Holographic Artifacts for the Enhancement of Academic Heritage: The Curioni Collection at the Polytechnic University of Turin

This paper develops a methodological reflection on strategies for enhancing the wooden models created by professor Giovanni Curioni in the second half of the nineteenth century, aimed at investigating the structural principles un derlying architectural and engineering forms. The study examines the academic collection preserved at the Department of Structural, Building, and Geotechnical Engineering of the Politecnico di Torino, which includes over 140 scale models de rived from the books L’arte di fabbricare (1867–1885), conceived as didactic instruments for the emerging discipline of construction science, in which Curioni was a pioneer in Italy. Within the framework of the university’s Third Mission, the research promotes the creation of a Virtual Museum to disseminate and valorize polytechnic collections through digital platforms and interactive interfaces. The integration of holographic technologies enables the transformation of manuals and models into dynamic, three-dimensional projections, fostering new modes of knowledge transmission. Preliminary applications to selected models from the Curioni Collection highlight the interpretive and narrative potential of holographic representation as a medium for contemporary scientific and cultural communication.