The combination of thermographic and geometric recording has always been an issue for architectural heritage diagnostic investigations. Multidisciplinary projects often require integrating multi-sensor information including metric and temperature data to extract valid conclusions regarding the state-of-preservation of historical buildings. Towards this direction, recent technological advancements in thermographic cameras and three-dimensional (3D) documentation instrumentation and software have contributed significantly, assisting the rapid creation of detailed 3D thermal-textured results, which can be exploited for non-destructive diagnostical surveys. This paper aims to briefly review and evaluate the current workflows for thermographic architectural 3D modeling, which implement state-of-the-art sensing procedures and processing techniques, while also presenting some applications on case studies of significant heritage value to help discuss current problems and identify topics for relevant future research.
Amathus archaeological site is one of the most important monuments (memorials), which remains for up to 2300 years. Last decades, archaeological sites, face anthropogenic and natural disturbances. One of those is the land movements that come from landslides or earthquakes. Improved remote-sensing techniques and new data more contemporary can assist in archaeology because it provides extensive area coverage and access in difficult-to-reach archaeological sites. In the present study, we investigate the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) in land movement estimation near archaeological sites. We applied the D-InSAR (Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry) methodology in Sentinel-1 data. These data are free and available from Copernicus Open Access Hub. The methodological framework was implemented in SNAP software (Sentinel Applications Platform), which is free and available from the European Space Agency. The analysis had three main steps: a) to prepare the data and check the suitability, b) the production of the interferogram, and c) the production of displacement map in meter units. The results have shown that in the area of interest, the hazard of land movement is low.The abstract should summarize the contents of the paper in short terms, i.e. 150–250 words.
Recent advances in computer science allowed people to explore new possibilities for the fruition of CH all around the world. The development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the field of territorial systems and the evolution of Virtual Reality (VR) solutions opened new scenarios for the valorization of cultural goods. At the same time, recent advances in digital photogrammetry and 3D interactive navigation models on WEB-based on WebGL technologies offered new opportunities of digital fruition of CH. Considering this panorama, the presented work shows how the integration of these technologies gives a precious added value to the virtual fruition of CH. In particular, it has been considered a cultural path in the La Loggia district, located into the historic centre of Palermo. This area is rich in monuments, many of them not accessible to the public, within the I-ACCESS European Project. The starting idea was to enlarge and diffuse, as much as possible, the accessibility to the knowledge of cultural goods in a virtual way, stimulating at the same time their real fruition. The developed solution implemented a GIS platform HTML 5 based and freely available online from desktop and mobile devices. In the virtual tour, everyone could navigate inside the cultural path, accompanied by touristic information, and come and visit the indoor environments of the main monuments. This work offers a new approach to accessibility and represents an example of how new technologies could support the diffusion of knowledge of CH.
This paper discusses a simplified workflow and interactive learning opportunities for exporting map and location data using a free tool, Recogito into a Unity game environment with a simple virtual museum room template. The aim was to create simple interactive virtual museums for humanities scholars and students with a minimum of programming or gaming experience, while still allowing for interesting time-related tasks. The virtual environment template was created for the Oculus Quest and controllers but can be easily adapted to other head-mounted displays or run on a normal desktop computer. Although this is an experimental design, it is part of a project to increase the use of time-layered cultural data and related mapping technology by humanities researchers.
The change and restrictions in how we react with cultural heritage because of the COVID-19 pandemic has created an urgency in advancing remote and digital access to objects and sites. This paper outlines the process for developing Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) using digital recording and modelling of architectural heritage and archaeology. Virtual Reality (VR) software, game engine platforms and WEB platforms are outlined which can be applied to represent heritage sites in addition to emerging screen based technological learning systems. The application Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM) and Game Engine Platforms for creating Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) is also examined. The design-theory based on Virtual Learning Objects for cultural heritage is explored. Two case studies are explored for their potential to create Virtual Heritage Learning Environments. Finally, a design framework is proposed for developing Virtual Heritage Learning Environments.
