3Dimensional Reconstitution and Virtual Reality,
Bam and its Cultural LandscapeElham ANDAROODI1, Kinji ONO2, Asanobu KITAMOTO3,National Institute of Informatics, Japan
Seyyed Mohammad BEHESHTI, Eskandar MOKHTARI,

Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, Iran
Chahryar ADLE4,CNRS, FranceTakashi KAWAI5, Nobuaki ABE, Asaka ITO,

Waseda University, Japan
Alireza ENIFAR6, Said ENIFAR,

University of Tehran, Iran
Mohammad Reza MATINIITKEIntroduction
After the earthquake of the 26th December 2003 and the immense destruction ofthe Bam heritage in Iran, the reconstruction of the ruins especially of the citadelof Bam has become an important task for those experts, institutions ororganizations who are concerning about the cultural heritage safe keeping. As
one of the first steps of the world wide concerns, the Bam Citadel was added toUNESCO’s World Heritage in Danger List during the 28th session of theorganization’s World Heritage Committee on Friday 02/07/2004 in the Chinesecity of Suzhou under the name of “Bam and its cultural landscape 7.
As part of the National Institutes of Informatics endeavour for digital
documentation and advanced recording of cultural heritages of the Silk Roads,
after a set of meetings and discussions started from March 2004 between NII,
Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, Waseda University andUniversity of Tehran with cooperation of Prof. Adle from CNRS, the joint
research project of a 3 Dimensional Reconstitution and Virtual Reality of Bamand its Cultural Landscape has started in January 2005.The main tasks for the1Ph.D. of informatics, Post-Doc researcher, NII
Professor emeritus, SOKENDAI, Visiting professor, Waseda University
3
Associate professor, SOKENDAI
4Professor, CNRS
5Associate professor, Waseda University6Associate professor, University of Tehran
7
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1208
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first phase of the project were to develop the 3Dimensional models of 7 casestudies inside the citadel of Bam (Main gate, Bazaar, Tekkiyeh (religious plaza),
Mosque, Sistani house, barrack, stable, four season reception room) in acollaborative research work by the team of computer science experts andarchitects.

Target of the projectDue to the complexity of physical restoration and several problems ahead of it,
we strongly believe it is curtail to start a virtual reconstitution of the heritage
which is destroyed specially in citadel of Bam after the earthquake. The mainbenefits are as follows:
1- The fast process of virtual reconstitution comparing to physical one
2- The possibility to check completely the documents in order to build the3Dimensional models and specifying the shortcomings
3- The possibility to save and demonstrate the digital virtual reconstitution
as a Virtual Reality of Bam regardless of the location of demonstration inorder to make the citadel of Bam alive again in virtual world.
4- The importance of the 3D models as a reference document for physicalreconstruction
5- The possibility of revival of the original building in virtual world for thosespaces which are very difficult or impossible to reconstruct

Challenges of the project

The main challenge of the project was the lack of data. We confronted withseveral problems regarding the quantity and quality of necessary data during theprocess of building the 3D model. To build a 3D model inside the tools such as 3D
studio max software it is important to have precise and complete data of maps as
sections, facades and plans of all the target spaces. The data provided for thispurpose by ICHTO8, NCC9, CNRS10, NII11 and other resources were as below:
1- Maps surveyed before earthquake
2- Maps surveyed after earthquake
3- Photos taken before the earthquake
4- Photos taken after the earthquake from those parts which are still
remaining
5- 3D Cartography data built from Arial photo (that after preliminary
completion of 7 case studies has reached to us) as IFCA12 project
The main challenges ahead are listed as below:
1- Error on maps surveyed before earthquake (Figure 1).
2- Lack of maps from most of the interior or some exterior facades
3- Lack of photos from many interior or exterior spaces
4- Destruction of the target buildings

8

Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization
National Cartography Center (Iran)
10
Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique
11
National Institute of Informatics
12
Irano -French 3D Cartographic Agreement
92

