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The events related to the design and construction of the new Astronomical Observatory of Rome take place—in the first half of the twentieth century—in a climate of renewed scientific interest. The idea of the Observatory, articulated in a large building plan on the Tuscolani Hills, south-east of Rome, finds its reasons in a particular cultural and political context. Not only that, the celebratory program of the Fascist regime for the Universal Exposition of ‘42, the diplomatic relations and mutual “friendship” between Mussolini and Hitler, will produce significant effects on the realization of the astronomical complex, including those resulting from the World War II. The project starts in the late 1930s and supports the need to “finally give Rome a modern Observatory”. Moreover, during his second visit to Rome, Hitler promised to supply Zeiss telescopes for the Observatory. The execution of the project was entrusted to the engineers Alberto Cugini and Giovanni Sacchi. The complex included the construction of various secondary structures in addition to the main building, located in a predominant position. Through a rich design and administrative documentation, in addition to numerous archival sources, the contribution aims to retrace the articulated events that involved the intervention from the initial idea, to its partial realization, up to the current conformation. Focusing attention, also with virtual reconstructions of the multiple design variants as a result of the growing economic and logistical constraints that arose since the beginning of the affair.

The paper describes a project for the understanding of Cultural Heritage, through experimental procedures that can provide scientifically measurable results. The project, called HeGo (HeritageGo), provides for the creation of a model of social and participatory interaction applied to surveys in archaeological, architectural and urban contexts. The procedure is structured principally around the voluntary participation of various “players/users” (tourists, students, ordinary citizens, cultural associations, etc.). The key elements of the project are a specially designed App and a “Totem/Target” to be strategically placed near the site to be studied. They will allow metrically reliable processing, exploiting the potential of Structure From Motion (SFM) procedures. The direct participation of the players in the acquisition process, through recourse to the logic of gamification, is an innovative and easy-to-use procedure, which can stimulate the knowledge and evaluation of the Cultural Heritage of our country. The final objective is the constitution of a scientifically validated Database, obtained through the contribution provided, in the context of a “social game”, by the participation of users who are not necessarily - technically or scientifically - experts, transforming them into an active part of the process. The system opens up new perspectives for the knowledge and assessment of the Cultural Heritage, both in terms of involvement of players/users and in terms of cost savings with respect to the standard survey methods. In particular, the procedure of the HeGo project was checked in a small historic centre, limiting the area of interest to several monuments.

This chapter intends to present the MuseBot system as the result of multidisciplinary research, underway at the University of Cassino and Southern Latium, which focuses on the use of robots for visiting a museum during closing time. During the visit the visitor, connected to the robot through a home computer, smartphone or tablet can control and “drive” the device through the halls of the museum. During the virtual tour the visitor, focusing and viewing the various works on display can get a simple view or an extended examination of the work that he/she is looking at, through a specially prepared multimedia database.

This chapter describes the documentation and valorization of a special architectural heritage: the WW2 Cemeteries in Cassino & Montecassino territory. This is for the purpose of preserving and transmitting the memories of different people. Even today, these cemeteries are maintained by Polish, English, German, French and Italian governments and visited by many people of various nationalities. Our research is orientated to not only celebrate the sacrifice and identity of the soldiers who lost their lives in the war events, but also as a call for the reconciliation of peoples and the construction of a culture of peace. The cemeteries are studied by an architectonical point of view. Design aspects and aspects concerning the representation of projects are highlighted based on the documents found.

This article presents the Hego project (HeritageGo) which combine the logic of citizen science and aspects of gamification with the potential of the photogrammetric survey technique. A particular approach for the knowledge of small urban contexts, architectural and archaeological emergencies that conceive an innovative procedure for their valorisation and preservation, through the creation of a social interaction system applied to the survey, with the involvement of voluntary users / players (tourists, students, scholars, associations, etc.).

The paper is about the evolution of paper mills in relation to the technological evolution of machines and mechanism for the production of paper. Industrial production techniques is a theme that involves the building and its development. The principles, technology, and even cultural aspects were analyzed in this paper to define the relationship between industrial building and paper making evolution. A Modern documentation needs identified the potential of Industrial Archeology researches in the recent years. Many architects, archaeologists, conservationists, engineers document and purpose possible solution to manage Industrial Archeology structures. The latest years, there are many developments in the Industrial Archeology field. In this review article, following a brief historic background for the papermaking, the analysis of the development factors in the territory of South Lazio focusing also on the cultural background, and of changes in the layout of industrial buildings due to the development of faster and more efficient machinery and methods to produce paper. The conclusion focuses on the future perspective to manage Industrial Archeology.

This paper presents results of HeritageBot, a regional research project for developing a robotic platform to be used in Cultural Heritage frameworks. The design and a prototype of HBOT Platform for demo purposes is introduced with features of low-cost construction and user-oriented performance. The design requirements are presented for application in monitoring and working within frames for conservation of goods of Cultural Heritage with characteristics that are aimed for technological transfer and entrepreneurship plans.

By recovering the original documents and drawings for the World War II cemeteries around Cassino and southern Lazio, most of which were unpublished, the aim of the study is on the one hand to confirm the adequacy of the project for the sites in their current state, and more importantly to construct an historical image of the territory. The section relating to the British Commonwealth cemetery, in particular, examines the site from the point of view of form, landscaping and construction, emphasising the visual relationship between the site and the anthropic natural landscape which is dominated by the Abbey of Monte Cassino. Within the local context in this instance, the Abbey represents a distinctive landmark on the Cassino landscape with which the local community strongly identifies, and which forms an integral part of the cultural heritage of the place.

Francesco Feliciano De Scolari, also known as “Francesco Lazesio” or simply Lazisio (or Lasezio) in his native Lazise, a master of mathematics and expert surveyor who worked in Verona and other parts of the Italian peninsula in the late fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century, owes his popularity mainly to the famous treatise known by its original title, “Scala Grimaldelli”. Possessing a wide range of technical skills, he covered many aspects of the engineering disciplines in his work. In addition to some brief biographical notes, this study will explain a few salient aspects of his published works, with particular attention to the use of the “surveyor’s cross”, which is described for the first time in print.

Aim of this work is to delineate history of automatas from antiquity to Middle Age by focusing the attention on two medieval authors: al Jazari and Villard de Honnecourt. The development of the work will be carry out by the analysis of drawings from ancient texts.

HeritageBot is a project on technological andmarket development of robotic patents for culturalheritage (mainly archaeological and architectural)and the development of services foroperational applications (industrial, cultural,educational, etc.) of the identified technologicalsolutions.The article focuses on hexapods robot designedto be applied to the analysis of architecture. Therobot must perform many of the operations neededin Architectural survey through automatedmanoeuvres. These manoeuvres could improveprocedures and results, both in terms of speedand accuracy of execution.An interdisciplinary research group of the Universityof Cassino has been working designing tworobots. The group built two prototypes. Currentlywe are developing validation test and solutionstests for general background and specific cases.