Research Innovation and Internationalisation - National and international experiences in Cultural Heritage digitisation

During the Restoration and Cultural Heritage Days held in Ferrara on the 24th March 2022, it was organized the fourth edition of the Unione Italiana Disegno UID (Italian Association for Drawing) Symposium dedicated to the internationalisation and innovation of research entitled: “National and international experiences compared. Technology transfer, products and processes”. 

The research projects presented are the result of both competitive tenders and experiences triggered by scientic relations between research centres and institutes from countries of three continents: Africa, America, and Europe.

Once again the event was presented as the fruit of the joint work of the two commissions, “Innovation” and “Internationalisation”, of the scientific association.

The annual symposium aims to highlight applied research, carried out by groups in which UID colleagues are either coordinators or members of interdisciplinary teams, aimed at the development of innovative products or processes.

The aim of this publication on the association's international research and innovation activities is to update the catalogue of the experineces and enhance them by publishing a report animated by a strong project spirit that, through discussion, can explore opportunities and channels for the promotion and strengthening of activities on the research, teaching, seminar and conference at an international level.

Marcello Balzani
Architetect, PhD, Full Professor (ICAR/17) at the Department of Architecture, University of Ferrara in Italy. Since January 2006 he is the Director of the DIAPReM centre (Development of Integrated Automatic Procedures for Restoration of Monuments). He was scientific responsible for several national and international research projects and his activities took place in various important world archaeological sites, in monumental contexts and in relation to several small centres in many regions of the Italian peninsula. He has developed restoration and urban regeneration projects in several Italian historical centres. He is a member of the Italian Union for Drawing, of the National Institute for Urban Planning, of ICOMOS and of the Focus Area Cultural Heritage, Horizontal Issue Archaeology. Since March 2010 he is scientific director of TekneHub and Scientific Coordinator for the Construction Platform of Emilia-Romagna High Technology Network.

Stefano Bertocci
Architetect, PhD, Full Professor (ICAR /17) at the Department of Architecture, University of Florence , Italy, where he teaches Architectural Survey in the Bachelor of Architecture and Design, Graduate School and Doctoral School of Architecture. He managed numerous researches related to the opportunities offered by 3D digital survey and remote sensing in the field of archaeology, architecture and urban planning of Historic Centers. He is the author of numerous scientific publications on the issues of redevelopment of historic centers and UNESCO heritage sites. He has been interested in numerous buildings of monumental character in Florence, Italy and abroad from the point of view of scientific investigation aimed at documentation and conservation. Major works include research on wooden architecture in Russia and Northern Europe and investigations of various archaeological sites in the Middle East (including the Crusader fortresses of Petra in Jordan and the fortress of Masada in Israel).

Federica Maietti
Architect, PhD, Associate Professor (ICAR/17) at the Department of Architecture, University of Ferrara, and board member of the DIAPReM Centre. Her interdisciplinary research is focused on heritage survey and representation for knowledge, enhancement and conservation through digital technologies. In this area she experimented applications in dierent contexts, including Pompeii, Malta, Brazil, India, and Mexico, and being responsible of survey projects on small historical centres for documentation and diagnostic assessment. She is involved in several national, European and international research activities. She has been the Technical Coordinator of the H2020 project “Inception - Inclusive Cultural Heritage in Europe through 3D semantic modelling”. She is a member of the Italian Union for Drawing (UID), REAACH - Representation Advances And Challenges Association, and ICOMOS - National Scientic Committee CIPA-HD for Heritage Documentation.

Luca Rossato
Architetect, PhD, Assistant Professor RTDb (ICAR / 17) at the Department of Architecture, University of Ferrara, in Italy. His areas of investigation are both the vernacular and modern architecture documentation, representation, and enhancement. In these fileds he was project coordinator for the DIAPReM centre activities in India and Brazil. He was visiting professor at Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Paranà (Curitiba, Brazil), CEPT University (Ahmedabad, India), Mackenzie University (São Paulo, Brazil) and at Burgundy School of Business (Dijon, France). Since 2021 he’s the scientific director of the international network I N S I D E Modern Heritage. He’s deeply involved in publication fields and he’s been member of editorial staff for “Paesaggio Urbano” scientific journal and author and co-author of more than 150 publications. He is a member of ICOMOS National Scientific Committee CIPA-HD for Heritage Documentation and Italian Union for Drawing (UID).