Chain of Memories
A multisensory path to the past of Itzedin Fortress
2021
Role
Concept design, 3D model, design and implementation of the VR experience, videos and graphics
Medium
Diploma design thesis: virtual reality, projection mapping, photogrammetry
Year
2021
Rhino, SketchUp, AutoCAD, Unreal Engine, Twinmotion, Cinema 4D, After Effects, Agisoft Metashape, 3DF Zephyr, Leica LiDAR scanner
Exhibitions
Diploma thesis presentation, TUC TIE Lab, Technical University of Crete, Chania, July 2021
Collaborators
Supervisor: Konstantinos-Alketas Oungrinis. 3D scans with TUC Sense Lab. Historical material: K. Fournarakis, E. Kalaitzaki, M. Andrianakis. Thanks to Iason Paterakis, M. Liapi and TUC TIE Lab
Chain of Memories revives Itzedin Fortress in Kalami, Chania, as a place of memory. The Ottomans built the fortress between 1871 and 1875 to guard the port of Souda. It later served as a gendarmerie, a prison for political dissidents and a site of executions, and it has stood abandoned since 2007.
Photogrammetry and 3D LiDAR scans capture the space as spatial data: its geometry, its damage and its materials. A map of materials and damage guides where each intervention sits. An Unreal Engine environment holds the designed experience: visitors move through it in virtual reality, and projection mapping brings it onto a scale model of the fort.
Six experiences trace the history of the building: the Ottoman fortress in virtual reality, a light installation in the cell the prisoners used as a chapel, a glass sculpture in the trace of the Boulitsa cells, faded memories of the prisoners projected on layers of fabric, a large projection of the execution of 15 April across the walls, and a vision of nature reclaiming the abandoned fort.
The courtyard of Itzedin Fortress, overgrown with vegetation
The prison courtyard in the Unreal Engine environment
A lit cell behind an arched doorway at night, in the virtual experience