This augmented reality experience brings visitors to the Bataan Provincial Hospital during the Bataan Campaign (January to April 1942), when the building functioned as a frontline war hospital under extreme wartime conditions.

The original structure no longer exists. Today, the site is occupied by the Bataan General Hospital and Medical Center. Instead of reconstructing the hospital in its original location, the experience is accessed through a scanned archival photograph, allowing the building to reappear in a new setting.

Through AR, visitors can approach, observe, and engage with a space that once operated at the center of wartime medical care in Bataan.

Built in November 1941, the hospital was originally intended as a modern public health facility. Within weeks, it was transformed by war.

During the Bataan Campaign, the hospital became a critical site for treating wounded soldiers and civilians. It did not simply exist during history. It participated in it, operating under pressure as casualties and disease overwhelmed limited medical resources (City of Balanga Historical Committee, 2018; Condon Rall & Cowdrey, 1998).

Architecturally, the building reflects a tropical adaptation of neoclassical design. Its symmetrical façade and central entrance establish a sense of institutional order, while covered walkways and open corridors provide ventilation and shade (Duque, 2011; Hines, 1972).

These features were not decorative. They were designed to:

• improve airflow

• reduce infection

• manage movement

During wartime, this design became essential in supporting care within a hot, disease prone environment.

Visitors begin outside the hospital, facing its façade.

As they move closer toward the entrance, the experience simulates arrival. The building gradually increases in scale, reinforcing presence and immersion.

At the threshold, visitors are not fully admitted. Instead, they are allowed to look inside, where an archival image reveals the operating room in use.

This restricted access reflects the controlled nature of hospital spaces while maintaining the perspective of a visitor observing a wartime medical environment.

The hospital is modeled as a low poly structure optimized for mobile AR.

The façade is based on archival photographs and treated as a high confidence reconstruction. Architectural details are conveyed through textures rather than full geometric modeling.

The interior was not reconstructed due to lack of documentation. Instead, an archival photograph is embedded within the experience.

This approach follows a clear principle:
only what is documented is reconstructed.

The hospital is presented not as a static building, but as an active wartime environment.

Subtle environmental details suggest continuous movement:

• military trucks delivering the wounded

• wheel tracks across bare ground

• supply equipment and containers

These elements reflect historical conditions where hospitals functioned within a broader system of evacuation and care. Treatment was often limited to stabilization, while disease affected large numbers of patients (Condon Rall & Cowdrey, 1998).

The result is a space shaped by urgency, scarcity, and continuous movement.

No interior modeling was attempted due to insufficient evidence.

Although the hospital was reportedly damaged during the war, no speculative reconstruction of destruction is included.

These decisions prioritize historical accuracy over visual completeness.

Within the context of Mount Samat National Shrine, the hospital offers a different perspective on war.

While monuments commemorate sacrifice, this site represents the effort to preserve life.

Through AR, the hospital is reintroduced not only as a structure, but as a lived wartime environment shaped by architecture, disease, and human resilience.

City of Balanga Historical Committee. (2018). Balanga encyclopedia.

Condon Rall, M. E., & Cowdrey, A. E. (1998). Medical service in the war against Japan. U.S. Army Center of Military History.

Duque, E. (2011). Modern tropical architecture: Medicalisation of space in early twentieth century Philippines. Journal of Architecture, 16(5), 707–725.

Hines, T. S. (1972). The imperial facade: Daniel H. Burnham and American architectural planning in the Philippines. Pacific Historical Review, 41(1), 33–53.