Inhabiting 'Prosperous Suzhou' through Smart VR

The research investigates digital landscape heritage. It focuses on the application of Virtual Reality (VR) in a game engine. The aim is to aid the understanding and interpretation of ancient principles relating to sensitive and appropriate interaction of the built form and its associated landscape. The principles have at their root harmony of human inhabitation, the built forms and the landscape they are surrounded. This understanding can lead to re-application within a contemporary context, and the VR environment has the potential to augment and enrich it. For the first time ever, the research has reinterpreted a classical depiction of Suzhou, in an 18th-century handscroll painting, into a three-dimensional immersive virtual environment. It proposes that VR can be a way to experience and increase understanding of heritage landscapes; in our case one that now only exists in an ancient idealised painting. The reinterpretation aims to enhance the users' experience and understanding of the Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage. The spatialised scene is augmented through the integration of other historical information, such as poems and travel notes, to embed intangible aspects into the gardens and landscapes.