The Re-creation of a Demolished House Based on Collective Memory

This paper investigates how the collective memory of an architectural setting can be captured, re-created, and re-experienced. The method uses a workflow to create a Virtual Environment (VE) from diverse sources in an interpretational and iterative process. A case study was implemented to test this workflow, focusing on the re-creation of a now demolished family home based on information from multiple generations of a family. The workflow's main output is a VE in which the family members can re-experience the house and give continuous feedback. The essence of this workflow is the constant negotiation between remembered space in memory and its digital interpretation in the VE. The output was assessed and refined according to the users' feedback, which is used to loop back to specific stages in the workflow. This process revealed undisclosed histories and enhanced our understanding of this demolished site and its wider context. Moreover, the workflow provides a model for studying conceptually recreated spaces based on subjective sources and provides a user-centred experience in the VE.