The process of the project
The processes of developing the 3D models—concerning all the necessities andproblems—are defined as follows:
1- To provide metadata inventory of the available data resources
2- To do a comparative analysis on the data resources (maps, photos, etc.)
3- To specify the errors on maps
4- To specify the spaces with no available data
5- To try to build the 3D model using all the analysed resources
6- To develop a technical guideline of drawing the 3D models inside the 3D
studio Max tool to reach to a homogeneous 3D model built by different
groups specially for systematic naming of the layers of the 3D model.
7- To validate the 3D models in several evaluation process by the team ofsupervisory (consisting of architects, historical architecture experts, local
experts in Bam and computer graphics) regarding the technical drawing
quality of the 3D model, architectural details and historical architectural
specifications
8- To examine the validity of the 3D models in frequent meetings anddiscussions with experts
9- To develop the first trial of the Virtual Reality of the model of 3 casestudies (main gate, bazaar, 4 season reception room)

The results of the project

A set of snapshots of the developed models are shown as the results of the project
until the current date (June 2006)13.

Note

The team of drawing the 3D models consisting of N. Abe and A. Ito in Japan fromWaseda University and the team of Raaz Ahang architectural firm in Iran from
University of Tehran has made a tremendous effort to build the 3D models withall these challenges. Prof. Kinji Ono has made his constant support andleadership for the project definition, financial and technical support. Dr. Elham
Andaroodi has had the central role of assisting in preparation and signing
process of the Framework Agreements, coordination between the Iranian teamand Japanese team, ICHTO and NII as well as technical quality control of the 3Dmodels. Mr. M. Matini (Ph.D. student) has contributed in developing thetechnical guideline and technical evaluation of the 3D models.
The process was done under technical supervision of Prof. Ono, Assoc. Prof.
Kawai, and Assoc. Prof. Einifar and under direct cooperation of Dr. Mokhtari, Mr.
Beheshti, Mr. Talebian, Mr. Taghizadeh asl from ICHTO and Prof. Adle fromCNRS.
Assoc. Prof. Kitamoto and Assoc. Prof. Andres gave their valuable comments
during the process of the project. Mr. M. Naito gave his great support for theprocess of data exchange.
13

These photos are under the copy right of National Institutes of informatics, Iranian cultural Heritage andTourism Organization, Waseda University and University of Tehran.

3

Acknowledgment
The support of Iranian National Commission of UNESCO especially Ms. F.
Farahani is highly appreciated from the process of the project and for themissions to Bam city.
The project was also reflected in the NHK television program and also wasprecisely sowed in a virtual studio (as a walking through process of the narrator
inside the virtual main gate and bazaar) in the program with the name of “World
heritage S.O.S.” directed by Mr. OHGANE in 4th April 2006. The attention andsupport of NHK is also appreciated.

4Figure 1: Analysis of the sections that are surveyed before earthquake and some errors on maps

Figure 2 : Completing the roof and domes using cartography data, case of caravanserai (in the process)Figure 3 : Using photos in order to complete the 3D model, example of the main gate entrance arch5

Figure 4 : 3D model of the main gate (completed by Japanese team)Figure 5 : 3D model of the main gate (completed by Japanese team)Figure 6 : 3D model of the main gate (completed by Japanese team)6

Figure 7 : 3D model of the main gate (completed by Japanese team)Figure 8 : 3D model of the bazaar (in the process by Japanese team)Figure 9 : 3D model of the bazaar (in the process by Japanese team)7

Figure 10 : 3D model of the four season reception room (in the process by Japanese team)Figure 11: 3D model of the four season reception room (in the process by Japanese team)Figure 12: 3D model of the four season reception room (in the process by Japanese team)8

Figure 13: 3D model of the Tekkiyeh (in the process by Iranian team)Figure 14: 3D model of the Tekkiyeh (in the process by Iranian team)Figure 15: 3D model of the mosque (in the process by Iranian team)9

Figure 16: 3D model of the mosque (in the process by Iranian team)Figure 17: 3D model of the mosque (in the process by Iranian team)Figure 18: 3D model of the mosque (in the process by Iranian team)10

Figure 19: 3D model of the Sistani house (in the process by Iranian team)Figure 20 : 3D model of the Sistani house (in the process by Iranian team)Figure 21: 3D model of the Sistani house (in the process by Iranian team)11

Figure 22: 3D model of the Sistani house (in the process by Iranian team)Figure 23: 3D model of the Barrack (in the process by Iranian team)12