Beyond Digital Representation

The project is located in the field of knowledge engineering, virtual reality and digital humanities on the theme of human activity versus history and heritage of industrial cultural landscapes. Our objectives are to develop and validate virtual laboratories, cross-disciplinary research methods, collaborative methods involving institutions or other actors in cultural history, and the digital preservation and cultural facilitation of industrial trades. Our hypothesis is that a Sensory Realistic Intelligent Virtual Environment where the body is engaged results in a better retrieval of knowledge, a better elicitation, the possibility of capturing gestures and embodied knowledge, and new facilitation methods. Collaborative VR makes it possible to develop multidisciplinary research methods and innovative facilitation scenarios with a qualitative and quantitative leap forward concerning elicitation and the restitution of knowledge and know how.

Reflecting on specimens collected in archival funds becomes an opportunity for experimentation with different digital techniques to explore architectural features and proposed spatial configurations, creating new content that enhances accessibility and understanding for a different target. The paper presents experiments with Augmented Reality (AR) applied to the analysis and three-dimensional reconstruction of Studio ABDR’s unrealized project for the redevelopment of the Crypta Balbi area in Rome. In particular, it is presented: the methodology followed, the main characteristics of the project that emerged from the 2D and 3D analysis, and two AR experiments involving static and dynamic content. The experiments demonstrate the potential of Augmented Reality techniques applied to the archival architectural drawing to implement the accessibility of the collections, facilitate the reading and understanding of architectural drawings, intended as cultural heritage characterized by a specialized technical language, and explicate the architectural values and potential relationships with the context of unbuilt architectural projects.

Integrating virtual and augmented reality (VR-AR) with Web technology can pave the way for innovative experiences that enable users to immerse themselves in digital worlds comprising interactive virtual objects (IVO) and responsive content. The convergence of 3D drawing, modelling, virtual reality (VR), and cloud sharing can serve as a catalyst for knowledge transmission and facilitate the creation of immersive experiences that epitomise the complexity of built heritage. To this end, virtual-visual storytelling (VVS) has been developed for a research case study to cater to diverse user groups ranging from professionals to virtual tourists. The VVS framework addresses the challenges of interactivity, immersion, and VR accessibility, aiming to captivate the audience through an emotionally evocative WebVR experience that can revolutionise heritage representation.

Augmented Reality, as well as an instrument to communicate cultural heritage able to arouse interest and involve a vast audience, it can also become an important methodological instrument to expand knowledge. The ongoing research aims at exploring the potentialities of AR in this dual function, utilizing it as a tool for understanding and as a mean for the dissemination of the collection of woodcuts created by Lorenz Stöer (ca. 1530–after 1621) in his book Geometria et Perspectiva (1567). The work constitutes a component of the brief spurt of creative experimentation of perspective representation of regular and irregular geometric solids, involving various personalities between Nuremberg and Augsburg. In the prints by Stöer, geometry and perspective fuse in a particular manner: regular solids are presented within an imaginary landscape, in which, next to the remains of architectural ruins, there are fanciful geometric compositions. Stöer may have either constructed the images by drawing directly on the plane, by applying rules of perspective, or by using a perspective instrument. In a multi-media exhibition of the eleven prints, AR would offer its contribution in investigating these two hypotheses on the creation of the images and would permit the visitor to explore the possible worlds that are concealed past the drawing.

The aim of this project is to show scholars and tourists what they cannot see because it is enclosed within the pages of the Athanasius Kircher’s Archontologia. This was done thanks to the implementation of a workflow divided into two parts. The first part concerns the reconstruction of the model of the Turris Babel. This represents the most challenging part of the entire pipeline as it involves creating a model of an imagined architecture that never existed. By combining advanced photogrammetry and 3D modelling techniques, the model was created from the images in the text and compared with other designs of the tower. The second part of the workflow is the design of an augmented reality app to make the model of the tower navigable in 3D and available to the public.

This paper proposes integrating a visit to the University Palace of Genoa with the applications of digital panoramic photography and augmented reality, to show how it is possible to reconcile a real visit with a virtual one, without sacrificing, at least in part, contact with the cultural object. In particular, the aim is to illustrate the functioning of a scientific instrument found inside the Palace: the sundial with a gnomonic hole created in 1771 by François Rodolphe Corréard, Jesuit astronomer and mathematician. The University Palace of Genoa was born as the headquarters of the Jesuit College with an agreement between the Order and the important Balbi family of Genoa. From the entrance hall, the monumental staircase leads to the single courtyard overlooked by the classrooms arranged along the sides on two levels. The residences of the fathers overlook it from the top floor, set back for reasons of privacy, and are distributed along the corridor of Saint Ignace, at the end of which was the domestic library. It is this last room, now used as a university classroom and conference room, which hosts the gnomonic hole sundial.

The research aims to develop and experiment with a new form of visualization of one of the most celebrated treatises in Descriptive Geometry: La Géométrie descriptive. Leçons données aux Écoles normales, l'an 3 de la République published in Paris in 1827 and written by the French mathematician Gaspard Monge (1746–1818). First of all the research focuses on digitizing the 25 planchets contained within the treatise and showing solutions to complex geometry ex-ercizes through the use of the method of double orthogonal projections and, then, on the study of a new form of communication of the discipline that would facilitate its learning. The aim of the research is thus to begin a path of accessing information through e-learning based forms of learning. At a later stage, such an approach could see its scope broadened by involving other ancient treatises that do not necessarily deal with purely geometric apparatuses but may also find applications in other disciplinary fields.

