In Overschild, Netherlands, artist and documentarian Gus Drake was working against a change that could not be reversed. Around 80% of homes in the village core have been condemned for demolition following earthquake damage associated with gas extraction. Some of the homes he documented were as much as 150 years old. 

His project, Corridors of Memory, asked what could still be preserved when the buildings themselves could not. The resulting virtual reality artwork was developed for the Groninger Museum and exhibited there through August 23, 2026. 

“It is the memories of your home, the memories of your parents, the memories...” 

Drake’s answer was not to create a conventional architectural record. He combined years of documentary research with 3D scanning, digital processing, sound, and virtual reality to preserve homes as spaces that could still be encountered after physical change. Drake explains that workflow in detail in his video:

Recording homes before they vanished

Drake had already spent years listening to residents and tracing the community’s experiences when he began capturing the buildings themselves. Some of the homes he scanned were 150 years old. The practical problem was irreversible: once a house was demolished, its rooms and spatial relationships could no longer be recorded in place.

“I would go to Overschild with the FJD Trion S2, making scans of the homes—some of which are 150 years old—before they vanished.”

The  The FJD Trion S2 Series LiDAR Scanner ( ) entered the project at that point. LiDAR uses laser measurements to record the shape of a space. As Drake moved through the homes and village, the S2 created a detailed 3D digital record made from spatial data points. Across the project, the village scans captured 1.2 billion points.

For Drake, those measurements were not the finished artwork. They were a way to retain the architecture that gave the memories a physical setting.

“FJD Trion allows me to map those architectural blueprints and explore the tension between memory and homes—not as static representations of brick and mortar, but as living archives of memories.”

Processing the scans into material an artist could work with

Capturing the homes was only the beginning. Drake then needed to turn large raw scan datasets into material he could manage, combine, and carry into the creative stage of the project.

“I would then process the E57 point-cloud scans inside FJD Trion’s proprietary software, subsampling the point clouds and stitching some together from scans I made both during the day and during the night.”

That processing step centered on FJD Trion Model, FJD Trion’s point-cloud processing software. In this workflow, Drake used the software after scanning to reduce and combine the captured datasets before passing them farther into his production pipeline. FJD Trion Model is designed for processing and managing point-cloud data, including data produced by FJD Trion scanners. 

For a preservation project, that step is important because a scan is only useful if the resulting digital record can be organized and prepared for what comes next. Drake’s processed data became the source material for the VR artwork rather than remaining an isolated technical capture.

“I would then integrate all of those scans inside Unreal Engine 5, from which the exciting part starts: transitioning from the technical into the creative, conceptual side.”

The creative software came later. The FJD Trion workflow had already done the preservation work of capturing the spaces and preparing that reality-based material for reuse.

Digital preservation gives a disappearing place another form

The practical value of Drake’s workflow is clearest when the physical and digital versions of Overschild begin to separate.

A demolished home cannot be entered again in its original state. A sufficiently detailed digital record, however, can continue to be viewed, processed, archived, and incorporated into future interpretation. In Corridors of Memory, those records became part of a VR museum experience rather than simply a collection of measurements.

“When I look at Overschild, I see a village disappearing, but I also see a mirror—a reflection of all the places in the world where unchecked power hollows out the land and the lives on it.”

That is where digital preservation becomes more than documentation. The same captured spatial record can support an artist, museum, archive, heritage team, or researcher long after the original capture window has closed. In Drake’s case, the work moved from threatened homes in Overschild into a museum exhibition and archival context, giving the spaces a continued cultural presence even as the village itself changed.

“This project asked me to listen to the people who live and have lived there, and to the landscape itself—its scars, its silence.”

The technology did not preserve the village by freezing it in time. It preserved usable evidence of what was there, creating material that could continue to carry memory, interpretation, and cultural history forward.

Preserve a place before physical change closes the window 

For artists, documentarians, heritage teams, and cultural institutions working with buildings or landscapes that may soon change or disappear, Drake’s process offers a practical starting point: capture the space while access still exists, then decide how that record can serve the story. 

Explore the FJD Trion S2 Series LiDAR Scanner ) for reality-capture workflows.