AI-based image-generative tools significantly enhance creativity and digital reconstruction by accelerating workflows for reconstructing digital heritage. These tools apply to various contexts, such as archaeological sites, transformed urban areas, damaged buildings, unbuilt architecture, and partially lost artworks like mural paintings and frescoes. In reconstructing such works, the process is highly complex and requires scholars with expertise in recognizing and attributing fragments and better-preserved pieces. While it remains necessary to suggest potential lines, figures, or scenes, the outcome often involves multiple possibilities. AI image generators can support these challenging tasks by integrating them into workflows, from producing stochastic results to extending patterns and coloured areas. However, their use, especially via “off-the-shelf” software, introduces two key challenges. The first concerns achieving accurate reconstructions that maximize the AI’s potential while avoiding casual or tentative outputs. This involves addressing limitations in existing AI systems and ensuring the final results are both reliable and time efficient. The second challenge relates to cultural evaluation. The line between AI-assisted reconstruction and creating entirely fake results is delicate. Misuse could exploit public fascination with AI or lead to errors and misinterpretations without expert oversight. This integration is in its early stages, necessitating rigorous testing and exploration. The proposed contribution analyzes the digital reconstruction of medieval frescoes from central Italy, blending traditional methods with significant AI inputs. These case studies highlight the balance between human-driven processes and the acceptance of digital outputs, offering reflections on the evolving relationship between human expertise and AI-driven creativity.
Extended Reality for Museums and Exhibit Design: Experiences in Didactic Activities
The paper illustrates the didactic activity of the introductory seminar Inside the Museum, held since 2021 for the master’s degree courses of the Department of Architecture and Design (DAD) at the Politecnico di Torino. The paper describes the innovative character undertaken during the seminar and how it has evolved in parallel with the digital transition that has affected education and cultural heritage. The central theme of the seminar is the relationship between digital technologies and museum institutions, which was investigated according to a multidisciplinary approach involving the disciplines of drawing and representation, together with the themes of exhibit design and museography addressed through Extended Reality as the communicative medium of the project design. The main applications used for the teaching activity were web-based tools for creating virtual, immersive, and augmented reality experiences. Video storytelling, a passive entertainment-oriented product, 360° virtual tours allowing interactive enjoyment, and HeritageMaps, used for developing interactive maps with georeferenced content, were addressed. Starting from low-cost and sustainable web-based solutions, the latest activities experimented with the customization of AR applications using Unity and Vuforia Engine tools.
The Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice: Towards a Digital Fruition
The Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore is a complex system of environments that over the centuries—starting from an earlier pre-existence that arose between the eighth and ninth centuries—has undergone many variations and structural additions, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Despite the high tourist attendance and the vast decorative apparatus that the church houses, its fruition lacks support materials capable of guiding the ideal visitor in discovering the church, its history, and its features, as well as obtaining information regarding the sculptural and pictorial works. The essay is focused on the creation of a digital platform capable of guiding the ideal visitor through useful information for the museum visit: an online system that allows free access, both on-site and remotely, capable of providing an interactive guided tour. The platform takes advantage of appropriate hotspots positioned along an ideal visiting path; each hotspot allows access to descriptive panels through which the works of art are classified. The guided tour is implemented through texts, images, videos, and digital models, according to the most relevant environments: information is organized in thematic graphic layouts, accessible through intuitive and immediate readability. The work carried out is aimed at the touristic promotion of cultural heritage through the creation of a virtual environment and allows the sharing of content with a wider audience, ensuring the museum enjoyment of the environments involved and supporting the visit of the place.
Digital Tools for the Fruition of the Monuments of the Nuragic Civilization
The Nuragic civilization, which flourished in Sardinia between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age (ca. 1800–800 B.C.), left an archaeological legacy of extraordinary importance, evidenced by iconic monuments such as nuraghi, tombs of giants and sacred wells. This study analyses and enhances the village of Serra Orrios, a paradigmatic example of Nuragic architecture and social organization, through an integrated methodological approach combining advanced photogrammetric survey techniques, 3D modelling and augmented reality. The project produced detailed site documentation, including an updated planimetric map, and developed an AR application to improve public enjoyment and understanding of the heritage. The multidisciplinary approach highlighted the potential of these technologies for conservation, communication, and education and outlined research perspectives, including cultural comparison, sustainability, and methodological replicability. The case of Serra Orrios thus emerges as an experimental model for archaeological heritage management and enhancement.