This essay presents a work that Frank Lloyd Wright did not realized: Rogers Lacy Hotel project in Dallas. This reconstruction starts from the historical and geometric references of the project, retracing the cultural and architectural influences of the American architect during his career. The aim is to arrive at a virtual reconstruction suitable for specific analytical purposes. The proposed initial process, I mean the contextualization of the historical influences and the role played by the Kindergarten training (MacCormac in Environ. Plann. B. Plann. Des. 1:78–88, 1974) in the geometric composition of the building, is necessary to fully understand what role the skyscraper played in Wright’s thoughts. Indeed, this kind of building, which develops entirely in a vertical direction, caused contrasting emotions in the American architect. Wright considered the skyscraper both a symbol of technological progress as well as the main cause of the inexorable degradation of urban space. Starting from the original drawings (plans, elevations, and sections) it is possible to give a virtual life to the Rogers Lacy hotel and experiment with Wright’s technological vision, focusing our attention on the external façades, which are composed by revolutionary glass walls filled by a fiberglass insulation. In practice, basing on the construction technologies and building materials of the time, a lighting engineering evaluation of the performance of the glass panels has been performed, in order to analyze the well-being conditions inside the hotel (Salvatore in Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 47:1016–1033, 2015), using the parameters that refer to the American LEED certification.

The contribution analyses the various projects of the Villetta Di Negro Park, starting from 1800 until the present day. Originally, the first construction dates back to 1802 with Villa Di Negro, designed by the architect Carlo Barabino and destroyed during the Second World War. The reconstruction involved the creation of a museum to replace the Villa: The Edoardo Chiossone Museum of Oriental Art. The works began in 1948 and were entrusted to the architect Mario Labò; the project was radically modified between 1952 and 1955. The current building dates back to 1971 and, albeit with some changes, reflects the spatial idea defined by Labò. The different phases of the project will be analyzed and compared to the current museum, furthermore, the links between the second version of the building and its history will be highlighted, revealing the close connection to the nineteenth century project. The analysis of archival data has made it possible to deepen the theme of the destroyed or never built architecture, and to identify communication possibili-ties within the museum context for a wider audience. The text shows the possi-ble applications in the field of Augmented Reality with the intention of focusing attention on the architectural project and its spatial characteristics, rather than considering the qualities of the exhibition apparatus present inside the Museum. Augmented Reality is thus considered an opportunity to enrich the museum and the exploration experience of the Villetta Di Negro Park, showing people the complex history that has characterized an important place for the population of the city and which is often little known.

Among the possibilities offered by Augmented Reality is its potential use to give new life to works of art in museums, through the implementation of integration or completion in an operation that can be called virtual restoration. Without modifying the works of art in their current state of preservation in order to maintain their evocative power and, in particular, without invasive interventions on the signs left by time, through digital visualisation tools it is possible to provide users with a new way of re-reading objects and telling stories around them. The contribution aims to present the results of virtual restoration operations carried out on some statuary works in the collection of the Museum of the Archaeological Park of Ostia Antica in Rome, where innovative technologies are compared with the immense Heritage of the Museum, animating the exhibition itinerary by offering new points of view of the works through the creation of an interactive AR application.

Digital Culture is progressively spreading to all fields of knowledge. In the field of archaeology, and specifically in the case of museums, it offers a wide range of possible tools and methods that may open new research opportunities. Within the framework of the collaboration between the Fondazione Museo delle Antichità Egizie di Torino, the Department of Control and Computer Engineering, the Department of Architecture and Design, and the VR@POLITO Laboratories, the essay presents the pipeline and the outcomes of a research project aimed at disseminating information associated with archaeological objects. The idea that guided the research is aimed at creating new connections between the museum and the city, contributing to promote cultural tourism by bringing the museum outside the museum. According to the analysis of the state of the art on the opportunities of augmented reality (AR) in cultural institutions and museums, a mobile application has been developed. The application tests an educational and entertaining experience, deploying AR technology to communicate the tangible and intangible aspects associated with some of the objects of the Museo Egizio collection. Through this empirical application, the contribution explores the opportunities of AR technologies to implement the knowledge and dissemination of tangible and intangible aspects of the archaeological objects preserved in the museum and to discover the city’s architectural and cultural heritage.

We present the latest results of an experimentation, between research and didactics, on the theme of the Virtual Museum (VM), reflecting on the workflow and semantic models used for the realisation of its Metaverse, in the awareness of the potentialities today offered by post-digital techno-cultures. Since its beginnings in the 1980s, the interdisciplinary idea of VM, following the technological conquests of the times, has explored multiple conformative dimensions of digital space, experimenting with various visualisation systems and different forms of interaction, both online and offline. From the now historical Virtual Museum commissioned by the Guggenheim Foundation in 1999 to the studio Asymptote Architecture (Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture), to the great theme of the preservation and exhibition of digital heritage (cf. the 2003 UNESCO Charter for the Preservation of the Digital Heritage)—e.g. the exhibition Archaeology of the Digital Heritage curated by Greg Lynn in 2013 for the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal—up to today's proposal of the Virtual Museum NFTism by Zaha Hadid Architects, a fascinating adventure of ideas emerges, which above all finds its reasons for being a living space in representation. Considering the complexity of the subject, the multiplicity of projects that characterise it and the construction technologies involved, in order to summarise the results of the research carried out, the essay has been divided into three main thematic areas: The survey of the state of the art: conceptual map, timeline. The VM project of ephemeral architecture, between research and teaching. The elaboration of the workflow to realise the VM5 prototype.

The use of ICT technologies and Augmented Reality is now commonly accepted and proven in the arts, but there are still few studies related to medieval sculptural apparatuses. These, already since the Modern Age, have often been subject to manipulations that have caused the loss of parts and changes in their location, use and meaning. This research highlights the role that new technologies, three-dimensional reconstructions and AR strategies can play in this area of study. Specifically, the mausoleum of Luca Fieschi, a 14th-century funerary monument originally erected in Genoa's Cathedral of San Lorenzo and the subject of numerous relocations and rearrangements over the centuries, is presented as a case study. Today the tomb is a puzzle of 124 sculptural remains, and its original conformation is still a topic of debate among scholars. Some of the pieces are now being remounted in the crypts of the Diocesan Museum of Genoa: while this will allow the return of one of its greatest Gothic symbols to the city, it will also imply a reduction in scientific studies, configurational evidence and comparative analysis of the fragments. The paper shows how advanced techniques of representation can support physical museum setting, making explicit the design methodologies judged most appropriate. The construction of a catalog of digital twins will allow scholars a continuity of investigation of individual sculptural pieces and their configuration in reconstructive hypotheses; through specific AR narratives, museum publics will be given the opportunity to enjoy additive digital content in a playful and interactive manner.

