Documenting cultural heritage sites and objects to the highest possible standards.

Factum Foundation, within the framework of the ARCHiVe Online Academy (AOA), is pleased to announce a free online workshop on Photogrammetry in Heritage Documentation. This intensive programme is specially designed for students passionate about cultural preservation and wish to enhance their skills in leveraging state-of-the-art digital technologies to reconstruct heritage sites and artefacts through photogrammetry.

Throughout the course, participants will learn about image capture and post-processing to create high-resolution 3D models. Students will also learn how to produce CAD drawings derived from these models, along with tips on sharing results online for collaboration and archiving purposes. The course is limited to 15 participants to ensure a more focused and dynamic learning experience.

Registration is open to university students in the fields of Archaeology, Heritage Conservation, Heritage Studies, and Museum Studies from Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and South Asian countries.

The Design Centre Proto in Oulu is hosting the ‘New European Bauhaus in Northern Finland’ Seminar on May 8th 2025. Organised by Archinfo, Design Centre Proto, and AaltoSiilo Ry / Factum Foundation, the event offers a unique opportunity for New European Bauhaus stakeholders and enthusiasts to connect, exchange ideas, and discuss the future of NEB in Northern Finland and beyond.

AOA – ARCHiVe Online Academy, the joint educational programme between Factum Foundation and Fondazione Giorgio Cini, will continue its 2024-2025 programme with the online seminar ‘A Fusion of Virtual and Physical: Education, Engagement and Practice through Digital Immersive Experiences’, featuring 4 lectures on April 8th and 9th.

This course will be taught by Otto Lowe (Factum Foundation), Halley Ramos (SOE Studio), Glaire Anderson (University of Edinburgh) and Álvaro Soler (Real Armeria, Madrid)  and will explore the potential of digital technologies to offer a fresh approach to education, blending entertainment with knowledge creation, while reshaping curricula and course content.

Photo © Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.

On March 27th, the Igbo-Ukwu bronze facsimiles were exhibited at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in Cambridge, where Factum’s partners Drs Kingsley Daraojimba and Pamela Smith are both associates. We were honoured to receive delegates from the Igbo-Ukwu community, led by Captain Johnson; descendants of Thurstan Shaw, the archaeologist who excavated the site; and Professor Abba Isa Tijani, former Director General of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria.

On April 3rd at 3pm, the facsimiles will be displayed again at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford as part of an exchange with their partners in Benin City: Uwagbale Edward-Ekpu who was a co-curator of the new Kingdom of Benin display, and Phil Omodamwen, a sculptor and bronze caster from Benin City who is Creative Research Fellow at the Pitt Rivers Museum as part of the Making the Museum project.

Cylinders Estate, the historic location of Kurt Schwitters’ Merz Barn, is undergoing initial restoration efforts on the Shippon, a building once transformed into a milking shed by landscape architect Harry Pierce. Supervised by conservation builder Tom Don, the restoration of the Shippon has included the removal of modern materials like chipboard and cement, revealing and repointing the original stonework. The installation of hemp insulation and restoration of the wooden floor has also taken place.

Meanwhile, a volunteer team led by Grizedale Arts worked on clearing the pond area next to the Merz Barn. A visit from Edward and Pauline Thorp, descendants of Harry Pierce, highlighted: ‘As soon as we opened the gates our spirits lifted. The initial clearance that you’ve done has taken the place back to something we could look at and recognise as the place we knew and loved. Meeting both the building and garden teams was equally encouraging since they clearly approach their tasks with knowledge, empathy and care.’

While the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan is not open to the public as a museum, it provides access for researchers to study their collections and archives on site. The ongoing 2D and 3D digitisation with Factum Foundation’s Selene PSS is now allowing access to hundreds of unique objects remotely, via specially designed multi-layered online viewers.

The project will soon move to the next phase, with the goal of having most of the 9000+ items of the collection recorded to help with their conservation, study and dissemination.