How do scientists preserve historic buildings digitally?

Asked by: Clare Simpson, London

Many important buildings are lost because of natural disasters such as fires and earthquakes. More recently, war and religious conflict have caused the deliberate destruction of thousands of ancient structures. Digital scanning technologies offer one way to preserve our history. They use laser scanning and cameras, sometimes mounted on drones, to take full three-dimensional scans of architecture and artefacts.

These can then be reconstructed in a computer to produce identical 3D models complete in every visible detail. Put on a VR headset and you can virtually visit them any time you like. It’s a technique being used right now to preserve the 3,000-year-old city of Volterra in Tuscany, Italy (pictured above, the Roman theatre at Volterra).

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