Tuesday, November 19, 2019

The Digital Reconstruction of Shuri Castle



At the end of October one of the most iconic buildings in Okinawa, Japan was destroyed by fire. The Shuri Castle was originally built around 500 years ago, although the original building was destroyed by fire in World War II. The reconstructed castle has now met a similar fate. The Okinawa local government has already started talking about a new reconstruction project and there is also a popular crowdsourced fundraising campaign in Japan to raise funds for a reconstruction of the castle.

Digital Reconstruction from Crowdsourced Photogrammetry is an interactive story map which allows you to explore a 3D model of the pre-fire Shuri Castle. The 3D model was created by volunteers using photos and videos of the castle. More photos and videos of the castle are still being sought in order to improve the quality of the 3D model.

The map itself uses the new Mapbox Scrollytelling Template to create a guided tour of the castle. The Scrollytelling Template can be used to create 'scrollytelling' map stories. It is used on this map to zoom-in and explore some of the features of Shuri Castle and the extent of the destruction caused by the 31st October fire. The map also relies on Uber's deck.gl library in presenting the 3D model of the castle.

If you want to make your own Mapbox map featuring a 3D model then you can also use three.js, as in this Mapbox demo maps example, Add a 3D Model.

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