Towards a Virtual Museum of Ephemeral Architecture: Methods, Techniques and Semantic Models for a Post-digital Metaverse / Verso un museo virtuale dell’architettura effimera: metodi, tecniche e modelli semantici per un metaverso post-digitale

Presentiamo gli ultimi esiti di una sperimentazione, fra ricerca e didattica, sul tema del Virtual Museum (VM), riflettendo sul flusso di lavoro e sui modelli semantici utilizzati per la realizzazione del suo Metaverso, nella consapevolezza delle potenzialità oggi offerte dalle tecnoculture post-digitali. Sin dagli esordi negli anni 80’, l’idea interdisciplinare di VM, seguendo le conquiste tecnologiche dei tempi, esplora molteplici dimensioni confor-mative dello spazio digitale, sperimentando vari sistemi di visualizzazione e diverse forme di interazione, sia online, sia offline. Dall’ormai storico Virtual Museum commissionato dalla Guggenheim Foundation nel ‘99 al-lo studio Asymptote Architecture (Hani Rashid & Lise Anne Couture), al grande tema della conservazione ed esposizione del patrimonio digitale (cfr. la Carta per la conservazione del patrimonio digitale dell'UNESCO del 2003) – ricordiamo, ad es., la mostra Archaeology of the Digital, curata da Greg Lynn nel 2013 per il Canadian Centre for Architecture di Montréal –, fino all’odierna proposta del Virtual Museum NFTism dello studio Zaha Hadid Architects, emerge un’affascinante avventura delle idee che soprat-tutto nella rappresentazione trova le ragioni del suo essere spazio abitabile. The essay summarises the latest results of an experiment, between research and didactics, on the general theme of the Virtual Museum (VM) in architecture and design (Fig. 1), explaining the workflow used and the semantic models elaborated for the realisation of a prototype (called VM5), conceived as a thematic metaverse of ephemeral architecture. In order to summarise the main outcomes of the carried out research, the contribution has been articulated with respect to three main thematic areas addressed in the study, each treated individually by one author. The first theme— Sect. 2. The State of the Art Survey: Conceptual Map, Timeline—was elaborated by Giovanni Caffio, and summarises the project and the contents of the conceptual map and timeline realised, where the most significant works were classified, also attempting to highlight the different types of application and use of the VM. In the third part of the experimentation. The second topic—Sect. 3. The VM Project of Ephemeral Architecture, Between Research and Teaching—was elaborated by Maurizio Unali, and introduces some of the foundational aspects inherent to the structure of the entire research, summarising the design contents that nourished the realisation of the VM5 prototype, both in compositional terms and with respect to the type of fruition experience. The main results achieved are also analysed and some possible developments are highlighted— Sect. 4. The Processing of the Workflow to Realise the VM5 Prototype, here written by Fabio Zollo, the methods and techniques (workflow) used to realise the VM5 project were defined, a graduation theme of the same author, elaborated within the five-year degree thesis workshop in Architecture (a. a. 2021/22), coordinated by Professors G. Caffio and M. Unali, of the Department of Architecture of the University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara (Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7).