Olomouc ve 3D

Project aims

The aim of the project is to understand and make accessible the socio-cultural, artistic and historical values of the city of Olomouc as a unique urban and cultural-historical environment of the Czech and Central European region. It uses newly created applied outputs – digital tools and innovative ways of presentation. The key aspect is the active connection of the historical stages of the city’s existence in the sense of a complex ecosystem with its current or future – predicted – form. The critical research itself is conditioned by the understanding of the city as a so-called “living monument”, in the formation of which civil society plays a significant role. Innovative digital platforms (three interactive maps, database, author’s realizations such as AR/VR, experimental forms of NFT as forms of newly formed public space within the exhibitions) will functionally and visually present eight centuries of urban development of the city from the Middle Ages to the present. Specific objects (buildings and monuments in public space) in the sense of critical probes will serve to make accessible, revitalize and contextualize the cultural heritage and history of the city of Olomouc to a wide range of users, including actors in the private sector and tourism. Besides the three interactive maps, also another output will be tied to these digital platforms and the scope of the research, esp. the database of photographs of Olomouc from the estate of Josef Kšír (Olomouc State District Archive), two exhibitions supplemented by a critical catalogues, two international conferences, that will bring a necessary external reflexion of the research.

Results

Map of the historical development of Olomouc

Interactive web map (supplemented by a story map) showing the historical development of Olomouc in 2D. Based on historical sources, information about the gradual growth of the city will be synthesized. The key functionality of the map will be the possibility of displaying thematic content (e.g. age of a building, architectural style, type, function, iconography, photographs, diagrams, plans, textual information, archival documents) and linking them into interpretative units.

Map of Olomouc’s changes over time

An interactive web map (supplemented by a story map) enabling comparison of the current form of Olomouc with the historical state depicted in various archival map sources (e.g. imperial impressions of the stable cadastre, military mapping, fortress plans, historical orthophotomaps, etc.). A key functionality of the map will be the possibility of interactive comparison of two arbitrary time periods.

3D map of Olomouc (3D model)

Interactive web map showing Olomouc in 3D. All buildings will be shown at least as a box model, selected objects will be shown in more detail. The map will also include visualization of buildings according to various attributes (e.g. use, building type, age, etc.).

Josef Kšir’s database of photographs

Fund of the estate of Ing. Josef Kšir (1892-1978), a prominent personality of Olomouc, where he worked as a civil engineer and conservator, a patrimonial worker and a systematic researcher, contains several thousand items of photographs, which represent valuable documentation of Olomouc and its, often destroyed or damaged (rebuilt) monuments. The database will make this previously unused convoluted collection available to the institution of the State District Archive Olomouc, and will be offered as an open database, also linked to an interactive web map. As part of the SEFO 2024 Triennial exhibition, part of the collection will be presented to the public in the form of an artistic interpretation.

The exhibition “Quarks and Greaves.” Olomouc art scene and related zones 1990-2020

A project mapping the Olomouc socio-cultural context of the post-transformation period. The case study adopts contemporary history research methods and interdisciplinary approaches. It includes Central European comparative material.

SEFO Triennial II exhibition

Exhibition and critical catalogue; the exhibition includes public space interventions thematizing the potential of a city with a defining historical core. The possibilities of current and future development (link to planning and 3D city map) in terms of art and art historical interpretation reflect local and, by analogy, Central European research on architecture and urbanism.

International conference

PROCEEDINGS

Ekanayaka, E. M. R. D., Zejdlik, J., Bittner, O., Popelka, S., Burian, J., Ruzicka, O., Vanicek, T., and Jakubec, O. (2024) Automated roof generation for the city of Olomouc using ArcGIS CityEngine, Abstr. Int. Cartogr. Assoc., 7, 35, https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-7-35-2024, 2024.

Vanicek, T., Popelka, S., Burian, J., Ruzicka, O., Zejdlik, J., Bittner, O., and Jakubec, O. (2024) Interactive 2D Visualizations of Olomouc’s Development as Tools for Revitalizing Cultural Heritage, Abstr. Int. Cartogr. Assoc., 7, 179, https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-abs-7-179-2024.

Popelka, S., Burian, J., Vaníček, T., Žejdlík, J., Bittner, O., Viktořík, M., Jakubec, O. (2024) Digitální dimenze Olomouce: Geovizualizace městského dědictví a jeho proměn, Konference České Geografické Společnosti, Ústí nad Labem.