Reviving and Documenting Architectural Heritage Through Augmented Reality: A New Mobile Interface Experience at the Konya (Türkiye) People’s House

Traditional methods for documenting cultural heritage often remain inadequate for preserving structural data, making it virtually impossible to archive architectural works that no longer survive. This study investigates the use of augmented reality (AR) technology to improve the sustainability of architectural heritage in the digital environment. The former People’s House (Halkevi) building, once located in Konya, Türkiye but no longer standing, was selected as the case study. Drawing on available photographs and historical documents, a 3D model of the building was generated using Autodesk Revit, further refined in 3ds Max, and transferred to an interactive digital platform via AR applications (ARki, Augmentecture, and a custom AR solution developed with Unity 3D + Vuforia). These applications offer an accessible solution for art and architectural historians thanks to their user-friendly interfaces and the fact that they do not require coding knowledge. Among the tested AR platforms, the Unity + Vuforia-based application yielded the most consistent performance, especially in terms of interactivity, visual stability, and environ-mental integration. The findings indicate that augmented reality can serve as a practical tool for the digital documentation of cultural heritage, demonstrating that researchers without advanced technical expertise can effectively utilize these technologies. This study contributes to digital heritage preservation by proposing a simplified AR-based methodology that reduces the need for cross-disciplinary expertise, enabling wider participation of local stakeholders in the documentation and visualization of lost architectural heritage.