The essay documents the results and subsequent developments of a two-year research project dedicated to the exhibition enhancement of ancient statuary contained in the National Archaeological Museum of Venice. Beginning with specific Greek and Roman models study, characterized by evident signs of physiognomic discontinuity, the digital photogrammetry application with Structure from Motion algorithms allowed the free form of the bodies to be reconstructed, generating digital twins in which the use of mesh surfaces, mapped with ultra-high-resolution textures, allowed non-invasive intervention in highlighting the breakage signs and stratifications present in the artifacts. In line with the direction of the museum’s intent to completely rethink the exhibition spaces, the digital twins produced allowed for experimentation with new set-up forms and fruition paths of the existing rooms. The design proposals, made by the authors, aims to enhance artifacts, increasing their signifies through those innovations offered by ICT that hybridize the tangible dimension of the statues with the potential of their virtualization. HoloLens, wearable holographic devices, allow users to interact with multimedia content while remaining anchored in the anthropic environment that becomes an integral part of the user experience. Thus, the augmented and mixed reality dimensions make it possible to reproduce a hologram of the statue, being able to animate it with just the movement of the hand. These technologies have been integrated in setting-up projects to enhance the interaction and understanding of the artistic and cultural heritage, in real storytelling capable of involving the public in the cognitive observation process of ancient statuary.

This research has been carried out in the framework of the research agreement to enhance the cultural assets of the Museo d’Arte Orientale (MAO) in Turin through digitization, 3D modelling and experiences in virtual and augmented reality. The aim of the present work is to communicate the evolutionary process in Buddha iconography in the Mathura area through three statues from the permanent collection of the MAO. This aim is connected with the general goal to increase inclusivity and remove spatiotemporal barriers in museums and their collections by meeting the diverse needs of visitors related to age, physical, sensory, cognitive, and cultural factors. The pipeline passes through the digital survey and 3D modelling of the artworks, the philological reconstruction modelling of the lacunae, the creation of an avatar guide, and the elaboration of the tour path in augmented reality (AR). Digital storytelling connected to the avatar enriches the experience by providing information about the context, history, and characters related to the works. One of the values that characterize the entire process is the predominant use of free and open-source software (FOSS) up to the prototype stage.

The research project aimed at documenting and digitally representing the sculptural apparatus of Donatello’s pulpit in Prato. The activities undertaken are part of a renewal of the narrative and exhibition itinerary of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo of Prato, in which the original pulpit is preserved. In particular, a team of researchers worked to digitize the marble surfaces of the panels that make up the pulpit, using image-based and range-based technological instruments and reverse modeling procedures. The objective was to obtain integrated 3D databases with a high level of morphometric accuracy to digitally represent the artwork. The research was then aimed at understanding how, from the digital products obtained, a narrative path of Donatello’s sculptural work could be started. The 3D models of the tiles, suitably optimized, were processed for 3D prototyping and reproduced in different scales up to 1:1 for the tactile fruition of the artifact. Finally, using augmented reality applications, the visitors, with their mobile device, will be able to digitally enjoy the pulpit, both on-site and remotely, for an understanding of the artwork and to raise awareness of the theme of digitization for the knowledge of the artifact. The research, that involved also Ph.D. and undergraduates students, has been developed by DAda-LAB—Drawing Architecture Document Action Laboratory of the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture (DICAr) of the University of Pavia, including a research group of the DIDA (Department of Architecture) of the University of Florence.

Our knowledge related to port urbanism under the Roman Empire is quite unclear as most ancient Mediterranean ports are often archaeologically preserved only at their foundation level or not well preserved at all. Archaeologists are able to reconstruct, at the best, a plan but the third dimension is difficult to imagine. The lack of monuments and the difficulty in interpreting the archaeological data require the use of iconographic sources. Port depictions can make an important contribution for learning more about ancient ports as they are the only source of information that shows the third dimension of port architectures that no longer exist. This paper aims not only to reinforce the knowledge of the built environments of Antiquity but also to promote the use of digital simulation tools by archaeologists throughout the work of elaboration and consolidation of the hypotheses of reconstitution, and not only in the final phases of restitution of the studied landscapes. The corollary question of the credibility of the restitutions produced and of the traceability of the data that allowed them to be made is also addressed. It also puts into perspective several digital restitutions carried out in the past by the MAP, in particular by the implementation of generative processes, in order to measure on the one hand the validity of the restitution methodologies mobilised until now and on the other hand the modalities to be implemented in order to make them operable by non-specialist communities in the field of the digital humanities.

In 2012, the HE.SU.TECH laboratory began documenting the archaeological site of the Duomo Station of Line 1 of the Naples Metro. This project aimed to use advanced technologies to record and analyze the archaeological artifacts found at the site such as laser scanner survey techniques and aerial and terrestrial photogrammetry. These made it possible to generate detailed and accurate 3D models and digital orthophotos and faster and more accurate identification of stratigraphic excavation phases and temporal overlaps of archaeological finds. The choice of instrumentation to be used depended on the specific needs of the site and the archaeological significance of the site. In the case of this particular research, the focus was on a Hellenistic kiln found in the excavation, and it was reconstructed based on the assumptions of a team of professionals from different fields. Constant research and collaboration between management agencies and superintendencies led to solutions that met both the needs of the site and those of documentation and preservation of the material found. In addition, the simplified model of the kiln was used to create a virtual experience accessible via both desktop and Oculus, enhancing it and making the object usable on multiple levels.

The project is born from a research agreement between the Department of Architecture and Design of the Politecnico di Torino and the Municipality of Turin to realise an augmented reality simulation of Castello di Mirafiori and cultural accompaniment for citizens. The building and the gardens are documented by archival and bibliographical sources that allow to digitally reconstruct them in the period of greatest splendour and hypothesise their location. The project included the realisation of an installation incorporating augmented reality features to make the results of documentary research and digital reconstruction accessible to a broad audience. The software was developed that interacts with an information panel installed at the castle ruins. The result is a web app made with the free and open-source software AR.js, which allows users to access AR directly from a web browser without downloading applications. It uses as the experience repository a web page of MuseoTorino, the virtual museum of the city. Moreover, the creation of physical reproduction to scale through digital fabrication processes, as a function of inclusive fruition, with which to associate the AR experience, foreshadows future research developments.