This paper aims to demonstrate how social participation in culture contributes fostering the resilience of tangible and intangible heritage, and to enhance its preservation and conservation. The REACH Social Platform brings together a wide community of relevant heritage stakeholders’ representatives. They include research communities, heritage practitioners from public and private cultural institutions and organisations as well as policy-makers at European, national, regional and local levels. Based on a focused, critical mapping of existing research and practice, the objective of the Social Platform is to develop a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities for research and innovation in the participatory preservation, (re-)use and management of cultural heritage. The project identifies theoretical participatory models and tests them in practice through four thematic pilots. Final aim of the Social Platform is to propose the adoption of an integrated model of resilient European cultural heritage milieux.
Cultural heritage today is endangered by many factors, some natural and most of them anthropogenic. The natural factors include vegetation, growing trees, some disasters, as earthquakes, atmospheric processes, etc. Among the anthropogenic factors there is also related to vegetation – agriculture and the cultivated crops, and related to construction activities and mining. Due to these factors the cultural heritage needs careful preservation and conservation activities and measures. The monitoring is probably the best way to provide a constant or frequent observation of the status and condition of the cultural sites. The provided method for monitoring is based on combination of satellite imagery and aerial photos, GIS mapping and integration of all the data into a geodatabase. The case study in this paper is the first capital of Bulgaria, Pliska, one of the most important archaeological reserves in Bulgaria.
This paper presents a research through design exploration using tangible interactions in order to seamlessly integrate technology in a historical house museum. The study addresses a longstanding concern in museum exhibition design that interactive technologies may distract from the artifacts on display. Through an iterative design process including user studies, a co-creation workshop with museum staff and several prototypes, we developed an interactive installation called The Diary of Niels that combines physical objects, RFID sensors and an elaborate fiction in order to facilitate increased visitor engagement. Insights from the research process and user tests indicate that the integration of technology and artifacts is meaningful and engaging for users, and helps introduce museum visitors to the historic theme of the exhibition and the meaning of the artifacts. The study also points to continued challenges in integrating such hybrid experiences fully with the rest of the exhibition.
The city is an entity with both tangible and intangible cultural heritage values. It is impossible to think of cultural heritage values independently of the city in smart cities designed to overcome the challenges that arise for all stakeholders and elements of the city from global urbanization, technological innovations, and various urban policies. Cities that transform rapidly should aim to change without becoming detached from their cultural context. In this study, a route planning proposal based on individual preferences will be developed on how “smart city” strategies can be implemented to strengthen, ensure and protect the interaction between cultural heritage and visitors. To transform cultural heritage values into the “smart” state, their interactions with cultural heritage should be improved through advanced infrastructures in Smart City applications. With this study, the aim is to develop a user-oriented route generator integrated with city transportation data to improve the visitor experience. The Istanbul Esenler District was chosen as the field of study given its important historical and cultural values from the Byzantine and Ottoman periods. Also, the area has strategic importance as becoming a smart city in Turkey. With the proposed application, the plan is to provide simultaneous information on all cultural heritage values available to the visitor, convey visual information, and provide verbal explanations. At the same time, the route generator enables interaction with cultural heritage by allowing the user to design routes using smart city transportation data for the bus and metro, current location, and travel times.
The aim of this paper is to illustrate parts of a 45 pages scientific investigation, delivering a significative sample of the results achieved according to the authentication methodology resulting from EU funded Research Project AUTHENTICO – CT-044480, coordinated by EJTN GEIE. Content has been abridged according to required number of pages. Advanced scientific instrumentation allows in-depth examination of the artefact while scientific and technical scholars, with established competences on movable Cultural Heritage, interpret results.
Today, the availability of digital scanning and computer-aided design and fabrication process open possibilities for automation that allows the reproduction of objects in different formats, facilitating the access to the cultural heritage.Projects as Europeana, the European digital library, and “Horizon 2020 Reflective Societies 7–2014: Advanced 3D modeling for accessing and understanding European cultural assets” confirm this trend in this field.Museums are the places where the concept of “usability” of CH has always been manifested, representing the perfect context to explore the huge potentials of modern technologies of rapid prototyping, which allow quickly reproducing an object from a 3D model, offering new opportunities of experience.The extension of accessibility of CH to disabled people is a current topic of great importance. Physical, sensorial and cultural accessibility are to be considered essential to make the places of culture fully accessible to all visitors (MiBACT).The research focuses on the use of digital fabrication techniques (CNC milling machine) to realize tactile architectural models to enrich the accessibility of Museo di Arte Orientale (MAO) in Turin, in a “Design for All” perspective.The experimentation has been carried out on the vaulted system of the atrium of Palazzo Mazzonis that hosts the MAO.
