XR · Cultural heritage / virtual reality

Speicherstadt Digital

A virtual reality experience of Hamburg's historic warehouse district around 1900, part of the city's cultural digitisation strategy. Shown at the Dialoghaus Hamburg for five months.

2017 VR exhibition

Unity 2017 NVIDIA VRWorks HTC Vive

Steam engines with brass centrifugal governors in the reconstructed machine hall

Machine hall with dynamos and a large wooden switchboard with a clock

Close-up of a dynamo with green coils and brass details

Row of boilers set into a brick wall, one firebox open and glowing

Red-brick buildings with chimneys and green copper roofs along a cobbled street

Sacks being hoisted into a warehouse loading door

Visitors with VR headsets in the exhibition room, a supervisor at a desk

Role: Technical Artist, part-time at HAW Hamburg
Commissioned for: City of Hamburg
Exhibition: Dialoghaus Hamburg, Dec 2017 – May 2018

Overview

As part of a team at the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg, we rebuilt the working life in the Speicherstadt around 1900, to make the district’s cultural heritage accessible to everyone.

The exhibition

Two visitors at a time entered three different scenarios, guided by a supervisor over voice chat.

Rebuilding 1900

The environments and models were recreated from historical plans and photographs.