»Our goal is to provide our visitors with a wide variety of insights into history and to show how the past relates to me. With the ‘Freilichtfenster,’ we are creating a new, digital, and year-round way to access our museum grounds,« explains Dr. Marie Luisa Allemeyer, director of the LWL Museum Hellerlecht. »I am particularly pleased that this project was developed in collaboration with the OWL University of Applied Sciences. The close cooperation with KreativInstitut.OWL demonstrates how valuable the exchange between museums, academia, and educational institutions is. Together, we are developing innovative forms of cultural education while simultaneously strengthening regional networking and the transfer of knowledge.«

The technical foundation of the application is based on a technique known as Gaussian splatting. Unlike traditional 3D models, this method uses high-resolution spatial datasets that enable a particularly realistic representation of buildings, materials, and lighting conditions. Students from the OWL University of Applied Sciences were responsible for data collection. Drones were used to capture aerial images of the site, while handheld scanners mapped interiors and architectural details. Using the resulting point clouds and splat data, the project team developed an interactive application that visitors can use intuitively.

»After a year and a half of intensive and exciting work, we at KreativInstitut.OWL, together with the students, are delighted to be an integral part of the new permanent exhibition at the LWL Museum Hellerlecht,« says project lead Prof. Dr. Alexander Kutter.