Using Cutting-Edge Tech to Preserve Newfoundland and Labrador’s Rich Heritage
College of the North Atlantic’s Office of Applied Research and Innovation, through its Reality Capture and Digitization Technology Access Centre (RCD TAC), has embarked on a groundbreaking project in collaboration with Heritage NL. This initiative aims to preserve and immortalize heritage sites across Newfoundland and Labrador using advanced reality capture and digitization technologies. The project not only safeguards these historical treasures, but also makes them accessible to future generations.
Reality Capture and Digitization for Heritage Preservation
So, what is reality capture and digitization and why is it important for heritage preservation? Reality capture involves creating highly detailed 3D models of physical spaces using technologies like laser scanning and photogrammetry. Digitization converts these models into digital formats that can be stored, analyzed, and shared. These technologies offer numerous benefits for heritage and cultural preservation including:
Detailed Documentation: High-resolution 3D models provide an accurate record of heritage sites, capturing intricate details that might be missed by traditional methods.
Accessibility: Digital models can be accessed by researchers, educators, and the public from anywhere in the world, promoting wider appreciation and study of cultural heritage.
Preservation: Digital records ensure that even if the physical structures are damaged or lost, their digital counterparts remain intact for future reference and restoration efforts.
The Reality Capture and Digitization Technology Access Centre at CNA is at the forefront of technological innovation in heritage preservation. Utilizing state-of-the-art 3D scanning and photogrammetry technologies, the centre specializes in creating precise digital models of physical spaces and objects. This technology allows for detailed documentation and analysis, ensuring that intricate architectural details and historical features are meticulously preserved.
Digitizing Heritage NL Sites on the Bonavista Peninsula and Beyond
Heritage NL, formerly the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, is dedicated to preserving the province’s cultural heritage. Their mission is to protect both tangible and intangible cultural assets, including historic buildings throughout the province.
When asked about the potential impact of the project, RCD TAC Director Heather Ward replied, “The impact benefits of reality capture and digitization for heritage preservation are immense. By creating detailed digital records, these efforts ensure that even if the physical structures are lost or damaged, their historical and cultural essence remains intact. These digital models can be used for educational purposes, virtual tourism, and as a resource for researchers and historians. They also allow for the preservation of intricate details that might otherwise be overlooked.”
Heritage NL strives to ensure the preservation of Newfoundland and Labrador’s unique cultural assets for future generations. By applying cutting-edge tech, the RCD TAC is able to help Heritage NL reach their goals faster than ever before. With work encompassing significant heritage sites across the province including on the Bonavista Peninsula, in Grand Falls Windsor and in the St. John’s area, the RCD TAC team has been working closely with Heritage NL on digital preservation and restoration projects of several sites including the ones below.
Heritage Site: Grand Falls House
Location: Grand Falls-Windsor
Historical Significance: Overlooking the Exploits River, this historical residence offers insight into the lifestyle and architecture of its era and is a cherished part of Grand Falls-Windsor’s heritage. This Tudor Revival style home is one of the oldest buildings in the area and signifies the beginning of a new industrial age for the town centered around the pulp and paper industry.
CNA Faculty Researcher, Jeff Hennebury commented on the scope of the project and why the technology and equipment of the RCD TAC is invaluable when mapping intricate spaces. “The interior of Grand Falls House was scanned using a handheld LiDAR system. The interior of the manor was quite complex; each of the three floors had many rooms and hallways. Handheld LiDAR allows the operator to walk freely around the property as their location is simultaneously logged along with the map data. The property was quite dense in terms of the number of rooms and the furnishings within them.” To make the work more manageable, the team divided the work into three separate scans, one for each floor. The three scans were then combined during the processing phase.
“The exterior of the structure, given its height, was mapped using the ELIOS 3 LiDAR-equipped inspection drone”, said Hennebury. “The pilot deployed the drone and followed it from a safe distance as they circled the property several times at varying elevations to produce a complete map.” While traditional methods of measuring and documenting the details of such a structure can take days to weeks, ultra-high-definition scanning equipment makes this work possible in the time it takes a person to walk through the building for unparalleled efficiency and ease. Furthermore, the level of detail of the data that can be collected is beyond compare. “Our heritage digitization project not only preserves the history of our province, but it also demonstrates how this technology can have an impact beyond the industrial sector,” said Hennebury.
