This project aims to combine architectural reconstruction of historic buildings with layers of reconstructed action using different technological platforms. We are taking a spectrum of different analysis and representation methods that currently exist in isolation: plans, sections, elevations, movement schemes, sound distribution, sources describing actual ceremonies and people's experiences, and documents about building phases. light, and other elements of human embodied perspectives. The post-production layers will bring to life the current written descriptions in primary sources and analysis of the structure vis-à-vis use. Our model will hold information found in each of these traditional methods for study and representation. The model will reflect the different aspects of a building itself, from multiple perspectives facilitated by the use of a multi-layer model. To capture the essence of the experience of “being there" the models are not something to be looked at in a book or screen. The final aim of the models is to allow immersive experiences of multiple participants within the model. Therefore, by putting the traditional methods together we reconfigure the whole out of the fragments, through the opportunities of new technologies.
Preliminary work of Bodner and Zaks, funded by an Israel Science Foundation project led by Bodner in collaboration with Dr. Tanja Potthoff, Dr. Christiane Twiehaus, Dr. Tzafrir Barzilay and archaeologist Michael Wiehen, has allowed them to already collect the necessary documentation for one of two chosen case studies and to begin collaborating with archaeologists in Köln on a model and its post-production. The core project team working on the post-production phases comprises Dr. Neta Bodner, technologies expert Beni Zaks, and PhD candidate Mazi Kuzir, trained in medieval art history. We set out to ask which technologies can support the augmentation of static space and historical documentation with interactive and embodied layers for changing spatial research questions? How the nature of analysis can change when we use different modelling methods for 3D immersive representations of historic buildings? What can layers of phenomenological data and human animation add to analysis of building design?