Story of Shikumen – VR Experience of Shanghai Traditional Architecture

Story of Shikumen is an interactive and immersive VR experience that intends to raise people’s awareness of architecture preservation issue in Shanghai.

The project is selected for Deans’ Undergraduate Research Fund (DURF): https://shanghai.nyu.edu/academics/undergraduate-research

1) the Final Video of the Story of Shikumen

2) Project Background

Shikumen, the traditional buildings in Shanghai, are tearing down for constructions of skyscrapers. I and my co-producer were concerned about the situation. We documented the buildings and people’s life living behind the building before they got broken down. We then recreated the Shikumen living experience in the virtual world.

The project involved various techniques including photogrammetry, 360 video recording, and 3D sound creation.

3) Making Process

My co-research and I visited four different Shikumen village to document people’s lives and the stories related to the architecture.

my co-researcher and I visited the deconstructed Shikumen

We then used the footages to reconstruct the Shikumen environment in Unity. Users could enter different doors to get access to the 360-degree videos of people’s lives in Shikumen.