Preserving Culture Through Immersive Technology: How VR and Digital Twins Are Transforming Heritage

To ensure the profound stories of Holocaust survivors continue to resonate with future generations, we collaborated closely with Holocaust Educational Trust to create Testimony360 – an immersive, interactive archive of survivor testimonies and artefacts. Focused on faithfully preserving the experiences of two Holocaust survivors, Manfred and Susan, this project enables users to step into recreated environments and hear firsthand accounts in a format that resonates with younger, tech-savvy audiences thanks to the use of VR and photogrammetry.
We were honoured to learn that the project won the 2025 Charity Awards in the Education and Training category – a recognition that underscores the power of immersive storytelling to preserve voices that might otherwise be lost. Testimony360 stands as a compelling example of how emerging technologies can make history accessible, meaningful, and unforgettable.

Commissioned at the end of World War I, the Hall of Remembrance was designed to honour the fallen through art. But the building was never constructed – until now. Using original architectural sketches and plans, our team of artists and modellers digitally reconstructed the Hall as a 360° virtual experience.

This immersive reimagining allows global audiences to explore a space that never physically existed, learning more about the paintings that were never actually displayed in their intended environment. It’s a striking example of how virtual storytelling can reclaim and revive lost heritage, making it accessible regardless of location or physical limitations.

As part of a rejuvenation project at Ness Point, the UK’s most easterly location, we worked closely with East Suffolk Council to create an augmented reality app that transformed the area into a rich, interactive journey through Lowestoft’s past.

Through 3D scenes, animated stories, and voice-narrated content triggered via interpretation boards, visitors could explore the town’s maritime history, experience its heritage, and connect with the landscape – all through a simple app on their phone. The app demonstrated the power of augmented reality to turn public spaces into living history lessons.

Immersive technology is also transforming how cultural institutions preserve and share their collections. At the Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia, we used Matterport 3D scanning to archive exhibitions in rich digital detail – extending their educational reach beyond the gallery and future-proofing world-class collections.
We also applied the same technology at Kadi Kalesi, a historic archaeological site in Turkey. Now preserved as a digital twin, the site can be explored in high fidelity from anywhere in the world, supporting archaeological research, education, and global accessibility.

Looking beyond heritage institutions, we use immersive innovation to bring legacy brands to life. For the launch of its BT62 hypercar, we created a VR experience for Brabham Automotive to transport guests to a virtual Grand Prix pit garage. There, visitors could stand beside the iconic F1 car that inspired the BT62’s design – a moment impossible to recreate in a traditional event space.
This high-impact experience allowed guests to connect emotionally with Brabham’s storied racing legacy, blending cutting-edge technology with deep brand storytelling.

Immersive preservation is evolving fast, and we’re embracing new technologies to push its boundaries. AI now helps us reconstruct lost details and generate realistic environments from incomplete data. Mixed Reality (MR) lets us blend physical and digital sites, while shared virtual spaces allow people across the globe to explore together in real-time.
These advancements open up new opportunities for collaborative, interdisciplinary storytelling, where historians, technologists, curators, and communities co-create experiences that are rich, accurate, and accessible. And this is just the beginning.
From digitising collections to recreating lost spaces, immersive tools are helping us do more than just document the past – they invite people to step inside it.