Heritage Site: St. Michael’s Convent
Location: St. John’s
Historical Significance: Constructed in 1826-27, St. Michael’s Convent is considered the second oldest building in St. John’s. It was run as a convent and orphanage by the Sisters of Mercy from 1859 until 1999, and played a crucial role in education and community service in the area. Safety and structural integrity are often concerns for the inspection and preservation of older heritage properties. In the case of St. Michael’s Convent, personnel were not permitted to enter the building due to potential hazards, so the CNA team deployed its LiDAR-equipped inspection drone to digitize the interior of the building. “The drone was manually flown throughout the structure while the pilot remained safely outside, watching the video feed on the remote controller, said Hennebury. The team mapped the outside of the convent using drone-derived aerial photogrammetry with the drone capturing images at multiple angles as it was piloted around the property. During the processing phase, the images were used to produce an accurate, georeferenced 3D model of St. Michael’s Convent, thus allowing the safe and accurate capture of data.
Heritage Site: Elliston Root Cellars
Location: Elliston
Historical Significance: Located on the Bonavista peninsula, the community of Elliston is locally known as the Root Cellar Capital of the World. These unique structures are a vital part of the local heritage, showcasing traditional methods of food preservation that were essential for survival in harsh climates.
Hennebury reiterated the importance and applications of the work being done. “Elliston has many publicly available root cellars for tourists and locals alike to view and enter, in addition to the many that are still used privately by families for food storage. While these cellars are built to last, there is still the very real threat of coastal erosion on the history of this small community. By digitally capturing these cellars, we are able to have a record of them should any damage occur. It also helps anyone who is not able to physically enter the cellars to experience them as they are in a virtual environment, thus attracting more attention to Elliston’s history. Someday, after scanning even more of these public root cellars, we would also be able to create a labelled map of them to aid tourists in finding all the cellars scattered across town.”
Heritage Site: St. Paul’s Anglican Church
Location: Trinity
Historical Significance: A site with a long history dating back to an initial church built in 1730, the current structure was completed between 1892-94. This historic church, with its stunning Gothic Revival architecture, has been a spiritual cornerstone of the community for centuries, reflecting the religious and cultural heritage of the area.
Heritage Site: Catalina School Museum
Location: Catalina
Historical Significance: Once a bustling educational institution, the Catalina School Museum on the Bonavista Peninsula now serves as a testament to the region’s commitment to education and community development and provides a snapshot into the era of the one-room schoolhouses of old.
Heritage Site: Green Family Forge
Location: Trinity
Historical Significance: Situated in the historic town of Trinity on the Bonavista Peninsula, the Green Family Forge represents the industrial history of the region, highlighting the craftsmanship and skills that were passed down through generations.
Heritage Site: Trinity Mortuary Chapel
Location: Trinity
Historical Significance: One of few mortuary chapels remaining in the province, as its name suggests, the Trinity Mortuary Chapel was built primarily as a local funeral site. Built in 1880, this Gothic Revival style structure stands as a testament to local funerary practices of the time, reflecting the community’s customs and tradition of holding funerals and burials separately from regular church services.
Heritage Site: Cantilever Bridge
Location: St. John’s
Historical Significance: Located in Bowring Park, the Cantilever Bridge is a significant landmark in the city’s history. Built in 1960, the bridge was an engineering marvel of its time. It was designed in concertation between architects Blanche and Sandy van Ginkel and engineering firm Ove Arup and Partners of Sydney Opera House fame. Blanche van Ginkel subsequently won the Massey Medal for her outstanding achievements in architecture for her work on the bridge.
Interviews with Researchers:
To gain deeper insights into the collaboration with Heritage NL project, we interviewed CNA Researchers Jeff Hennebury and Charlie Dalton who were involved in the reality capture and digitization efforts to preserve our cultural heritage.
- What inspired the collaboration between CNA’s RCD TAC and Heritage NL?
