Digi-ER

Eden Uta

Communities are often built around social spaces which act as third places. The site chosen for my proposal is a B-listed national monument located in Craiova, Romania. As it is my home city, I have a good understanding of the lack of third spaces available to citizens, witnessing several social venues closing down over the past few years. Not only that, but the current third places are exclusively cafes, bars and shops, no free-of-charge community spaces exist. In my opinion, that poses the question of ethics. Design Justice Network is a framework that inspires designers to make ethical responsible decisions and to think thoroughly about the needs of communities. The first principle states that ‘we use design to sustain, heal, and empower our communities’, but the social infrastructure of Craiova harms its community as spaces are not, in fact, designed for all.

Teenagers seem to have even fewer places to gather outside school (second place) and home life (first place). They are stuck in an in-between age gap and no physical spaces seem to be designed with them in mind. Online environments, such as video games, tend to be their way of populating space, providing an opportunity for gathering and communication. On the other hand, the city has a built environment rich in heritage which is reflected through its locale and culture. Unfortunately, historical buildings are delirict, left abandoned with no plans of future restoration due to lack of funds.

Through my proposal, I am speculating on the future of non-places (third places) and how they can be transformed into community venues in virtual form as a way of preserving heritage sustainably. The reasoning is that the future is shaped by technological advancements and community spaces should evolve accordingly. Abandoned buildings, especially national monuments, need adaptive reuse proposals instead of construction initiatives for new builds.

The aims of this project are;

• To create virtual third spaces that will remove any geographical boundaries between communities
• To reimagine and speculate on how virtual reality public spaces will become as essential as the built environment
• To approach the virtual representation of heritage as a mean of sustainable development of the future
• To record heritage sites in a playful way as a result of the site recording methods used
• To create a digital artefact that is reminiscent of the past, yet can adapt to the present and future, even post demolition

In ‘Non-places: introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity’ Auge defines the idea of non-places in a poetic manner, referring to how they are the ‘presence of the past in a present that supersedes it but still lays claim to it. Similar to modernity, digital adaptive reuse does not suggest whether the site is delirict or not. In turn, it paves the way for connecting our digital social places to the physical realm.’

The concept of third places has been coined in modern literature by Ray Oldenburg as a ‘third place’ in 1989 in his book‘The Great Good Place’6 and analysed formally by sociologists and theorists. Oldenburg talks about how everyone has or should have a first place (the home), a second place (the workplace) and a third place which is the public space of your choosing where you can relax and socialise.

In Digital Cities and Digital Citizens, Schuler introduces the concept of digital cities that are a ‘digital representation or reflection of some aspects of an actual or imagined city’. Digital cities, while they are in no way, shape and form a good substitute for the infrastructure and the physicality of cities as we know them in the present, can act as powerful secondary cities, running in tandem and complimenting the urban fabric of today.

Digital artefacts of the built environment can act as a bridge between the digitalisation of place and preserving heritage. They can also become a meeting space14 that is valuable to place- making and strengthening communication; overall, they bridge the gap between past, present, and future, creating a way for the physicality of heritage and its cultural narratives to transcend time.

While cafes and shops are the most frequented third places nowadays, in my opinion, they fail to cater to all. They require certain financial capability (service exchanged for money), which goes against the ethics of ‘place for all’. Video game environments function as a new form of third places, much like cafés and other enterprises do16 because they expose users to other views while establishing a base for socialisation. They are still focused on a community or at least on a certain generalized persona of a user. People like us like to play these games.

Nowadays, digital cities use BIM modelling and VR technology as a way of viewing and testing ideas (new construction proposals, restoration of heritage) before building so that they can make sure there is no fault in the project. This way, changes can be made prior to construction, all of it being a more efficient manner of building (money, time, manpower) and a more sustainable approach. Because of that, I think there will be a wish to extend the realms of the built environment through the aid of VR and AR. Land is a limited resource and due to the repercussions of climate change, people start becoming more mindful at larger scales of their impact on the planet. The building industry has a long way to go, and in the face of calamities, building and rehabilitation of monuments can only achieve so much when the standards of society are ever-changing. A three-dimensional replica of sites facilitates a better understanding of their structure and serves as a good starting point in case the site undergoes restoration processes.

Methodologies and methods used in this project includes;

• LiDar Scanning using my own phone and the built in LiDar sensor;
• Photogrammetry;
• Analyzing and building 3d white model based on the existing sourced plans from the owner of the site;
• Point Cloud representation and manipulation sourced from initial photogrammetry meshes;
• Reversed composition – Rebuilding 3d photogrammetry photos taken during site visit;
• Reimagining space by converting 2d outlines of scans of site into 3D Photoshop models;
• Video of existing site layerd with video of scans; Layering and combining the results of the different site recording methods in order to digitalise the site in a unique way;
• Case studies.

I intend to develop a methodology that can be used by anyone with access to minimal everyday equipment so that communities can start taking the initiative to record abandoned sites local to them. These sites can further be transformed into digital artefacts. Such artefacts can be used as an online meeting space for socialising (a third place) and an information aid in local museums when presenting the city’s history. Expanding on the last point, online databases can be created to facilitate urban design development proposals or as a learning tool for engineering, architecture and design students.

Most digitised artefacts nowadays are purely used for information purposes and as a record of heritage sites. Heritage could be made available for generations if the site is preserved digitally to be used as an online venue. Recent technological developments, the rise of Web III and the Metaverse, and people’s appetite for these allow me to speculate that certain classes, workshops or events might move online.