Chiuro laboratory: integration of workflows from digital survey to optimised 3D urban models for interactive exploration

The digital acquisition of Chiuro (Italy) is part of a research action of the still ongoing project “Le radici di una identità” (“An identity and its roots”), dealing with the documentation of the original urban structure of Chiuro, a small settlement located in northern Italy, whose interesting remains of mediaeval towers and Renaissance palaces are still well preserved. The paper focusses on the complete workflow developed by the group to create an explorative and implementable 3D digital model of the urban centre, constructed by a set of optimised mesh models. From the acquisition phase to geometric processing methodologies, different modelling strategies have been investigated to solve problems related to survey integration, and optimisation of the architectural digital assets. The main challenge is in fact the utilisation of the huge amount of data gathered during the previous surveying campaigns, providing a specific workflow to obtain an optimised 3D model. Moreover, the paper analyses some outputs: one is the storytelling of historical and cultural heritage in an attractive way, using game engines to visualise and give access to detailed digital contents to the general public.