Saddle up and pack those textiles Re/Cappers, today we’re off to the Ancient Silk Road for an unprecedented discovery – largely because of the elevation at which it occurred.
Now, other specifics make it a first of its kind, but it’s not the first reality capture endeavor to our planet’s most consequential trade route. In fact, one project, now a decade old, is entrenched as a classic.
In 2014, the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) initiated a study of digital documentation techniques for Pakistan’s architectural heritage. They started with Jaulian, a Buddhist monastery and archaeological complex along the Silk Road that’s between 1,600 and 1,800 years old (lol @ America’s “old” Liberty Bell).
Jaulian was a catalyst for the spread of Buddhism from the Indian subcontinent into Central Asia. Its ruins feature a main stupa and numerous subsidiary structures, all reflecting a blend of Greek, Persian, and Indian architectural influences due to its strategic location along trade routes.
In early 2015, LUMS partnered with CyArk to enhance their preservation efforts. With funding from USAID, they established a Technology Center aimed at digitally documenting heritage sites.
By late 2015, LUMS students had scanned the main stupa and surrounding features at Jaulian. This data was sent to CyArk for processing and archiving. The resulting 3D models provided an accurate base map for monitoring deterioration and informed future conservation strategies.
The project not only documented the architectural features of Jaulian but also highlighted differences between historical and modern restorations. The data is now freely accessible through Open Heritage 3D, promoting education and research. This inspired further digital preservation efforts across Pakistan, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding cultural heritage along the Silk Road.
And to think, how much spice and tea could one fetch by bartering with a point cloud in like 230 A.D.?
Jaulian Project Overview and 360° virtual tour
What’s Cappenin’ This Week: Silk Road scanning, lessons from a Singaporean port twin, Maui’s wildfire rebuild gets a helping hand from survey grants, Helene & Milton recoveries lift off with drones, and an AEC Error of the Week set on a Canadian parking deck.
Mini Cappenins: Suspense over DJI entering 360-cam space, a LiDAR-powered floor-scrubbing robot, a Hexagon digital twin report, radiance fields in a revered NYC garden, a pod on AEC data management, and Nemetschek Group launches an AI layer.
Last week: Jimmy Carter might be elderly but his tech taste is new, a city looks to digital twins for a literal jolt, a drone & droid delivery collab keeps us fuller faster, 19 AI tools make for new architecture, and an AEC Error of the Week that heads to Vegas for a buffet of failures.
Today, only 3% of humans live at or above an elevation of 6,562 feet, which is where an extraordinary discovery was just made thanks to aerial LiDAR: two Silk Road strongholds, lost for centuries, nestled in the mountains of Uzbekistan.
Overseeing the project is Michael Frachetti, a professor of archaeology at the Spatial Analysis, Interpretation and Exploration laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis. Discovering hints of settlements, watchtowers, fortresses, and plazas, the operation is entering the excavation phase quicker than you can say “haggle.”
And the crew is not there to just collect some wares for a shot at Antiques Roadshow, oh no. They’re after who founded these mysterious cities, and why. CNN Science ran with the gripping story linked below, but you can also get academic and take in the paper proper, hosted on Nature.
781 Lahaina homeowners were living in their residences before last year’s catastrophic wildfires claimed them. Today, regardless of whether the owners intend to rebuild or sell the lot, surveys, plans, and permits are required – just not before the often exorbitant upfront costs.
Or rather, were required.
For Lahaina homeowners who resided in their home pre-fire, no-cost lot surveys, plans, and permits, are being provided by The Lahaina Homeowner Recovery Program. Funding originated from a $3 million grant from the Maui Strong Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation (HCF).
Logistics are still being finalized, but the current plan is to contract land surveyors to complete eight to ten semi-contiguous properties at a time to lower costs and optimize the process. Click below for the scoop on a fascinating network effect, and an uplifting story set in an area largely devoid of them, courtesy of IslandNews.
