REVISITING SHOEI YOH Developing a workflow for a browser-based 3D model environment to create an immersive digital archive

Abstract

The digitisation of architecturally significant buildings and sites creates opportunities to innovate methods of analysis, interpretation, representation, and audience engagement. To illustrate this potential, but also examine the attendant challenges, this paper outlines a research project that has digitised archival assets and living buildings designed by the Japanese architect Shoei Yoh to create an immersive 3D Spatial Archive. It focuses particularly on the creation of a browser-based 3D environment using WebGL technology that connects to and displays a repository of digitised archival assets. This includes the use of 3D scan data of Yoh's Naiju Community Centre project to accurately model the 3D immersive environment and a Grasshopper / Rhino into the glTF. File format (graphics library Transmission Format) workflow to render Naiju’s complex geometry and detailed outdoor scenery. The paper demonstrates how using the .glTF File, which is an open format specifically for transmitting processed and pre-calculated 3D models, can improve the processing efficiency of web-browser based 3D environments. Improving the stability and processing speed of 3D browser-based environments is significant to enhancing how audiences can connect with and experience culturally significant sites remotely. The digital recreation and repurposing of Naiju (which is currently unoccupied and in a state of disrepair) as an immersive archival exhibition space operates to simultaneously protect the real building from over visitation, but also raise awareness of its cultural significance to support preservation efforts. In so doing, the paper makes a further contribution to the developing field of digital cultural heritage.