A Case Study of Capitalisation and Valorisation of Our Technical Heritage

For the 2008 CIRP Design conference, we have presented a scientific article dealing with a new way of thinking our technical heritage: we would like to preserve it as a digital object. Project deals with a physical mock-up of Nantes city built in 1899 and used for the Universal exposition in France in 1900 in Paris. The heritage object is nowadays in the museum but exposed as a fish inside an aquarium. Thanks to a virtual system coupling a tactile screen with semantic research modules, 3D active screen and light pointer, it will allow the visitor to better understand the mock-up and emphasize important places of Nantes city life. However it does not mean beautiful 3D animation with nice static rendering; indeed, we create virtual mock-ups which are dynamically operating. We use CAD software and engineering simulation tools. Nowadays the global methodology has been improved: it is named Advanced Industrial Archaeology. In this communication, we will detail a new experimentation done in partnership with a French museum: the Château des Ducs de Bretagne in France. This project deals with a physical mock-up of Nantes city built in 1899 and exposed in 1900 for the World Fair that took place in Paris, France. The heritage object is nowadays in the museum but exposed as “a fish inside an aquarium”. Thanks to a virtual system coupling a tactile screen with semantic research modules, a 3D active screen and a light pointer, it will allow the visitor to better understand the mock-up and emphasize important places of the city. The mock-up represents our industrial heritage with old shipyards of Nantes.