Jurong Port is Singapore’s lone multipurpose one, processing general, containerized, and bulk cargo. The latter kind is often the most elaborate, as it can’t be automated the way the former two can be, and requires focused, agile, hands-on crews.
For decades, that’s been the story at Jurong. But a new character just entered. Its name is JP Glass, it’s a digital twin, and it’s bringing a shipload of data.
Relying on GIS like Captain Phillips relied on those snipers, JP glass is a hub of hubs. Displayed ‘round-the-clock at Jurong Port’s General Cargo Office, it gives a pristine view of operations, detailing incoming cargo, what equipment is needed, available personnel, storage capacity, weather, port traffic, even vessel berth depth.
But just as fascinating as what the twin is doing, is why it became necessary. Climb aboard Esri’s blog below for the port’s history and future expansion, with ample tech talk throughout.
It started before the ‘canes even touched land.
As September closed and residents weighed evacuation routes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) dispatched drones straight into Hurricane Helene for wind, temperature, and pressure readings. It was the unmanneds’ first tour of duty in what would become a profusion of them over proceeding weeks, with different kinds still ongoing.
And a senior center in Marion, North Carolina is a prime beneficiary.
Thanks to the FAA’s temporary approval of BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) missions in the region, Walmart and Wing are delivering prescriptions, food, and other vital products for Marion seniors. It’s one of many case studies comprising a Popular Science piece just published, exploring the airborne heroism, neighborly compassion, and committed companies softening the blow of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
In the quiet town of Elliot Lake, Ontario, the Algo Centre Mall stood as a community hub for over three decades. But on June 23, 2012, it became the site of a tragic structural failure that would shake the foundations of building safety practices across Canada.
At 2:20 pm, a 12m x 24m section of the rooftop parking deck collapsed, sending concrete and metal debris crashing through two floors of the shopping center. The catastrophe claimed two lives and injured over 20 people, leaving a community in mourning and raising serious questions about long-term structural integrity.
The collapse wasn’t a sudden, unpredictable event. Rather, it was the culmination of years of neglect and a cascade of failures in design, maintenance, and oversight. From its opening in 1980, the mall was plagued by leaks. What seemed like a mere inconvenience—buckets catching drips and patchwork ceiling repairs—was actually a harbinger of the disaster to come.
The root cause? A deadly cocktail of water, salt, and steel. The rooftop parking deck, exposed to the harsh Canadian winters, allowed salt-laden water to seep into the building’s structure. Year after year, this corrosive mixture ate away at the steel supports. The waterproof membrane that should have protected these vital components was either improperly installed or absent altogether.
Despite numerous repairs and two full replacements of the expansion joint, the problem persisted. Engineers and inspectors came and went, but the true extent of the corrosion remained hidden—or worse, ignored. Just weeks before the collapse, an engineer declared the structure “sound,” a tragic misjudgment that would have fatal consequences.
The aftermath of the collapse revealed a web of negligence spanning decades. From the initial faulty design to years of inadequate inspections and band-aid solutions, the Algo Centre Mall became a case study in how not to manage a building’s lifecycle.
Reality Capture: A Shield Against Complacency
While we can’t change the past, we can learn from it. Modern reality capture technologies offer powerful tools to prevent such catastrophic oversights – which remain rampant today.
For instance, regular 3D laser scans could have created detailed models of the structure over time, revealing subtle changes and deformations that might escape the naked eye. Structural health monitoring systems could have been employed to provide real-time data on stress levels and material degradation by using sensors embedded in key components. Drone-based inspections would have allowed for safe and thorough examinations of hard-to-reach areas like the problematic rooftop parking deck.
The Algo Centre Mall collapse serves as a somber reminder that buildings are not static entities; they live, breathe, and sometimes fail. As we move forward, integrating reality capture technologies into regular building inspections and maintenance routines isn’t just about staying current—it’s about preventing tragedies and protecting lives.
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