A first person augmented reality reconstruction of a traditional casco boat along the Pasig River, exploring how movement, labour, trade, and everyday passage can be re experienced through situated digital heritage. Drawing from archival photographs, historical references, and interpretive reconstruction, the project reintroduces a riverine environment that once shaped mobility and exchange in 19th century Manila.

The project reconstructs movement through immersive heritage, allowing contemporary audiences to encounter the Pasig River not simply as landscape, but as an active transport system shaped by labour, commerce, and colonial history.

Set in 1899, the reconstruction draws from archival photographs documenting the Pasig River at San Pedro Macati during the Philippine American War. The river connected Manila to nearby settlements and Laguna de Bay, functioning as a major corridor for transport, trade, and daily passage.

Casco boats carried goods, workers, and passengers through the Pasig River system, moving between Manila and nearby settlements along routes shaped by trade, labour, and everyday movement. Earthenware jars filled with fermented vinegar, agricultural products, and construction materials moved alongside people whose lives depended on the river as a working environment.

During the Philippine American War, the Pasig River also became part of a colonial transport network used for military movement and logistical control. Historical photographs and reports document casco boats carrying American troops toward Laguna de Bay, revealing how infrastructures of everyday livelihood could also become routes of occupation and conflict. Rather than reconstructing these moments directly, the project acknowledges them through contextual overlays and archival references embedded within the experience.

Today, much of this riverine system is no longer directly visible within the urban landscape. Reconstruction becomes a way of re engaging with forms of movement, labour, and everyday life that have gradually receded from public memory.

Ambient river sound extends the experience beyond visual reconstruction. A subtle on screen prompt encourages viewers to enable audio, allowing environmental sound to reinforce the sensation of travelling through the river landscape.

Rather than presenting a definitive replica, the reconstruction is framed as a mediated interpretation shaped by historical evidence, technical limitations, and contemporary design decisions.

Scale was approximated using historical references and adjusted to align with the proportions of the archival image. The vessel, river surface, and surrounding landscape were designed as a unified immersive environment rather than isolated objects.

To support WebAR performance across mobile devices, the model was optimized through reduced polygon counts and compressed textures. Instead of fully simulating physical movement, motion is suggested through looping water textures, environmental sound, and gradual spatial transition.

Certain aspects of the vessel, particularly the covered interior and spatial proportions, remain interpretive due to limited surviving documentation. Documentation of sources and reconstruction decisions forms part of the project’s broader commitment to transparency within immersive heritage reconstruction.

The project uses a first person perspective to create a stronger sense of immersion and spatial presence. Research in immersive media suggests that embodied viewpoints can influence historical perception by allowing users to respond to reconstructed environments as situated participants rather than detached observers (Slater, 2009).

Within the casco, the viewer encounters the river not simply as scenery, but as an inhabited environment shaped by labour, movement, and mediated historical reconstruction. The archival image itself becomes part of the reconstructed environment, extending beyond the physical marker into a broader spatial experience.

This approach positions the viewer inside an active transport system where historical space is encountered through movement, sound, and perspective rather than observation alone.

The reconstruction balances historical reference with interpretive reconstruction. Some details, particularly the interior arrangement of the vessel and aspects of the surrounding river environment, required approximation due to limited surviving documentation.

Historical references to casco boats transporting American troops during the Philippine American War are acknowledged through contextual overlays rather than explicit reenactment (U.S. War Department, 1899). This decision reflects a commitment to transparency while avoiding speculative visual reconstruction.

The project does not attempt to recover an untouched or fully authentic past. Instead, it approaches historical reconstruction as a form of mediation, where archival evidence, technological constraints, and contemporary interpretation collectively shape how the river is encountered in the present.

Today, much of the Pasig River’s historical transport culture is no longer directly visible within the urban landscape. By placing the viewer inside a moving river environment, the project reconnects contemporary audiences with forms of labour, mobility, and everyday passage that once shaped life along the river but have gradually receded from public memory.

Rather than presenting history as static imagery, the project explores how interactive cultural heritage experiences can restore spatial and sensory relationships between people and historical environments. Through virtual heritage and immersive storytelling, the reconstruction reframes the Pasig River as a lived system of movement, exchange, and contested historical memory.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. (1899). The Pasig River at San Pedro Macati, Philippine Islands [Photographic print]. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98507039/

Pâris, E. (1841). Casco, bateau de transport de Manille. In Essai sur la construction navale des peuples extra-européens : ou, Collection des navires et pirogues construits par les habitants de l'Asie, de la Malaisie, du Grand Océan et de l'Amérique (Pl. 72). Paris: Arthus Bertrand. https://archive.org/details/essaisurlaconstr02pris/page/n153/mode/2up

Slater, M. (2009). Place illusion and plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive virtual environments. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1535), 3549–3557. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2781884/pdf/rstb20090138.pdf

Strohmeyer, & Wyman. (1899). Pasig river boats, carrying U.S. soldiers to “Laguna de Bay,” Philippine Islands [Stereograph]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2023636579/

The London Charter. (2009, February). The London Charter for the Computer based Visualisation of Cultural Heritage (Ver. 2.1). londoncharter.org. https://www.london-charter.org/fileadmin/templates/main/docs/london_charter_2_1_en.pdf

U.S. War Department. (1899). Annual reports of the War Department for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1899. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16021coll6/id/1644/