This article presents a research project aimed at the survey, modelling, graphic restitution, and elaboration of immersive fruition projects of one of Sardinia’s most peculiar monuments: the prehistoric altar of Monte d’Accoddi, the only monument in the whole of Europe and the Mediterranean basin that can be traced back to the type of altar with steps sloping upwards, morphologically similar to the better-known ziggurat and today a candidate together with the regional system of prehistoric sites for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Although the wealth of archaeological evidence in Sardinia has stimulated numerous experiments in recent years in the field of the application of digital technologies to the representation and enjoyment of the region’s cultural heritage, the altar of Monte d’Accoddi has not yet been the subject of actions of this type. It requires the experimental study of an operational method calibrated to the specificities of the site itself, which will be presented and discussed in this article. Moreover, the experimentation presented seeks to respond to the need to foster the cultural accessibility of the sites and the transmission of knowledge to different types of audiences with different levels of literacy, including digital literacy and different abilities. An operational method is therefore proposed that is capable of using the most advanced surveying, modelling, and restitution technologies both for high-tech fruition of the sites, aimed at users with a strong propensity to use digital tools, and a low-tech one, more suited to meet the needs of users belonging to other demographic and socio-cultural categories.

This article is part of the theme of Cultural Connections through an experiment aimed at creating a network of virtual fruition for the enhancement of the built religious heritage. The research aims to relate in a single system the different artistic and architectural expression of the territory and, in particular, it focuses attention on buildings of Christian worship of the Baroque era in the Neapolitan province. The result is a web map of the various emergencies detected and specific routes of fruition that highlight the peculiarities of the sites investigated. In this way, and according to a broader vision of the territory, the individual architectures, as well as the contexts in which they are located, are interrelated by a digital connection network. It allows an augmented fruition of space by displaying virtual content specially structured in order to highlight sites located in areas not easily accessible and therefore little known.

In recent years the use of virtual reality for heritage knowledge has greatly increased. This trend had a further boost during the health emergency due to COVID 19, when numerous virtual tours attempted to replace live visits. However, in the absence of targeted planning of the figurative apparatuses, the attention has shifted more to the technological and spectacular aspects rather than the perceptive and communicative ones. However, we must highlight that the virtual environment is mainly a drawn space, therefore it conveys spatial information through graphic signs which must be appropriately selected and semanticized in order to effectively communicate the morphological qualities of the architectural space. The ICAR 17 disciplines have the scientific tools and interpretative keys needed to intervene as a guide in the representations of virtual environments, often not harmonious with the purpose of the representation itself, focusing the gaze on the user and his interaction with the space. The present study uses an innovative VR design for communicating the heritage with a human-centered approach, to narrate not only the visible contents of the heritage but also its theoretical and semantic features. This method could shift the focus from the technological instrument to the user, in order to enhance the potential of 3D models and virtual reality as educative media for improving the quality of communication and learning for all of architectural heritage’s cultural contents.

The presented research resulted from an unusual educational experience that brought lecturers in surveying and three-dimensional digitalization with lecturers in heritage conservation. The courses explore the possibility of utilizing digital reality-based models to better analyze, organize, and create reuse activities using virtual reality and a holographic collaborative experience. The instructional activity is also a pretext for demonstrating the potential of combining the 3D digital data fruition with additional data information, in virtual reality and holographic mode, for collaborative disciplinary investigations and interpretations in the process of knowledge, conservation, and reuse of the historic built heritage. The case study is Cornello dei Tasso (Bergamo, Italy). A little municipality on the old Via Mercatorum that birthed the Italian post system. Its morphology makes it ideal for testing and pushing the limits of virtual and holographic visualizations and interactions with the urban system conservation and enhancement project.

Experimentation of geolocated interactive artefacts allows us the simulation of a journey through time, thanks to urban contextualization of 3D digital models. These simulations promote construction of communicative artefacts that can be created with free tools (web-based) and dissemination of these artefacts using free platforms (Google Maps/Street View9), opening new possibilities for disseminating knowledge and enhancing historical heritage. The aim of this contribution is to present the results of experimentation based on use of integrated technologies, accessible in situ and\or remotely for historical landscape representation. Majolica domes in Naples are the research topic that, starting from best-known churches designed by Frà Nuvolo (S. Maria di Costantinopoli and S. Maria alla Sanità), spread in the city, by defining landscape identity. In the past, the covering with majolica tiles was one of the least expensive solutions and therefore frequently used to waterproof extrados after structural consolidation works. On the contrary, in recent times, the original coverings have often been replaced or removed during restoration works. Furthermore, the urban transformations of the historic center have profoundly changed the perceptive look of the landscape by incorporating many of the domes into urban fabric that has become increasingly compact over time. The aim of research is to promote understanding and rediscovery of these lost landmarks through web-based interactive cognitive artefacts, usable in situ or remotely, capable disseminate cultural contents and stimulating the participatory use of heritage, also with pseudo-ludic methods.

New advances in the field of artificial intelligence propose to rethink methodologies in many areas of knowledge. In the field of Architectural Heritage studies, the virtual reconstruction of historical buildings in ruins has maintained the same analysis methodology for centuries. New technologies have been adding tools to the reconstruction process, which still depends on the theoretical assumption of a specialist. However, the development of neural networks (Deep Learning) is proposing a radical change in the analysis and reconstruction methodology. The proposal described as automatic virtual reconstruction uses Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) and Natural Processing Language (NPL) technology for training networks and learning patterns of a specific architectural style. A comparative study of the two methods can enlighten on the possibilities that will emerge in the coming years. This paradigm shift in the virtual reconstruction of historic buildings can revolutionize, from a scientific and informative point of view, the way of understanding and interpreting architectural heritage.

