H Lindblad, R Volzone, R Sánchez
    CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios, 126-136 , 2025
    2025
  • Religious heritage: sites, people, challenges spring special issue 2025 editorial
    R Volzone, JL Fontes, H Lindblad
    Cidades, 1-2 , 2025
    2025
  • Digital vaulted territories
    M Batista Pacheco, AP Falcão, MG Gomes, R Volzone, MP Folgado, ...
    2025
  • Religious Heritage
    R Volzone, JL Fontes, H Lindblad
    2025
  • Inclusive heritage communication: Integrated methodologies crossing 3d printing, marketing and communication for the Franciscan observance convents
    R Volzone, M Carucci
    Proceedings of the F-ATLAS Conference , 2024
    2024
  • Documentation as a tool for analysis and dissemination of the cultural heritage: The case of the Franciscan observance in Portugal, Italy and Spain
    S Genin, R Volzone, A Paio, FJ da Silva Brandão
    Proceedings of the F-ATLAS Conference 2, 475-484 , 2024
    2024
  • FONTES, João Luís Inglês–Génese e institucionalização de uma experiência eremítica: da “pobre vida” à congregação da Serra de Ossa (1366-1510)
    R Volzone
    Lusitania Sacra, 255-257 , 2023
    2023
  • Toward the Reconstruction of Sacred Medieval Spatialities: Multiscale Analysis of the System of Eremitical Landscapes in Southern Portugal from Historical Records
    R Volzone, JLI Fontes, A da Conceição Parreira Carapinha
    Historical Archaeology 57 (2), 764-787 , 2023
    2023
    Citations: 2
  • Reuse of unoccupied religious monuments for tourist accommodation: Santa Maria da Ínsua (North of Portugal)
    R Volzone, S Genin, J Estêvão, M Patuleia
    Placemaking and Cultural Landscapes, 317-334 , 2023
    2023
    Citations: 2
  • Santa Maria da Ínsua (North of Portugal)
    R Volzone, S Genin, J Estêvão, M Patuleia
    Placemaking and Cultural Landscapes, 317 , 2023
    2023
  • Smart thinking on co-creation and engagement: Searchlight on underground built heritage
    C Smaniotto Costa, R Volzone, T Ruchinskaya, MC Solano Báez, ...
    Smart Cities 6 (1), 392-409 , 2023
    2023
    Citations: 4
  • IV International Conference Architectures of the Soul. Religious Heritage: understanding the past, shaping the future: Book of Abstracts
    R Volzone, JL Fontes, J Ruivo
    DINÂMIA’CET–Iscte (ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa); IEM–Instituto … , 2023
    2023
  • Towards the reconstruction of sacred medieval spatialities
    JL Fontes, R Volzone, AC Parreira Carapinha
    2023
  • Architectures of the soul. Religious heritage: understanding the past, shaping the future
    R Volzone, JL Fontes, J Ruivo
    4th International Conference: Architectures of the Soul. Religious Heritage … , 2023
    2023

MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • Integration of knowledge-based documentation methodologies and digital information for the study of religious complex heritage sites in the south of Portugal
    R Volzone, O Niglio, P Becherini
    Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage 24, e00208 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 14
  • A 3D model for architectural analysis, using aerial photogrammetry, for the digital documentation of the convent of Santa Maria da Ínsua, on the northern border between …
    A Cottini, P Becherini, R Volzone
    Drones. System of Information on culTural hEritage for a spatial and social … , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 9
  • The Portuguese eremitical Congregation of the Serra de Ossa: spatial analysis of the monastic settlements
    R Volzone, JL Fontes
    Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 12 (1), 84-105 , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 6
  • Introduction
    JL Fontes, R Volzone
    Instituto de Estudos Medievais (IEM) , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 5
  • Os eremitas da pobre vida e a construção da paisagem da Serra de Ossa
    R Volzone
    I Colóquio Ibérico de Paisagem-O estudo e a construção da Paisagem como … , 2017
    2017
    Citations: 5
  • Smart thinking on co-creation and engagement: Searchlight on underground built heritage
    C Smaniotto Costa, R Volzone, T Ruchinskaya, MC Solano Báez, ...
