Mastodon
A logo that shows a teal colored triangle inside a dark grey cube.LAURITZ DAHER
Screenshot of the Ilsenburg Abbey application that shows the overview. The camera rotates around a 3D rendered model of the Ilsenburg Abbey and its surrounding landscape. The logo of the monastery appears in the upper left corner. The upper right corner contains a button to show the credits. At the bottom of the screen are several buttons with German text: 'Klosterkirche', 'Ostflügel', 'Südflügel' and 'Im Wandel der Zeit'.
Screenshot of the Ilsenburg Abbey application that shows the image gallery for the 'Klosterkirche'. The image is on the right side of the screen and shows the church around the year 1900. Below is an image slider displaying the thumbnails of several other images. In the upper left corner a map is displayed that shows the position and rotation from where the photograph was taken. Below is a text that is associated with the image.
Screenshot of the Ilsenburg Abbey application that shows the image gallery for the 'Ostflügel'. The image is on the right side of the screen and shows the chapter house around the year 1900. Below is an image slider displaying the thumbnails of several other images. In the upper left corner a map is displayed that shows the position and rotation from where the photograph was taken. Below is a text that is associated with the image.
Screenshot of the Ilsenburg Abbey application that shows the image gallery for the 'Südflügel'. The image is on the right side of the screen and shows the refectory around the year 1900. Below is an image slider displaying the thumbnails of several other images. In the upper left corner a map is displayed that shows the position and rotation from where the photograph was taken. Below is a text that is associated with the image.
Screenshot of the Ilsenburg Abbey application that shows the monastery through the course of time. On the left side of a screen a text tells the history of the monastery. In the upper right corner a 'back' button is displayed. In the bottom right corner are buttons to switch between the past and the present times, while the past is currently selected. In the center of the screen a 3D rendered model depicts the Ilsenburg Abbey before it underwent significant changes in its eventful history. The most remarkable difference is the existence of the twin spires that are not present nowadays.
Screenshot of the Ilsenburg Abbey application that shows another angle of the 3D rendered model of the monastery. The camera is at ground level, pointing towards the church. Behind the church the entrance to the monastery grounds through an archway can be seen.

Ilsenburg Abbey

#3D
#Unity

Ilsenburg Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Saxony-Anhalt. When it was founded about 1000 years ago, it was one of the most important monasteries in the Harz region. The monastery's eventful history is marked by demolition, decay, fires, looting and the numerous restorations and reconstructions that followed.

Such a history leaves its traces and so the appearance of the monastery has changed a lot over time. In order to illustrate these changes and the original structure for visitors to Ilsenburg Abbey, an interactive 3D application has been installed on two touch screens inside the monastery. At these info points, visitors can interactively access information about the history of the monastery and see how its layout has changed over time. Several slideshows allow a virtual tour of the facilities and provide background information to let the history of the monastery come to life again.

The project was designed and implemented by a group of 6th semester media informatics students of the Harz University of Applied Sciences for the Ilsenburg Abbey Foundation. My area of responsibility within the group consisted of the technical realization as well as the implementation of the design concepts in Unity. For this, I focused in particular on touch controls, camera, user interfaces and programming.

In this project, with the areas of narrative, design, logic, concept and programming, many fields of activity intertwine in order to convey the history of the monastery on a visual level and present it in an appealing way for visitors. In addition, the project is a convincing example of how Unity can be used to create interactive 3D applications in non-game contexts.

The opening times of the monastery can be found on the official website. The interactive info points have been in use at Ilsenburg Abbey since August 2015.

Development period:

April - August 2015

Technologies:

Unity | Maya | Adobe Photoshop

Other project members:

Professors and students of media informatics, Harz University of Applied Sciences