From Theatre to Museum. An Online Collection for the Digital Sharing of Lipari Masks
The paper, after having illustrated introductory aspects of a disciplinary nature and having contextualized the topic, shows some results relating to an ongoing research experience currently being carried out at the Bernabò Brea Archaeological Park in Lipari. These outcomes are based on the construction of a shared digital collection through the use of a well-known web platform of 3D resources. The selected finds were digitized through the use of Structure From Motion (SFM) digital photogrammetry. The digital models produced were uploaded into the Sketchfab online repository service and inserted into a virtual museum collection created for this purpose. The construction of the collection allows the use of the finds themselves through direct viewing (by sharing the link or using QR codes) on any mobile or desktop browser, or through virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets. The finds can also be included in museum itineraries built as virtual tours. The virtual collection is now populated by sixteen masks; however, the alignment aimed at loading the other finds already acquired is currently underway. It is therefore expected, at the end of the step currently underway, to share between 20 and 25 masks belonging to different types, in order to provide a significant sample of the large Lipari collection. Open prospects and ongoing scientific investigations concern studies on the physical wearability of models, transformed to an appropriate scale, the production of analog replicas and collaboration in the preparation of museum spaces for accessibility, and the digital manipulation of artefacts.
From Digital Representation to Virtual Reality: An Interactive Experience of Industrial Heritage
In recent years, digital technologies have transformed the field of Cultural Heritage (CH), extending beyond cataloguing and documentation to enhancing experiences and dissemination. Extended Reality (XR) solutions have introduced innovative ways to engage with CH. This study presents the design of an Interactive Thematic Virtual Environment (ITVE) for experiencing industrial archaeological heritage via the Meta Quest 3 VR headset. The focus is a historic industrial site in San Severino Marche, Italy, dating back to 1927. This site was pivotal in using electricity for industrial purposes and generating hydroelectric power. The development of the VR experience followed a three-phase workflow. The first phase involved digitally surveying the site with a Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) and panoramic camera to create high-resolution 360° images. This data formed the foundation for the virtual environment. The second phase focused on designing a thematic narrative structure, borrowing methodologies from the entertainment industry. Five scenes were created: an introduction, three central scenes highlighting historical machinery and materials, and a concluding scene reviewing the plant’s operation. All multimedia content text, audio, panoramas, and 3D models were integrated into the game engine Unity 3D to build an interactive VR experience. Users navigate the content through a 3D console, unlocking scenes sequentially. Showcased at the Wunder Kammer Marche exhibition (June 1 to July 31, 2024), the VR experience is tailored for both children and adults. Finally, in the third phase, usability tests were conducted during the exhibition to evaluate the actual effectiveness of the developed tool.
Easily Accessible Technology for Architectural Storytelling: Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, an Experimental Study
The paper presents an experimental research project focused on the dissemination of the architectural and urban history of Palazzo Ducale in Genoa through accessible digital storytelling and augmented reality technologies. The study develops interactive itineraries based on QR codes, mobile applications, digital maps, hand-drawn visual narratives, virtual tours, and AR overlays to communicate the historical transformations of the palace and its urban surroundings to non-specialist audiences. Using smartphones and tablets, users can visualize historical reconstructions, architectural changes, decorative elements, and inaccessible spaces directly superimposed onto the existing urban and architectural context. The project emphasizes inclusivity, ease of use, visual communication, and edutainment, proposing lightweight and accessible AR systems as tools for heritage dissemination and public engagement.
The Grimaldina Tower in Genoa. A Case Study Between Technology and Visual Communication
The paper presents an ongoing research project focused on the Grimaldina Tower in Genoa, combining virtual tours, XR technologies, projected augmented reality, immersive panoramic photography, and visual storytelling for cultural heritage dissemination. Due to the tower’s limited accessibility during restoration works, the study develops a digital communication strategy based on 360-degree panoramic imaging, interactive virtual tours, and Lightform projected augmented reality systems to support inclusive and educational access to the site. The workflow includes historical research, spherical image acquisition, immersive navigation, interactive hotspots, projected storytelling, and augmented overlays aimed at enhancing the readability of wall inscriptions, drawings, and decorative traces left by prisoners over centuries. The project emphasizes accessibility, edutainment, and intuitive visual communication for heterogeneous audiences through immersive and non-invasive digital technologies.
3D Modeling for Virtual Fruition from a Reality-Based Survey
The paper investigates workflows for creating optimized 3D models from reality-based surveys for virtual reality applications and cultural heritage dissemination. Starting from photogrammetric and laser scanner acquisitions, the research discusses mesh generation, simplification, smoothing, retopology, and texture optimization techniques aimed at balancing geometric accuracy and real-time visualization performance. The study focuses on the digitization of Andrea Mantegna’s Bridal Chamber in Mantua, demonstrating how high-resolution textured meshes can be transformed into navigable virtual environments suitable for immersive virtual fruition and educational dissemination.
The e-Archeo 3D Project, an Innovative and Sustainable Cultural Proposal Based on XR Technologies
This contribution focuses on e-Archeo 3D: an application that visualises virtual archaeological reconstructions. It is an interactive browser-based application implemented on the open-source ATON platform. This application enables the visu-alisation of archaeological sites through 360° panoramas that can be explored and populated with multimedia content (audio, pictures, videos, and 3D models). Users can switch between the current archaeological context and the reconstruction hypoth-esis at each viewpoint while a voice (or text) narrates the main archaeological and historical information. Some parts of the panoramas pulsate with a yellow colour and give access to in-depth multimedia content. An additional visualisation level allows users to learn about the reliability of the reconstructions and the sources and interpretative processes on which they are based.