Baptistery di San Giovanni: Florence, Italy

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The Baptistery of San Giovanni (or Saint John) is one of Florence's architectural masterpieces, a staple of Florentine cultural heritage, and a popular tourist destination. This 3D printable mesh model of the ancient monument was constructed from a point cloud collected during laser scanning of the site as part of a diagnostic survey of the site my team and I conducted as part of our graduate school research. The model contains both the exterior and interior architectural features and can be cut open to reveal the chapel space and epic dome within. It took many days of persistent work to distill the 1.5 billion points at millimeter accuracy down to a 3D printable model that still captured the details of the monument, but we were finally able to finish it (and just in time!). We initially built the model to help create a conservation plan for the site by looking at the history of the site's architectural progression and analyzing components that might be contributing to the site's structural degradation. Beyond that, we think that scientific data like this model should be shareable with everyone and not just hidden away for our academic pursuits. Further details about our diagnostic cultural heritage engineering work in Florence and other sites and our efforts to create creative, open access art,and technology based on our research is posted on our site Open Access Antiquarianism. (http://openaccessantiquarianism.com/). You might want to especially check out this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPjh4482K7Y) from the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture, and Archaeology (CISA3) detailing results from two field seasons at the site.