The contribution is focused on digital data segmentation in Heritage domain to define materials, construction techniques, and state of conservation. The proposed methodology aims to investigate further possibilities for thematic classification of data related to surface features of Cultural Heritage starting from current results in processing color-based data and adding data achieved by laser scanning. Anyway, nowadays the intensity value is hardly used for this kind of analysis, since it depends not only on surface specifications but also on different parameters such as the laser angle of incidence. To this aim, first comparative diagrams associating specific intensity value ranges with specific materials and states of conservation are required. Then, an adaptation and implementation of existing algorithms is needed, able to query the intensity value to generate a point cloud segmentation based on semantic features on controlled datasets. The purpose is to explore Artificial Intelligence processes in order to combine the irreplaceable cultural and interpretative skills with suitable tools useful to prioritizing data in a hierarchical way according to different levels of knowledge through automatic procedures.The research is in its very beginning, methodologies are currently being set up, and some comparative data sets are being explored, but the final goal is to use obtained thematic models for the informative implementation of H-BIM models, toward an increasingly structured organization of interpretative data, also within shared semantic web platforms.

Implementing Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) solutions for participatory processes can support citizens’ understanding of urban design outcomes favoring multi-stakeholder collaboration. Moreover, the interaction of final users with virtual and augmented environments, representing actual conditions or design schemes, can lead to identifying how specific urban features (e.g., typologies of greenery, urban materials, buildings) can affect the experience of places of today and tomorrow, i.e., before proceeding to construction. In this perspective, we combine two analytical methods to investigate the relationship between the physical environment and its subjective perception. Indeed, image segmentation allows for analyzing the urban scenes' environmental features and the exp-EIA © (experiential—Environmental Impact Assessment) method investigating the geolocated people’s reactions to the environment. This paper introduces this overall approach and methodology and presents an application in Milan. The case study is in the Porta Romana-Vettabbia area, a southern district of the city of Milan (Italy), where the Fondazione Prada by OMA (2018) was recently built, and the Symbiosis district by Covivio R.E. and ACPV (Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel) is currently under construction, and the design project VITAE by Covivio R.E., Carlo Ratti Associati, and partners will be located. The results of such type of study can inform the urban design project process, starting from the analysis of the current conditions to the definition of urban design briefs and during the design development and decision-making phase, by supporting the identification of the spatialized experiential effects of the urban composition of natural and artificial elements.

In the practice of digital architectural surveying, as in traditional architectural surveying, in-situ data acquisition operations are the components perceived as most structuring for scholars in other subjects and fields of research. In the subject, however, it is the data processing stage that is the most significant component of the work path, forming the core of the process. Connected to it, the restitution stage is necessary to find strategies for communicating the synthesis of survey operations. In the digitization of Cultural Heritage, the digital component is the means of connection between the processes of data processing and their purpose, summarized by the chosen method of restitution. In the panorama of digital surveying techniques, artificial intelligence and machine learning do not yet find significant application. Only with the development of tools for acquiring the built environment will it be possible to find a real use of automated assessment and independence from the operator. Acquisition of the data, it is the processing and return phases that constitute the most fertile scenario for the development of artificial intelligence. The development of machine learning toward knowledge of geometric feature recognition or digital model optimization functional to the restitution method can be two important strategies for obtaining results characterized by a high level of automation.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms has recently revolutionized many areas, including heritage enhancement through the Digital Twin and its use in the VR dimension. The paper discusses the potential use of various artificial intelligence techniques the Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) in the development of interactive and immersive VR serious games for heritage enhancement. GANs can be used to generate realistic and fully artificial images of spaces, objects and human faces, which can be applied in the design and concept process for building interactive environments. In addition, machine learning algorithms can improve the adaptability of the game to the user, for example by automatically structuring the difficulty level or plot of the game based on the user’s actions. In recent years, however, new, higher-performance artificial intelligence processes have emerged that have surpassed the generative capabilities of GAN algorithms, the latter of which were mainly used to produce 2D images of nonexistent elements. NeRF (Neural Radiance Field) is a technology developed by NVIDIA supported by a complex neural network recently optimized by a proprietary code called Instant NeRF. This technology enables the rapid and accurate generation of detailed 3D models of physical environments using much less photographic data than alternative photomodeling techniques that do not directly support artificial intelligence. In the future, this technology can be used to generate virtual environments that are indistinguishable from reality and can also be actively used for heritage enhancement.

From the City by the sea by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (about 1340) to the representation of cities in large frescoes from the Modern Age, the descriptions of places far from reach are extremely rich and based on both maps and oral descriptions. The transposition from a spoken story to a drawing or representation is clearly recognizable: similarities between different authors and the adoption of common rules made possible a syntax aimed to represent backgrounds and give context to events. This process of passing from words to representation is now extremely actual because of the development of artificial intelligence procedures based on text to images processing. The scenario is highly changed between the Middle Ages and our contemporary times, but the need to communicate through correct word sequences is very similar. A couple of case studies are here presented putting in parallel the AI-generated images and the products from human drawings based on descriptive texts. The relationship and the weight of each word and the structure of the text will be evaluated and balanced accordingly to the results. Each case study is focused on a meaningful artwork from the past, characterized by the presence of a town which is more the creation of imagination based on narration than on a direct visit.

This study starts from some preliminary considerations relating to the recent, and tumultuous, changes to the concept of authenticity and ownership of the work of art. Art in the era of its technical reproducibility has seen the very meaning of a work of art change starting from its attribution to the definition of uniqueness and the determination of value. In contemporary works of art, the theme of reproducibility changes radically. Many scholars have analyzed the phenomenon by referring to the reflections of Benjamin and Mc Luan, emphasizing the power of the medium. Immateriality, and the simultaneous need for visibility, have generated the need for new IT tools in digital art for the definition of possession and uniqueness. The procedure that identifies the creation of a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) in fact replaces the art expert and the documents that accompany a work and certify its history, possession, and even its value in some cases. Our research aims to investigate the potential of digital art by a double approach. On the one hand, the approach tries to reconstruct the virtual galaxy to which these digital works belong, and on the other hand, it experiments the techniques for the ad-hoc definition of NFTs without relying on the standard and widely-used platforms. By experimentation, we analyze the strengths and weaknesses derived from the use of blockchain, and we quantify the times and costs for the creation of a customized solution for the creation of NFT through a low-level implementation. The ultimate goal of our research is to offer a synthetic reference framework that highlights the specificities of digital art and the new dissemination and qualification tools.

