The paper presents the development of a serious game aimed at reconstructing and communicating the historical events of the Allied landing on Elba Island during World War II (Operation Brassard, June 1944). The methodology integrates historical archival research, digital survey (TLS and drone photogrammetry), and 3D modeling to create an accurate reconstruction of military structures and landscape. These data are implemented into a real-time interactive environment using a game engine (Unreal Engine), enabling immersive exploration and interaction. The system is structured through a Game Design Document (GDD), defining storytelling, gameplay, and educational objectives. The resulting experience combines historical accuracy with interactive learning, allowing users to engage with reconstructed scenarios, understand spatial and strategic dynamics, and explore cultural heritage through gamified and immersive narratives.
A Simultaneous Multiuser Collaborative Immersive Design Environment: Extended Reality and Digital Photogrammetry for the Valorisation of Heritage Sites
The paper presents an experimental immersive design environment that integrates digital photogrammetry, 3D modeling, and extended reality technologies for collaborative architectural design in heritage contexts. A photogrammetric survey is used to generate a lightweight textured mesh of a traditional building, which is then imported into a virtual reality design platform (SketchUp with VR plugin). The system enables simultaneous multiuser interaction, allowing designers to collaboratively edit and develop projects within a shared immersive environment. The approach demonstrates how digital twins and XR interfaces can enhance design workflows, improve contextual awareness, and support heritage valorisation, while also highlighting limitations related to scale and usability in architectural applications.
Investigating Depth Perception in Immersive Hypothetical Reconstructions: 1816 Canova’s Exhibition in Spirito Santo Church in Bologna
This paper investigates how different visualization technologies influence depth perception in immersive architectural reconstructions. Through the case study of the hypothetical 3D reconstruction of Canova’s 1816 exhibition in the Spirito Santo Church in Bologna, the research compares multiple visualization modes—including static images, spherical panoramas, and interactive VR environments—to assess their impact on the perception of spatial dimensions and proportions. The study demonstrates that immersive, real-time VR experiences provide a more reliable perception of architectural space due to the integration of both monocular and stereoscopic depth cues, particularly motion parallax. The results highlight the importance of carefully selecting visualization techniques in order to avoid perceptual distortions and ensure accurate spatial interpretation.
Towards a Virtual Museum of Ephemeral Architecture: Methods, Techniques and Semantic Models for a Post-digital Metaverse
This paper presents the design and prototyping of a Virtual Museum dedicated to ephemeral architecture, conceived as an autonomous post-digital metaverse environment. Developed through a research and teaching collaboration at the University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, the study investigates how virtual museums can evolve from simple digital archives and virtual tours into immersive architectural spaces specifically created for networked exploration through avatars. The authors define conceptual models, semantic classifications, and technical workflows for the realization of the VM5 prototype, a five-room interactive museum where users navigate first-person virtual environments dedicated to historical and contemporary examples of ephemeral architecture. The project combines 3D modelling, animation, real-time rendering, Unreal Engine, Twinmotion, panoramic visualization, sound design, and interactive scripting. Through reconstructed environments ranging from Andrea Pozzo and Piranesi to Aldo Rossi, Roger Waters, and Berlin urban installations, the research demonstrates how digital representation can preserve, reinterpret, and reactivate temporary architectures that no longer physically exist. The study proposes the virtual museum as both a cultural archive and an experimental habitat for future forms of digital living.
根付 Netsuke Hands on Subverting Untouchability Through the Digital
This paper presents Netsuke Hands On, a digital application developed by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to enhance public engagement with Japanese netsuke, miniature sculptural objects that are often difficult to appreciate in conventional museum displays. By integrating three-dimensional photogrammetry, interactive viewing tools, and mobile storytelling, the project allows visitors to rotate, zoom, and virtually handle the objects beyond the limitations of the glass vitrine. The platform also provides interpretative narratives about the cultural history, materiality, production techniques, circulation, and collecting of netsuke from Edo-period Japan to Western museum collections. The initiative proposes digital mediation as a way to challenge institutional untouchability, democratize access to artifacts, and create a more immersive and critical museum experience.
SurveyingGame: Gamified Virtual Environment for Surveying Training
This contribution describes the first developing phases of a tool aimed to support field training ses-sions in topographic survey learning courses. After describing the issue that justifys the proposal of the research, a discussion of similar approaches carried out by researcher from different countries is shown. Thenceforth, the concept and description of the proposed gamified simulator are explained. Finally, the future features and scopes of the research are presented.
Architectural Maquette. From Digital Fabrication to AR Experiences
With this paper, the authors want to reflect on how, in the age of the immaterial, a plastic model is a tool still current in the representation and able to connect with the new digital tools of augmented reality (AR). In this context, we would like to present a practical case concerning the realization of two static scale models, realized through Digital Fabrication technologies, aiming to increase the accessibil-ity to knowledge about the architectural project in an exhibition context.The final goal of this work is to develop a methodology that allows the user to obtain information about the architectural project not only through the real model but also through static and dynamic virtual models overlaid using the current AR technologies. In particular, the following tools were used for tracking: Unity®, a multiplatform graphics engine, and Vuforia®, an augmented reality software development kit.
Scan-To-Ar: from Reality-Capture to Participatory Design Supported by AR
This contribution presents state-of-the-art methods in 3D scanning and augmented reality for pub-lic-inclusive architectural programmes through rapid survey, accessible design tooling, and immersive visualisation outcomes. It follows an application case in Cantieri Culturali della Zisa, Palermo, part of a co-design workshop called Everyday Experiences and Heritage in South European Cities: Digital Tools and Practises, which invited architects, urban theorists, and local stakeholders to explore public-oriented reclamations of industrial-cultural-heritage sites. This contribution illustrates the benefits of pedestri-an-operated 3D structure-from-motion survey for historic urban scenarios and details WikAR; a cloud-based augmented reality app modified for accessible proposal creation and visualisation.
Connecting AR and BIM:a Prototype App
This contribution discusses an ongoing project integrating information modeling and immersive tech-nologies for the built space, in particular augmented reality (AR). We examined tools and procedures to quickly recognize the equipment present on telecommunication network sites and access the cor-responding components on a digital information model. A first phase of the project, recently complet-ed, produced an app prototype for mobile devices capable of showing a 1:1 scale AR representation on-site. The project highlights current limitations and opportunities in making the interaction between AR and building information modeling (BIM) technologies fully scalable.
Virtual and Interactive Realityin Zaha Hadid’s Vitra Fire Station
The aim of the research was to analyze the project by Zaha Hadid’s Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein using advanced and interactive representation. Built between 1990 and 1993, today the building is a space for temporary exhibitions. We choose it to understand its morphological complexity and to experiment some different interaction systems. To increase the credibility of the virtual environment, we applied seamless textures from photographs samples during the surveys to the 3D model. The Virtual Reality (VR) exploration includes the external context and the building interiors, where we have inserted textual and manual interactions of some works preserved in the exhibition area. We generated two levels of interaction of the scene: with keyboard and VR headset. These two ways allow users to navigate both using hands and walking around.