Work of this nature between CNA’s research team and Heritage NL began in late 2020 when we began working on a proposal dedicated to preserving and documenting NL’s built heritage with geomatics and GIS technology. While we were not successful with this specific funding, we knew we had to do something to document these structures. Since the Byrn Mawr cottage in St. John’s burned down in 2022, our work has really ramped up. We don’t want to lose any of our built heritage, but we can at least capture it digitally before the damage becomes irreparable. - Can you explain the process of reality capture and digitization used in this type of project?We start with deciding which reality capture method and equipment would be best suited for each specific property, depending on how accessible the structure is, the weather, and how much time we’re able to or allowed to be on site. We primarily use laser scanning for this work, with some aerial, UAV base photogrammetry if we’re unable to completely scan the roof of a building from the ground. Depending on how we choose to do it, the data collection process can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a day or more. From there we start the fun stuff, processing and merging all the data we captured into one cohesive file. Sometimes this is the end product with a floor plan attached, but depending on the property we will also go a step further and convert it into an extended reality experience so that people can feel like they’re really inside the structure and interact with pieces of it.
- What challenges did you face during the scanning and digitization of these heritage sites?The hardest part of any of this work is getting access inside these structures. Many of them are privately owned, and sometimes are in use as residential properties. Mostly, when people hear about the work we’re doing they’re more than happy to let us in for a few hours to scan the full structure. When it comes to active construction sites or condemned buildings, such as St. Michaels convent in St. John’s or Our Lady of Angels convent in Placentia, we have to get special permissions to undo locks or take down boards nailed to the doors in order to send in our technology to capture the interior.
- How do you see this technology benefiting heritage preservation in the long term?
First and foremost, these digital models allow us to have a detailed, accurate record of these structures for as long as you can imagine. Fire, flood, wind, and other natural weather events are a constant looming threat to these structures, such as the spontaneous fire that burned down the historic Byrn Mawr Cottage in 2022. Should this happen to a structure we have a digital twin of, we are able to use the model in combination with any original blueprints or photos to create detailed reconstruction or repair plans. There is also the possibility of Newfoundland and Labrador expanding to the “digital tourism” scene, where people can experience our history through their own computers or smart phones, or in a town’s visitor centre. This area of tourism allows people with any physical or mental barriers to still see and understand our heritage, as many heritage sites are inaccessible. - How do you plan to make the digitized models accessible to the public and researchers?
Currently we deliver the completed data directly to the owners of a specific property. These 3D models are incredibly valuable for securing funding to aid in the upkeep and restoration of heritage properties. With property owner’s permission, we’d like to create a map of the province’s heritage sites that could be used for tourists to plan their stay in Newfoundland and Labrador, and for people to understand the true state of a lot of these heritage sites. With this publicly available web map, viewers would be able to briefly read about the history of a specific site, view images of it from the past, and view and interact with the digital twin we’ve created. - What future projects or expansions do you foresee for the RCD TAC in relation to this project? Digital Twin of all of the province’s heritage sites and structures?
The long-term goal is to create a digital twin of all of the province’s built heritage sites, but that all depends on what funding we’re able to secure. Currently we have a body of funding to document over 150 of the province’s registered heritage sites but Heritage NL has over 300 sites registered, which doesn’t include municipal sites, or other non-registered structures that are important pieces of history. If we can secure a pot of funding to pursue this work long term, and gain contact with property owners, then the RCD TAC would love to create a multi-year project on digitalizing all of our built heritage.
The digitization project led by CNA’s Office of Applied Research and Innovation Reality Capture and Digitization Technology Access Centre is a pivotal step in preserving Newfoundland and Labrador’s heritage. This project highlights the transformative potential of technology in safeguarding our cultural heritage.
The collaboration between CNA’s RCD TAC and Heritage NL represents a significant step forward in heritage preservation. By creating detailed digital records of these important sites, the project not only safeguards their physical structures but also ensures their stories and cultural significance are preserved for future generations. As technology continues to evolve, such initiatives will play an increasingly important role in cultural and historical preservation efforts, offering new ways to experience and learn from the past.
About the Reality Capture and Digitization Technology Access Centre (RCD TAC)
The Reality Capture and Digitization Technology Access Centre (RCD TAC) is a research facility housed under CNA’s Office of Applied Research and Innovation. RCD TAC is a hub for industry and community to access cutting-edge technology like drones with LiDAR and scanners. Located in St. John’s, NL, RCD TAC is a proud member of Tech-Access Canada’s network of specialized centres nationwide.
Ready to Innovate?
Connect with RCD TAC today to elevate your project. Let’s turn your vision into digital reality!
ar@cna.nl.ca | 709-758-7474 | www.cna.nl.ca/research-and-innovation/rcdtac