This contribution describes research on point cloud metric data analysis and systematization of the procedures underlying Scan-to-HBIM modeling operations. This methodological protocol has been developed on the case study of Fraccaro University Residence in the historical center of Pavia. The parametric acquisition, drawing, and modeling practices were complemented by a reiterated process of verifying the metric reliability and adherence of the model to the 3D database, obtained through the combination of photogrammetric, TLS, and SLAM technology. The study deals with the different data collection methods, experimenting with an integrated survey logic for the definition of a three-dimensional database, delving into the management and sharing to illustrate a procedural process oriented towards shared parametric modeling. Namely, the metric accuracy of the proposed method was assessed using a comparative analysis of the data quality of the 3D point clouds obtained from photogrammetric processes, mobile systems, and fixed measurement systems. The research aims to define a common graphic language for the model categories capable of describing and conveying the architectural complex. If, on the one hand, the tendency is to match the digital model as closely as possible to the real object, on the other hand, the synthesis of complexity is founded on the criteria of shape approximation and imperfection limitation for the sake of standardization of the formal components of the built environment.

Parametric and algorithmic modeling stands as an increasingly diffused key tool for virtualization and automation processes, also aimed at the cultural heritage's management and fruition. Indeed, while Building Information Modeling (BIM) notoriously represents the most suitable solution for the realization of digital models that serve as digital twins of new and existing buildings, there is an evident need to implement automatization processes of operation flows to populate BIM models. This refers to both their information content and geometric component: for the virtualization of existing buildings, the latter is tackled through the automation of the recognition processes for unstructured data from digital surveys, and the related generation of solid instances in BIM platforms, opening up to experimentations with machine learning techniques. Hence, in the context of this research theme, this contribution is focused on the construction of rules to characterize the data associated with the element, with a focus on the recognition and digitalization of architectural elements, outlining our recent research path on new procedural aspects in Cloud to BIM for the recognition and reconstruction of complex objects and forms from both images and point clouds. The paper will present some case studies, detailing specific innovative approaches with visual scripting and programming, highlighting the future research perspective to sample the potential of automatic classification through artificial intelligence algorithms.

The aim of the research is to test different mapping techniques that use semi-automatic recognition methods of multispectral satellite imagery, to understand how they may support the work of analysis and interpretation of the landscape crossed by the Tratturo Magno between the inner areas of Molise and the Adriatic coast. Three different approaches have been tested with GIS and Google Earth Engine; the first one concerns the computing of Vegetation Indices; the second one is about the unsupervised classification method and the third one is about the supervised classification method. The methodology has been applied, on the one hand to one single satellite image through the Semi-automatic classification Plugin in GIS and on the other hand to a series of satellite imagery spanned over a period of time through Google Earth Engine. However, no one of the presented methods is fully matching the correct procedure to uniquely map the landscape features crossed by the tratturo.

The current ability of AI to create shapes or images has evolved enormously due to the machine learning technology based on GAN (Generative Adversarial Neural Networks). Thanks to it, we are witnessing the emergence of applications capable of generating new elements following the user`s instructions. The development of this technology poses a paradigm shift to which we must adapt as it has the potential to transform any human activity. This includes the way in which creative processes related to art or architecture are approached, so its benefits will depend to a large extent on the use that we are able to give it. This text aims to bring together concepts related to the processes of automatic learning based on generative networks, with the intention of studying its usefulness, in the belief that their knowledge will prevent them from becoming a future threat to space creators. At the same time, we investigate the role that technology in general and Artificial Intelligence in particular can play in architectural design and make a general review of the technological resources related to AI that are already used in the daily practice of architecture.

The growing field of Augmented Reality Apps is an indication of greater interest, by private markets and public institutions, towards immersive visualization and those tools that can enhance cultural content through user involvement. An often underrated feature of this digitalization lies in the smart language with which the notions are shown, in quick synthesis based on schemes, slides, lists, images, and comparisons. But the continuous input of data in an app can cause various problems, both on the hardware and software front: from the obvious weight gain, not negligible for pocket devices, to the continuous updating of scientific knowledge, that risks leaving behind all those theoretical contents that are not controlled or renewed. To this is added the problem of the constant maintenance of mobile devices for what concerns software, operating systems, security protocols, and systems for decoding existing data, especially for AR Apps that use audio and video devices. With this in mind, and in order to optimize the performance of mobile tools, a digital archive in the form of an open-source site is useful, providing centralized and pre-cataloged data specifically for use in the AR App. In this way, qualified users can contribute to the knowledge presented through a client–server upload system on the site, properly filtered by semi-automatic security checks. The experimentation of the contribution investigates the advantages and possibilities of such a structured system, setting the case study on the theory of ruled geometries, and the architectures corresponding to them.

The study discusses the outcomes of the Atelier Design and Modeling course in the third-year Bachelor of Studies in Architecture at the Polytechnic of Turin. The course, a collaboration between Drawing and Architectural and Urban Composition disciplines, focuses on designing for an area in the Cenisia district in Turin. Emphasizing the connection between conception and representation, students are introduced to architectural and urban composition through physical and digital modeling, integrating AR technologies. The paper examines the hybridization between models, referencing similar educational experiences from other universities. Then delves into the relationship between physical and digital models, highlighting the interdisciplinary educational approach and the potential of different modeling techniques.

