How Realistic Innovation and French Museums Work Together
Newest technologies applied to rescue a piece of magic from the cultural sector in France
This customer story is very special for us: First of all, because we see it as a perfect example of Realistic Innovation and secondly, because it involves a stunning location in our home-country, France.
The hero of this story is unfortunately long dead, but he has left us with a lot to talk about. He was a writer, philosopher, journalist, Nobel prize winner: please meet Francois Mauriac.
He left the world in 1970 but his huge house located in the beautiful Aquitaine region remained. Filled with books, antiques, and the spirit of history and wisdom, the house passed to be in the public ownership.
His family allowed it to be turned into museum and memorial of Francois, open for touristic visits. In the last years, numerous guides and administrators have worked in and maintained the building. Thousands of tourists visit the place throughout the year.
However, the house is officially classified as a historic monument (with all these big walls and so many precious sculptures in the garden, no wonder!).
As a consequence, there are certain conservation rules that need to be strictly followed. It is necessary to maintain the building in its correct state and that means that a serious reformation is needed right now.
Serious reformation means 2–3 years of construction work in the house. During this time it must remain completely closed to the public. What will happen with the cultural institution, its employees and the touristic visits during such a long period of time?
Well, here it comes: We decided we must do something to keep this magic place alive and not let all the employees end up on the street during the construction works.
We found a technological solution that is able to help, support, and transform a historical patrimony case: We will re-create the whole place and the whole visitor experience through 3D scanning, 360 pictures and virtual reality tools.
That way, although the physical building will not be available, the whole ritual and life will be maintained virtually, allowing the tourists to keep visiting and the employees to keep working.
Here is what we did exactly:
- 3D scanning of the whole house and its surroundings to re-create everything and allow a fully virtual touristic visit
- Processing of the 3D images into clouds of points
- 360-degrees pictures to extend the traditional tour concept
Please have a look on the video to grab an idea of how the project looked like in the real-world (and in the virtual world as well):
The main idea behind this project is to apply modern technology so that it can help in the cultural, public space.
This is what we understand as Realistic Innovation: Finding real-world problems and applying new technologies to find reliable, sustainable solutions.
Do you have any further ideas or suggestions regarding other sectors and real-world cases where new technologies could be applied? Say hello!
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Akimad is a digital agency offering design and development services. We believe in realistic innovation. We like to help entrepreneurs not to fail, or at least to fail cheaper. We share our experience and support founders in creating an agile process of idea validation and product development. Say hello! www.akimad.com
Written by Daria Krauzo.
