Constructing the historic villages of Shirakawa-go in virtual reality

In Japan, UNESCO has registered ten areas as world heritage sites; Shirakawa-go in northern Gifu Prefecture is one of them. The private houses in this region, called Gassho-zukuri, are isolated from the outside world. As a result, the houses exhibit a unique building design developed to endure the area´s severe natural environment. A Gassho-zukuri is built with wooden beams combined to form a thatched roof that resembles two hands in prayer. To protect these world heritage sites and to educate the public about the region, it´s necessary to preserve not only the site´s natural environment and architectural structures but also its various unique cultural assets. However, the Shirakawa-go region is one of the few world heritage sites where people actually live, giving rise to several preservation problems to address while respecting the residents´ privacy. Thus, preservation through virtual reality (VR) is very important. From this viewpoint, we examined the necessary procedures and techniques for digitization of external views and cultural aspects of Shirakawa-go by using VR technology. We also reconstructed the Shirakawa-go area in 3D