The mass-product industry sees in the disposable object a solution able to provide a low-cost answer to the growing needs of consumers, feeding a consumerist circuit with negative social and environmental impact. The extension of this concept over a long time leads to the use of products composed by not durable components until they break down, then to the immediate replacement of the whole creation. Do-it-yourself, meant the ability to fix derivatives, counteracts this trend by extending the life cycle of objects, positively affecting both the environment and self-esteem. Advanced visualization technologies, such as augmented reality, can accompany and facilitate this process. Indeed, they provide tools accessible to all, thanks to smartphones, contextualizing digital info in the natural environment and expanding knowledge about the product's accommodation. This process's criticality is related to creating a 3D representation of the product to recognize the different components and associating multimedia data. The article's research aims to experiment with an Augmented Reality application to improve maintenance and repair activities anywhere and anytime on design products. The application is created and tested on the bicycle, a rapidly growing product even in large Italian cities. The purpose is to experiment with using Augmented Reality in the Industrial Product domain for fixing purposes, scaling its application to different types of products belonging to homogeneous classes.

This paper critically analyzes some of the results of the International Summer School Priene—Architecture and Archaeology. Survey, Documentation and Design at Priene. The archaeological site of Priene was included in 2018, by Turkey’s delegation to UNESCO, within the provisional list of properties considered cultural and/or natural heritage of outstanding universal value; thus eligible for inclusion in the World Heritage List. The subject of the study concerns the theater, one of the most relevant areas of the archaeological site. A photogrammetric survey of the theater’s area was done during the educational experience. The paper presents a workflow from the initial input phase, of digital acquisition, to the output phase, of data restitution by creating a three-dimensional model. The resulting model obtained, for research and dissemination purposes, were used to experiment with Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications to show the theater’s original splendor, now in a good state of preservation but still an archaeological ruin.

Serious Games are among the techniques of Information Communication Technologies, allowing the use of immersive experiences, where the user explores a virtual reconstruction generated on scientific assumptions. Visualization can be completely immersive, using virtual reality headset, or mediated through the use of portable device screens. The construction of a Serious game to communicate a space that no longer exists includes the creation of a GDD (Game Design Document), a reference document for game development in which storytelling, the end user, game play and level design have a primary role. Moreover, it must be also added to these elements the historical-artistic information and an effective level of modeling, to make the reconstruction reliable and adherent to what is or was present in the reality of the historical period subject of the reconstruction. In the game play, the interactions between the player/explorer and the Serious game emerge, which can have different levels of automation according to a precise question/answer scheme. The case study presents the reconstruction of Rome in 1750.

The present research aims to represent the perceptual analysis of space through digital procedures programmed to register immersive reality experiences and extract quantifiable data from them. The study is based on the reconstruction of three-dimensional environments and algorithms developed to identify and record the user’s virtual fixations and their duration. The project path is intended as a serious game based on the discovery of underlying visual relationships, which arise in a known and experienced place such as the reconstructed space of the current Perugia Fontivegge station, compared with an environment that has never been realized but is at the genesis of the real, that is, the original project ideated by architect Antonio Cipolla in the mid-nineteenth century. By comparing past and present, the influences between the two projects are highlighted, analyzing the perceptual quality of the spaces and defining a repeatable methodology that can also be applied when comparing present and future.

The research starts from the conceptualization of Parametric Architecture by the great master of Italian rationalism Luigi Moretti, conceived even before the war in collaboration with Italian mathematician Bruno de Finetti and presented at the XII Milan Triennale in 1960. Through algebraic formulas, the prophecy about the value of the digital for design animates operational research on urban planning and architecture, which connects perception to the morphogenesis of stadiums and spaces of the spectacle. Recent achievements in computational design and AI take up semantically and operationally the Morettian concepts of parametric architecture, and specifically the theme of perception takes on a key role in defining the quality of the space of a place like the stadium, starting from its genesis, from the performance it has to offer. Generative algorithms and digital genetic optimizations transform the mathematical and geometric logics of interpreting the mechanism of perception into signs, thus discovering new models of soccer stadiums, a paradigm of the application of computational design and augmented intelligence of generative representation for upcoming architectures.

The ongoing doctoral research I am conducting at the University of Bari Aldo Moro as part of the Course in Patrimoni archeologici, storici, architettonici e paesaggistici mediterranei is centered on the layering of the city, the vertical growth on itself and how the below, the archaeological substrate, forces the shape of the above, the city we live in. The goal is the elaboration of a new way of representing the forma urbis, possible today also thanks to the most innovative tools of digital representation, no longer seen solely in its last visible layer but as an interlocking of “drums” overlapping in space and time. It is now widespread knowledge that the urban space we inhabit is only the most superficial layer of an invisible overlay of multiple layered cities. Taking this into account, the question underlying the research and this paper is: how can be drawn this extraordinary complexity? What representational tools are most appropriate to clarify a constructive principle that has always built the shape of the city?

The decision-making process based on the interrogation and prediction of Big Data is a research topic that has animated the interest of many fields of investigation in recent decades. Among these, the architectural field has also participated in this widespread interest involving, in particular, the disciplines of Drawing and Representation. In this context, technological progress has transformed the way of knowing and investigating architecture with research approaches characterized by a multidisciplinary vision. The use of these new technologies has in fact developed new ways of thinking about architecture while representing, at the same time, a key factor in the process of analogy-digital transition still underway. In this mixture of physical and digital fits the theme of city models that follow development strategies based on Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things applications that allow for the processing and analysis of the enormous volume of data they generate. It is from this assumption that this contribution aims to analyze the quality of public space by defining, through survey techniques, a three-dimensional model in which to simulate a series of heterogeneous data collected through field surveys. The aim is to define a future sensors system to support a design based on real data and, therefore, a prototype of a forecasting model. Topics that are trendy in the predictive survey that associates morpho-metric information with a continuous flow of heterogeneous data obtaining what is commonly called Digital Twin.

