Published on 14 Oct 2025
Resources from “Heritage in 3D” Now Available Online
Following the 'Heritage in 3D: Building Europe's Digital Future' workshop, which took place in Siena on 8 September 2025, XRculture is pleased to share two publicly accessible resources:
- Workshop presentation materials on Zenodo [link]
We have published the complete set of slides from our workshop contribution in the XRculture Zenodo community. These materials provide a closer look at our open middleware approach to 3D cultural heritage, including technical architecture, integration goals and application examples. The slides aim to support the wider dissemination and reuse of the concepts introduced during the live session.
- Conference paper published in EG Digital Heritage 2025 [link]
Our research paper, 'Towards an Open Middleware for 3D Visualisation in Cultural Heritage', has been published as part of the EG Digital Heritage 2025 conference proceedings. It presents the rationale, design and early implementation of the middleware framework developed in XRculture, contextualised within the needs and challenges of the European Data Space for Cultural Heritage.
The workshop and accompanying paper presented XRculture’s work on a middleware layer designed to bridge the gap between the digitisation efforts of cultural institutions and the broader technical requirements for interoperable 3D content. The presentation took participants through the middleware's conceptual and technical foundations, including its development rationale, supported 3D formats and workflows, and its aim to enable the sustainable publishing, visualisation and reuse of 3D data across platforms. The presentation emphasised modularity, openness, and alignment with European values around accessibility, transparency, and long-term data stewardship. The middleware is developed in direct connection with the Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage, and aims to support the integration of 3D content into this evolving ecosystem in a scalable and standards-based way. Building on lessons from previous initiatives such as 5Dculture, the approach directly addresses limitations identified by cultural professionals working with 3D content, ranging from the lack of standardised viewers to the challenges of managing complex asset pipelines. Hands-on demonstrations further illustrated how the middleware enables interactions with 3D assets via both web and desktop interfaces, paving the way for future integrations in education, tourism, and institutional heritage work.
The workshop and accompanying paper presented XRculture’s work on a middleware layer designed to bridge the gap between the digitisation efforts of cultural institutions and the broader technical requirements for interoperable 3D content. The presentation took participants through the middleware's conceptual and technical foundations, including its development rationale, supported 3D formats and workflows, and its aim to enable the sustainable publishing, visualisation and reuse of 3D data across platforms. The presentation emphasised modularity, openness, and alignment with European values around accessibility, transparency, and long-term data stewardship. The middleware is developed in direct connection with the Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage, and aims to support the integration of 3D content into this evolving ecosystem in a scalable and standards-based way. Building on lessons from previous initiatives such as 5Dculture, the approach directly addresses limitations identified by cultural professionals working with 3D content, ranging from the lack of standardised viewers to the challenges of managing complex asset pipelines. Hands-on demonstrations further illustrated how the middleware enables interactions with 3D assets via both web and desktop interfaces, paving the way for future integrations in education, tourism, and institutional heritage work.
We thank the event organisers and project partners for facilitating this collaborative exchange. XRculture continues to support the development of open, scalable and sustainable tools for 3D cultural data and immersive experiences. Stay tuned for further updates on project outcomes and community engagement opportunities.