The Virtual Museum of Architecture.
Eleonora Cardellini , Università degli Studi La Sapienza, Italy

Short Paper: Short Paper 3: Case Studies

The Virtual Museum of Architecture, is a graduation thesis developed in collaboration with LaMA (Laboratorio Multimediale di Architettura - Facoltà di Architettura - La Sapienza - Rome). The work consists of the project and the construction of a virtual and three-dimensional space, designed to display virtual architecture and digital representations of real buildings on the World Wide Web. The thesis includes a written part, as the result of a theoretical research, and the project of a small Internet pavilion (a real and temporary structure that provides Internet access and promotes the Virtual Museum's website). The aim of this work is to demonstrate how much the making of a virtual space owes to architectural criteria and methodologies. This suggests the introduction of 'virtual planning' as a discipline within the faculty of Architecture and draws a new possible role for architects. The necessity and the value of a Virtual Museum of Architecture resides in the 'immovable nature' of real buildings that generates a constant need of representation. This project, which involves LaMA as a possible operative centre, foresees the storage of an enormous amount of precious work made by students and professors and aspires to share information with external databases. Moreover, in contrast to a low attention given in Italy to architectural heritage, this work propose virtuality not just as a tool for Architecture's representation, but as an important instrument for its diffusion and comprehension.

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