The paper proposes the topic of Environmental Artificial Intelligence i.e., Artificial Intelligence approaches, based on the use of natural language, applied to architecture to support the design of systems to control the progress of degenerative states and to test their functionality through simulations with real-time interactive 3D models. Beginning with multiscalar heritage digitization techniques, the study explores the possibilities of integrating 3D models, annotated semantically, with AI for testing surface degradation progress monitoring systems. The monitoring system is based on the installation of RGB and, in the future, thermal cameras that acquire data streamed to them. Before installing such sensors in situ, their operation can be verified by taking advantage of a module in Unreal Engine 5 that simulates this streaming. The stream is hooked up to an AI group that has the task of analyzing the streaming images, recognizing if there are anomalies in relevant parts by cross-referencing the information with the semantic mapping of the digital model, and sending a signal to a dialogue system that has the task of alerting, in natural language, the user. The user can explore the 3D space in real time to check areas where there has been a significant change.

With the development of new technologies and materials, architectural skins have become more complex and diverse, requiring a lot of effort to model different skins in architectural design. Artificial intelligence technology has a deep impact on different disciplines and can improve the efficiency of architectural skin design and inspire architects. In order to find new expressions of the building skin, it is necessary to focus on the dialogue between the architectural skin and the environment, and to innovate by breaking away from the patterned and formalized design. This work combines the development of artificial intelligence to initially explore the role of neural style transfer for architectural skin design, where the fusion of different styles of architectural images is programmed to generate another style, thus allowing architects to make clearer decisions and judgments. After performing neural style migration on five different types of buildings, the results obtained can present the new style form more completely, which provides new ideas and inspiration for the application of artificial intelligence in architectural design.

Research in virtual representation (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) has been conducted separately for many years. Innovation in hardware and software has promoted a parallel evolution of both fields, which, in the last decade, have found a point of convergence in video game applications. Although a relatively recent phenomenon, video games are the most relevant technological, social and cultural expression of contemporary times, becoming the leading entertainment industry globally as a volume of business. The market’s growth has necessitated the need for dedicated work platforms, known as game engines, capable of integrating and optimizing workflow due to the ease of acquiring, transferring, and sharing heterogeneous content in interactive virtual environments. The paper aims to exploit this potential by combining a virtual environment’s spatial, physical, and temporal determinants to simulate the evacuation flows of a building during an emergency. To this goal, an AI is being studied that reproduces the processes that guide individuals to the nearest exit while considering obstacles and areas where passage is impeded. Within the development environment, the simulation can be visualized in real-time, with the possibility of changing parameters and evaluating different scenarios to optimize the relationship between the designed environment and security exigencies.

The presented research deals with the issue of data management in the field of rescue archaeology by using information systems. The project aims to develop an information system for documenting rescue archaeological campaigns. Experimental methods are used for the creation of reliable 3D models linked to cataloging sheets. The case study is the rescue archaeological excavation conducted at the Santa Margherita complex in Pavia. A protocol of actions for the documentations and systematization of data has been tested. It concerns fast survey methodologies, elaboration of three-dimensional models and creation of informative 3D systems. 3D Point clouds and digital models become containers of many informative layers in which the multiplicity of data that characterizes an archaeological investigation is usable. The experimental methodology avoids the loss of information and ensures the survival of the historical memory of what, due to excavation, is physically lost. Informative systems become a digital window to retrace information about the story of the site, analyzing the different layers of the city, and the excavation procedure itself.

The paper presents the preliminary results of the application of automatic classification techniques, using Artificial Intelligence, to the interpretation of the survey data of some important sections of the walls of Pisa, in order to identify the distinctive features that have characterized the evolution of lithotypes over time. A supervised Machine-Learning procedure, leveraging the Random Forest, is applied for the semantic segmentation of many tracks of the Pisan walls. The methodology, applied to the under-researched domain of fortified heritage, is tested to support the stratigraphic analysis as well as the description of the lithotype evolution and succession. We further investigate the transfer of semantic annotations on lithotypes from 2 to 3D data, as part of a broader research project on different ways of storing, retrieving and transferring important architectural heritage knowledge across different types and methods of representation. Two relevant tracks of Pisan walls are considered: the walls in Tersanaia and the track between Torre Santa Maria and Porta murata di Santo Stefano.

The topic of the relationship between digital restitutive model and measurement can find important development possibilities in machine procedures, in particular in the Historic Building Information Modeling (HBIM) field. In fact, BIM uses parameterized and pre-defined objects in special 3D libraries articulated according to the architectural components, not corresponding to ideal configurations. Moreover, BIM platforms are limited in modeling deformations, damages, and degradations. The paper investigates the advantages of using visual programming to increase the possibilities given by the BIM software, born for new buildings, by carrying out a semi-automatic assessment of the geometric reliability directly in the BIM environment. In particular, the algorithm compares model’s shapes with the cast of the artifact given by the point cloud, and declares it, by automatically filling a dedicated reliability parameter linked to the BIM model element.

This paper investigates the possibilities offered by immersive visualization in the field of architectural representation for its knowledge in both educational and professional fields referring to cultural heritage and new construction. Tools such as headset and glasses for immersive environments as well as a holographic table are explored, offering some implementations to the visualization systems such as: the possibility of inserting annotations, the insertion of a movable section plane with respect to the model, the construction of a federated model from the specific ones mechanical, hydraulic, architectural. System implementations are made within Unity packages. The paper analyzes the response of some users in the preference of the two immersive experiences via immersive headsets or on the table, aware of the opportunities that immersive visualization can extend into the fields of experience on architecture.

In recent years, the massive development of digital technologies for capturing data from sensors, located both in-side buildings and in the urban environment, made necessary an expansion of the traditional semantic domains of the construction industry with reference to BIM-based information management processes. The integration of data between BIM models and IoT devices enables the creation of Digital Twins (DTs) of built heritage assets, capable of connecting data coming continuously from sensors with digital models of those assets. This enables the management of large masses of data produced at various stages of the building lifecycle, making it possible to experiment with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics for predictive analysis of building system behavior and performance. This paper presents the results of a research, which aimed to develop a methodological and operational workflow for the creation of Digital Twin of buildings. The interoperability offered by the IFC schema allowed the use of an external platform for linking different semantic fields. Thus, on the one hand, a federated BIM model was created, and on the other hand, real-time acquired data from a system of sensors in-stalled at different locations in the building were recorded and stored in a central server.