An Electronic Library for Teaching Architectural History

Abstract

This research project developed an electronic library of significant buildings chosen to represent seven selected periods of Western architectural history: Egyptian (Mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut), Greek (Parthenon), Roman (Pantheon), Romanesque (Speyer Cathedral), Gothic (Notre Dame Cathedral), Renaissance (Tempietto), and Modern (Des Moines Art Center). All buildings were reconstructed in their original or intended forms based on plans, drawings, photographs, and historical texts. Two products were generated by this project: (1) materials to be displayed on the World Wide Web, including rendered still images for perception, movies for a visual guide, and Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) models for user navigation; and (2) virtual reality (VR) models to be displayed in the C2 (an improved version of the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment or CAVE facility). The benefits of these VR models displayed on the Web and in the C2 are their easy accessibility at any time from various geographic locations and the immersive experience that enhances viewersÌ understanding of the effects of spatial proportions on form and of colors on materials.