Prototypes to Increase Museum Experience and Accessibility. Palazzo Mazzonis’ Atrium in Turin: The Work in Progress

Today, the availability of digital scanning and computer-aided design and fabrication process open possibilities for automation that allows the reproduction of objects in different formats, facilitating the access to the cultural heritage. Projects as Europeana, theEuropean digital library, and “Horizon 2020 Reflective Societies 7–2014: Advanced 3D modeling for accessing and understanding European cultural assets” confirm this trend in this field. Museums are the places where the concept of “usability” of CH has always been manifested, representing the perfect context to explore the huge potentials of modern technologies of rapid prototyping, which allow quickly reproducing an object from a 3D model, offering new opportunities of experience. The extension of accessibility of CH to disabled people is a current topic of great importance. Physical, sensorial and cultural accessibility are to be considered essential to make the places of culture fully accessible to all visitors (MiBACT). The research focuses on the use of digital fabrication techniques (CNCmilling machine) to realize tactile architectural models to enrich the accessibility of Museo di Arte Orientale (MAO) in Turin, in a “Design for All” perspective. The experimentation has been carried out on the vaulted system of the atrium of Palazzo Mazzonis that hosts the MAO.