The objective of this paper is to illustrate the common social need for preservation of Cultural Heritage (CH), through innovative and interactive processes of curation of exhibits and events in places of cultural interest or remotely [1]. Through the project “Narration” we are demonstrating ways for specialized and non-specialized users to create and curate narrations of various extents based on the content available, and share them with the general public. To this extent, the main focus can remain the research of adding an impact in providing a historical and cultural significance by enhancing the understanding and appreciation of cultural values. “Narration” proposes an innovative integrated platform for curating digital exhibitions and cultural content. Through a complex schema of interconnected narrative formations, “Narration” aims to contribute to a better understanding of the cultural and artistic relationships between exhibited objects and cultural heritage collections. Aiming at enhancing the preexisting apprehension on the way cultural heritage items carry valuable and explicable meanings, Narration suggests innovative and holistic curatorial solutions which enrich cultural heritage analysis and experience.
Ancient structures are a path to understand the cultural heritage and traditions that existed long ago. They become an important link in transferring knowledge from the past to present and future generations. Southern Indian has thousands of temples out of which a few are known for their uniqueness in construction and stability. In this research, a thousand pillar temple built during the 12th century AD in Hanamakonda, Telangana State has been considered. It is the finest example of Kakatiya's architecture, being completely built with stone spreading across the planar dimensions of 34 m × 34 m and a height of 9.5 m. Its foundation is believed to be laid in the sand at a depth of 6 m. A complete three-dimensional finite element numerical model is developed considering all the complex geometries, different types of columns, and mandapas to form the integrated temple model. Stresses in Individual structural elements are calculated to understand the role of complex geometry. Global stresses are computed to understand the load flow and stability of the structure for the gravity analysis.
In the construction community, the BIM approach to design, nowadays, is well-known even if still not completely spread out. Nevertheless, every design team using BIM often seems to act in its own way. In addition, the practical experience of the Con.Si.Lab. Research team, when involved in design projects, is a huge lack of information flow through different design disciplines. This issue has been evaluated as a sensible obstacle towards quality especially in H-BIM projects, where construction site problems could create loss in time and money. The research had therefore the aim to create an original standard information flow, able to structure designers' relationship starting from an information collection responsibility award given them by the BIM coordinator at the early beginning of design activities, using some dedicated synopsis tables. The team's research method had an empiric approach through many years of experience in Historical Building construction sites design and management using BIM (i.e. H-CoSIM, Historical Construction Site Information Modelling). The case histories collection enabled the definition of the presented information flow, based up on an ergotechnic parameters list gradually implemented and tested in many different sites. These parameters objects tables have been recently presented at the Italian Standard Body (UNI) in order to be enforced in a new release of the Italian standard UNI 11337, that provides two type of CoSIM: one at the design stage and one at the execution stage.
The Creative School project explores the possible mobilisation of digital cultural heritage and engagement with maker spaces models, as tools to create unusual and exciting learning opportunities. The project is developing learning modules for children and school teachers, promoting self-directed learning, critical and visual thinking skills by using cultural heritage content made available by the partner organisations. Its main outputs are: analysis of training and information needs of teachers, educators, children and also parents; development of a set of training materials focusing on the development of thinking skills through engagement with cultural heritage; development of guidelines and recommendations aimed at influencing policy makers and curriculum decision makers. The main beneficiaries of the project include primary and secondary school teachers, who, through engaging with the project will become equipped with the skills necessary to facilitate pedagogical strategies for creativity and critical thinking. Children and young people involved as participants in the Creative School project will develop the skills required to respond to the challenges offered by the Creative School curriculum.
