Marco Medici

The integration of advanced digital technologies is reshaping cultural heritage (CH) documentation, enabling new approaches to conservation, analysis, and dissemination. This article presents an integrated and open digital workflow for the survey, management, and reuse of complex architectural heritage, using Villa Aldrovandi-Mazzacorati as a case study. The approach combines fixed-station laser scanning, terrestrial and aerial photogrammetry, and mobile SLAM-based mapping to generate high-resolution, reality-based 3D datasets. The proposed multi-sensor acquisition framework is critically assessed in terms of completeness, geometric accuracy, efficiency, interoperability, and long-term reuse. Results demonstrate that the integrated approach delivers reliable and comprehensive metric documentation while significantly reducing acquisition time compared with single-sensor strategies. The resulting HBIM model and associated web-based platform support structured information management, conservation planning, multidisciplinary collaboration, and online dissemination. In parallel, reality-based 3D meshes are successfully repurposed for immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences, enhancing accessibility and public engagement. By adopting open and standardized data formats, the workflow promotes long-term sustainability and FAIR-compliant reuse of digital heritage assets, offering a scalable and transferable framework for future 3D heritage initiatives across architectural and territorial contexts. Overall, the approach supports both specialist conservation workflows and public-facing dissemination, bridging the gap between technical heritage documentation and cultural interpretation.

The paper explores the experience of the university spin-off INCEPTION, active since 2020 in the field of cultural heritage digitisation. The aim of the contribution is to investigate the modalities and impacts of technology transfer from an academic entrepreneurial experience. The study documents the adoption of semantic technologies and interoperable platforms, highlighting environmental, economic, and socio-cultural impacts. The results, based on case studies, confirm the model’s ability to generate value in the context of the Third Mission through the co-production of knowledge, training, and the development of innovative services for the sustainable management of heritage.

The current effort in 3D digitisation of heritage items poses new challenges in accommodating more and higher quality information to be associated with the 3D models that are of interest to users and stakeholders. The Europeana Data Model (EDM) is a metadata schema that distinguishes between the information related to the cultural heritage object as such (represented by the class edm:ProvidedCHO) and the information related to its digital representation (edm:WebResource), brought together in the class ore:Aggregation. Work done in the context of the new common European data space for cultural heritage collected inputs from various experts and initiatives working on 3D data, metadata and paradata, in the light of studying requirements for the extension and adaptation of EDM classes to the more complex scenario of representing and sharing 3D digitised cultural heritage collections.

In recent years, the cultural heritage (CH) sector has experienced a rapid evolution due to the introduction of increasingly powerful digital technologies and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) solutions. As for many other domains, digital data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Extended Reality (XR) are opening up extraordinary opportunities for expanding heritage knowledge capabilities while boosting the research on innovative solutions for its valorisation and preservation. Being aware of the fundamental and strategic role of CH in the history and identity of the European countries, the European Commission has assumed a central role in fuelling the policy debate and putting together stakeholders to take a step forward in CH digitization and use, primarily through initiatives, programs, and recommendations. Within this framework, the ongoing European 5DCulture project (https://www.5dculture.eu/) has been funded to enrich the offer of 3D CH digital assets in the common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage by creating high-quality 3D contents and to foster their re-use in several sectors, from tourism to education. Through 8 re-use scenarios around historic buildings and cityscapes, archaeology, and fashion, the project aims to deliver a set of digital tools and increase the capacity of CH institutions to more effectively re-use their 3D digital assets.

This study examines the activities conducted at the archaeological site of Aptera in Crete, Greece. The research was part of the DIACHRONIC LANDSCAPES International Design Workshop, organized by the CAM (Center for Mediterranean Architecture), TUC (Technological University of Crete School of Architecture), and UNIFE (University of Ferrara Department of Architecture). This article outlines the methods used for data acquisition and processing on a territorial scale, which generated digital outputs necessary for the analysis and design phases of the workshop, as well as for further examination of the results. The collected data, obtained through low-cost aerial photogrammetric surveying and GNSS terrestrial coordinate detection, were integrated in a Structure from Motion workflow that led to the creation and exportation of various digital outputs, such as point clouds, DTM, DSM, orthophotos, and contour lines. An accuracy analysis was performed to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the digital models compared to the implemented surveying strategies, including the Ground Control Point and Quality Check Point marker positioning strategy. The resulting digital models proved to be valuable assets for analysis and design within the workshop and provided insightful prospects for future research and territorial-scale projects.

The new directions that digital reality is currently taking include an ever-greater involvement and interaction with the human being. In the field of cultural heritage, there is a need to find new ways to visit, enjoy, understand, and preserve cultural assets, also through digital fruition. The social value of cultural heritage and citizens' participation became crucial to increase quality of life, public services, creative activities, public engagement, new understanding, and education through technology development. Digital technologies can also contribute to safeguarding endangered cultural heritage preventive interventions, as well as ensuring equal and wide access to cultural assets and heritage sites. The aim is to find positive interconnections between physical and virtual spaces by applying digital systems to find additional knowledge and supporting the access to our common heritage through new technologies. The chapter explores more in detail these topics through the description of methodological approaches, applications of Semantic Web technologies, and latest projects.

Documentation, data processing, and representation of Architectural Heritage through digital models are one of the main challenges in the field of conservation, preservation, management, and inclusive use and understanding of European heritage assets. In this framework, the impact of Industry 4.0 is more and more crucial, since new technologies, devices, and digital environment are strongly influencing the ways in which heritage contents are explored, used, managed, and shared, also in citizens' everyday life. In this direction, the INCEPTION project – founded by the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 programme – develops key-targeted innovations in efficient 3D digitization methods, post-processing modelling tools, semantic web-based solutions, and applications to ensure a wide and aware access to digital Cultural Heritage. This chapter presents main actions achieved by INCEPTION.