Castello di Mirafiori: Reconstructive Modelling and WebAR

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.