Abstract
In 2012, the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) started a research relationship with Public Services and Procurement Canada to develop a building information model (BIM) of the Parliament Hill National Historic Site of Canada. The model was created to facilitate a multi-year rehabilitation of the site and was developed using both historical records and highly detailed geo-referenced point cloud data. In the process of planning the model, CIMS developed a unique Level of Detail (LOD) specification for heritage buildings that, in addition to standard specifications, considered cultural heritage value as part of the LOD. As the rehabilitation project unfolded, the possibility of using the BIM for public engagement through the creation of virtual reality (VR) experiences was proposed. In this paper, we discuss the transferal of CIMS’ LOD from a BIM to a VR environment, arguing that the BIM LOD’s focus on cultural heritage value is consistent with virtual reality LOD in that it can be used to guide participants through a virtual reality narrative by inferring that areas of higher fidelity have greater value.
Highlights
In 2019, the Centre Block of Parliament Hill National Historic Site of Canada closed to the public for a multi-year rehabilitation project
Since 2013, the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS), a research unit associated with the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, has had the opportunity to be involved in the digitization and modelling of the existing conditions of the site to prepare for the rehabilitation program of work
While developing virtual reality (VR) protocols to manage the quality of assets, maintain optimal functionality, and control file size for public dissemination, CIMS reflected on our past work in developing a unique Level of Detail system (LOD) for heritage building information model (BIM) which brought similar challenges and benefits
Summary
In 2019, the Centre Block of Parliament Hill National Historic Site of Canada closed to the public for a multi-year rehabilitation project. The higher the LOD for assets, the higher the significance of cultural heritage This focus on the cultural heritage value within the LOD classification proved to have merit when translating to VR, helping to indicate which elements within the environment should be of higher detail. Using our work on the Parliament Hill National Historic Site, we will provide examples that demonstrate the effectiveness of the LOD system for heritage spaces in VR — both in helping to define a narrative and in evoking the cultural value of a space, while maintaining optimal performance through file size management
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