This paper presents an Augmented Reality (AR) project for the curation of virtual museum 'takeouts' and DIY exhibitions. The project's outputs include novel AR app technology demonstrators to support co-design with museum users and stakeholders - the goal being to create useful and easy-to-use AR apps for scholars, citizen scientists and the interested public.The apps were designed for users to create, display, animate and interact with exhibitions of selected 3D artefacts that could, for example, reflect academic specialisms for sharing with fellow researchers, support curators in exhibition planning or enable friends and students to share eclectic favourites from museum visits. The overarching project ambition was to create AR apps to support research, engagement and education, and to enable interactive and personalized visualizations of individual artefacts as well as reconstructed forms. As presented in the paper, these forms are exemplified in the AR apps with 3D models of a cuneiform envelope and its tablet contents, viewable either as i) separate artefacts or ii) in their reconstructed enveloped form, with the AR apps enabling animated opening and 'X-ray views' of the contents within. In this way, the apps can enable users to visualize individual objects and reconstructions that could, for example, incorporate artefacts held in different museums.
The purpose of this paper is the investigation of the performance of four well-established commercial and open-source software packages for automated image-based 3D reconstruction of complex cultural and natural heritage sites, i.e., Agisoft Metashape, RealityCapture, MicMac and Meshroom. The case study is part of the inaccessible giant rock of St. Modestos, in the archaeological site of Meteora. In terms of computational time, the commercial software packages were the most time-efficient solutions, with Metashape being the fastest one. They also have a friendlier user interface, which makes them adoptable even by non-photogrammetrists. Αll four solutions yielded approximately comparable results in terms of accuracy and may be used for generation of 3D dense point clouds of complex sites. With the exception of Meshroom, they may produce georeferenced results. Also, with the exception of MicMac, which did not yield satisfactory results in terms of textured mesh, they may be used for generating photorealistic 3D models. The comparative analysis of the results achieved by the tested software will serve as the basis for establishing photogrammetric pipelines that may be generally used for 3D reconstruction of complex geometries.
This paper shows the results of research advances on complex vaulted systems produced by the integration of laser scanner survey techniques and three-dimensional modeling for the geometric interpretation of built architecture to recognizing the geometric matrices of the design conception. The integration between TLS techniques and digital modeling methods led to the definition of new workflows, aimed at optimizing the use of data and at refining the quality of the geometrical interpretation. The process incorporates the traditional activities of freehand drawing of eydotipes, aimed at a deep understanding of the peculiar characteristics of the artifact. In particular, from these procedures new opportunities for the research arise to better understand the relationships between survey data, geometric matrices and compositional rules.The case study presented here, the atrium of Palazzo Mazzonis in Turin was chosen among a small number of atria that present characteristics of originality and uniqueness in a panorama of realizations strongly characterized by compliance with well-established compositional schemes.
The coronavirus pandemic, scientifically named Covid-19, was entirely a unique phenomenon that affected the lives of billions of people around the world. The problem persists, with a happy ending not yet fully visible, even if, in due course, medical science discovers ways to reduce or eliminate this pandemic. The negative impact of the disease on people's lives has been enormous, with millions of dead people, while at the same time it affected the global economy as well as social cohesion, making life difficult for people. Culture was also a major victim of the pandemic, as the direct contacts of artists and experts with the works of art of the world cultural heritage were immediately cut off. Greece felt the negative consequences in this area, as its history and culture are linked to tourism and the promotion of its cultural heritage has suffered a major blow. Masterpieces from the past, of great his-torical importance and aesthetic value, were found in isolation as the difficulties of being approached by the international public seemed to be unsurpassed. However, "Necessity and the gods are convinced", as the ancient greeks said, so the Greek museums entered-with an unprecedented dynamism- in modern technologies and in the age of digital image, in order not to stop the "contact" of the public with the rich world of art. Therefore, at an extremely fast pace, special virtual tour programs were implemented and displayed in museums and places of culture and as it turned out, the attendance showed high numbers, as the cultural project became a "product" with the aim to be perceived by the cyber public as an intangible object with dimensions outside the "established" aesthetic pleasure. Furthermore, the result is considered to be particularly encouraging as the operation of the museums has acquired a new dynamic, a necessary condition in the functioning of the modern world.
