The main aim of the project is to create a 3D modelling into the www environment of the town of Viipuri as it was in September 1939 when it was still a Finnish town. The source material used is the intendant Juha Lankinen's town plans and elevations of each block of the centre of Viipuri. He has created these for a scale model of Viipuri. Other sources include photographs from his collection. The scale model of Viipuri, designed by Juha Lankinen, consists of over 3500 buildings and is located in the South-Karelia Museum in Lappeenranta. A topography map was created for the scale model showing the altitude contours, the town plan, facades of the buildings, cutaways as well charts showing the colours of the buildings. The drawings, about 1400 of them, are done on a scale of 1:500. There are also thousands of photographs and video material available of the town.
The aim is to teach the students how to do 3D modelling, as product modelling during the different stages of the construction process is used more and more often. Another aim is to create an operations model of a process used to store historically and culturally significant construction information in an electronic format using 3D modelling. The information is stored so it can be used in the future. From his treasure chest of Viipuri history, intendant Juha Lankinen has searched the historical data of each building to be put on the web-site.
The 3D modelling work is published in the Internet. The final goal is to have a town where users can move in the street level, with items closer to the user appearing in more detail. There should be life in the VirtualViipuri in the form of moving people, cars, trams etc. The implementation period of the project is used to examine free movement within the town.
The project is a development project of research, development and teaching where the nature of research is applicable research. The development part is the research based practical implementation carried out by students in Tampere University of Applied Sciences.
The teaching part includes the student participation in modelling the VirtualViipuri within the context of project work, final theses and guided practical training.
The feasibility study was made in 2003. The implementation period of the first part of the project is 2004-2011, based on the cost estimate made and the success of student recruiting.