The Digital Urban Experience of a Lost City

Abstract

This paper digitally reconstructs street life in Edo (present-day Tokyo), the largest lost city of the pre-modern world. The ephemeral character of the Edo makes the historic urban experience extremely difficult to capture. We argue that the hypothetical digital reconstructions should incorporate evidence on human agency and spatial properties for a holistic simulation of historic street life. We develop a 3D hypothetical reconstruction based on multi-layered historical evidence to unlock the lost character of the Edo streets. It reveals the streets of Edo, including the rhythms of everyday life and the impact of the material culture.

Keywords

• 3D modelling. Digital past. Everyday life. Pre-modern Japan. Space-use. Streetscape. Urban history. Virtual reconstruction