    Smart Cities 6 (1), 392-409 , 2023
    2023
    Citations: 4
  • Architectures of the soul: multidisciplinary approaches to the experiences and landscapes of seclusion and solitude
    R Volzone, JL Fontes, D Martins
    2022
    Citations: 3
  • Architecture of the Soul
    RL VoLzone, JL Fontes
    Legacy of the Eremitical Congregation of São Paulo da Serra de Ossa (PhD … , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 3
  • Toward the Reconstruction of Sacred Medieval Spatialities: Multiscale Analysis of the System of Eremitical Landscapes in Southern Portugal from Historical Records
    R Volzone, JLI Fontes, A da Conceição Parreira Carapinha
    Historical Archaeology 57 (2), 764-787 , 2023
    2023
    Citations: 2
  • Reuse of unoccupied religious monuments for tourist accommodation: Santa Maria da Ínsua (North of Portugal)
    R Volzone, S Genin, J Estêvão, M Patuleia
    Placemaking and Cultural Landscapes, 317-334 , 2023
    2023
    Citations: 2
  • Architecture of the Soul: Legacy of the eremitical congregation of São Paulo da Serra de Ossa (Portugal)
    R Volzone
    2020
    Citations: 2
  • La documentazione digitale dell’antico monastero di Santa Catarina de Montemuro della congregazione eremitica di São Paulo da Serra de Ossa (Évora, Portugal)
    R Volzone, M Bigongiari, F Cioli, P Becherini
    ReUso Matera. Patrimoni in divenire. Conoscere, valorizzare, abitare, 1297-1308 , 2019
    2019
    Citations: 2
  • The Church of St. George in the Kyrenia Castle in the North of the Island of Cyprus: Bringing out the Shape of Architecture
    R Volzone, M Bigongiari, F Cioli
    CHNT 23-23rd International Conference on Cultural Heritage and New … , 2018
    2018
    Citations: 2
  • Digital vaulted territories: development of a cross-tool platform for vaults’ knowledge
    MB Pacheco, AP Falcão, M da Glória Gomes, R Volzone, MP Folgado, ...
    Revista de História da Arte, 96-119 , 2025
    2025
    Citations: 1
  • Documentation, understanding and enhancement of Cultural Heritage through integrated digital survey: Ínsua fort in Caminha (Portugal)
    R Volzone, P Becherini, A Cottini
    Defensive architecture of the mediterranean: vol. XV, 1171-1178 , 2023
    2023
    Citations: 1
  • The Legacy of Franciscan Observance Convents in Portugal: Overview of Their Reuse Towards Sustainable Development
    R Volzone, S Genin
    Regenerating Cultural Religious Heritage: Intercultural Dialogue on Places … , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 1
  • Architectures of the soul: diachronic and multidisciplinary readings
    R Volzone, JL Fontes
    3rd International Seminar Architectures of the Soul , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 1
  • REGENERATING CULTURAL RELIGIOUS HERITAGE. Intercultural Dialogue on Places of Religion and Rituals.
    O Niglio
    SPRINGER NATURE 1, 1-320 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 1
  • Digital survey in religious architecture. Methodologies for the studying of two monasteries in Alentejo region close to the UNESCO heritage site of Èvora (Portugal)
    S Bertocci, M Bigongiari, M Pivetta, F Cioli, P Becherini, R Volzone
    Il Simposio UID di internazionalizzazione della ricerca. Patrimoni culturali … , 2019
    2019
    Citations: 1
  • The church of St. George in the Kyrenia castle in North Cyprus: bringing out the shape of architecture
    R Volzone, F Cioli, M Bigongiari
    Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Cultural Heritage and … , 2018
    2018
    Citations: 1