The preservation of architectural archives is fundamental to understanding how heritage, culture, and identity shape the evolution of urban environments. These collections—often composed of drawings, models, photographs, technical reports, and administrative records—serve as irreplaceable testimonies of the processes through which cities are conceived, transformed, and interpreted. Yet many archives remain at risk due to the physical fragility of their materials, the obsolescence of analogue formats, and the restricted accessibility imposed by conservation requirements, institutional dispersion, or insufficient cataloguing. In this context, the development of effective strategies to safeguard and valorize these resources has become increasingly urgent, ensuring that they continue to inform research and public debate on urban form. This study examines the role of digitization laboratories in protecting and interpreting architectural archives, situating this analysis within the thematic axis of Heritage, Culture, and Identity in Urban Realities. It argues that digitization—understood not merely as technical reproduction but as an integrated process of documentation, analysis, and dissemination—can strengthen the connection between historical knowledge and contemporary urban identities. By generating high‑quality digital repositories, digitization laboratories expand the analytical possibilities available to researchers, enabling systematic comparison, interdisciplinary dialogue, and innovative forms of visualization that deepen the understanding of urban morphology. The research draws on the experience of the DAVID‑Lab at Iscte, which applies advanced imaging and digital visualization methods to architectural and urban archives, and will in the future also incorporate three‑dimensional recording. Through the implementation of consistent workflows—from material preparation to digital access—the laboratory demonstrates how technological innovation can be effectively integrated into heritage preservation practices. The results show that digitization not only protects vulnerable materials but also enhances their cultural relevance by making them accessible to researchers, institutions, and the wider public. The study concludes that digitization laboratories play a critical role in ensuring the long‑term sustainability of architectural archives and in fostering a more inclusive and informed understanding of urban identities. By revealing relationships between past and present urban forms, digital preservation reinforces the significance of heritage in shaping the intelligences and realities that define contemporary urban morphology. These results highlight the importance of embedding digital innovation within heritage‑based urban studies to support more robust, accessible, and culturally meaningful interpretations of the built environment.

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digital preservation,architectural heritage,cultural identity,urban form,digitization methods

• Computer and Information Sciences - Natural Sciences
• Other Humanities - Humanities