CAHRISMA: Conservation of the acoustical heritage by the revival and identification of the Sinan's mosques' acoustics

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 99.0681-1

Key words (English)

Virtual heritage; virtual restoration; virtual conservation; acoustical simulation; hybrid architectural heritage system

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: ICA3-1999-00007

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 2.2 Measurements and testing

Short description (English)

See abstract

Partners and International Organizations (English)

Yildiz Technical University (TR), Technical University of Denmark (D), Universita degli Studi di Ferrara (I), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH), Institut National de Recherche sur les Transports et leur Sécurité - (F), University of Malta (MT)

Abstract (English)

The project case studies are centred on the virtual restitution and virtual life simulation of two highly complex and endangered heritage edifices: the church of Hagia Sophia and of S.S.Sergius&Baccchus, in Istanbul, Turkey (added in 1996 in the annual list of endangered monuments by the World Monuments Watch). The goal of the most recent work is to describe the techniques used in order to achieve a photo-realistic simulation of the selected space and its characters, as well as to point out the challenges and solutions that such a work implies at different stages in production. Most of these issues are mainly focused on the reconstruction of the architecture of the site (in 11th century as churches and 16th century as mosques), but in order to achieve an accurate simulation the social aspect must not be forgotten. The importance of a heritage site resides as well in the historical characters and the social interactions that were taking place there: this information allows a better understanding of the function and the importance of the selected site in connection with the cultural aspects of the life at a certain time. In order to strengthen the feeling of immersion in a heritage edifice virtually restituted, it is important to recreate virtual life and describe the timely evolutionary aspects of the edifice as well. Thus in the project demonstrators it is decided to include few high quality virtual humans in one of them and in the one lower quality but groups of virtual humans.One of our next goals is to complete the full real-time visualization of both Hagia Sophia and S.S.Sergius&Bacchus together with high-quality virtual characters of that time, reenacting a historical scene based on a very precise scenario e.g. depicting a praying sequence. The immersive experience could be heavily enhanced by the addition of 3D rendered sound sequences in order to enhance the virtual acoustical restitution on the edifice. Finally, the adoption of stereoscopic projectors and 3D shutter glasses will furthermore enhance greatly the visualization experience.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 99.0681-1