Services | Tohu Heritage
Tohu Heritage New Zealand
Documenting Aotearoa's heritage, so it endures.
Tohu records heritage places in photorealistic 3D and makes them freely accessible to everyone. The work below is how we carry that out, and how it is made possible.
Preservation, not just a record
Heritage places are tohu. They are marks left in the landscape, evidence of the people and stories that shaped Aotearoa, and they can be lost to time, to neglect, and to change. Tohu exists to make those marks permanent: to record heritage places in full detail before they are gone, and to keep them freely accessible to every New Zealander.
That purpose comes first. Everything else on this page exists to serve it.
Immersive 3D documentation
We create detailed, photorealistic 3D models of heritage places that anyone can explore in a browser, on a phone, tablet, or desktop. There is no app to download and nothing to install. Each model becomes a permanent, Aotearoa-hosted public record, with the history of the place woven through it, and it can be explored in virtual and augmented reality.
Clark House in Hobsonville, Auckland, a Heritage New Zealand Category 1 place, is our first published site and a working example of what we do.
Led by those who care for these places
We do not decide which places matter. That knowledge belongs to the communities and institutions who have protected and cared for them for generations. We work alongside iwi and hapū, councils and heritage trusts, and Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga to find where this work can be most valuable.
Documentation of wāhi tapu, marae, and places of significance to Māori is undertaken only at the invitation of mana whenua, and always in partnership with them. They lead the kaupapa and retain ownership of what is created. This is relationship-first work, and it begins with a conversation, not a contract.
For heritage groups without a budget
In this first stage, Tohu's documentation of New Zealand's heritage assets is purely voluntary. The purpose is to put photorealistic 3D visualisation within reach of the local communities who care for these places, at a point when it would otherwise be out of reach entirely, so that access begins with the people closest to the place rather than with whoever can pay for it.
Most heritage places in Aotearoa are looked after by people doing it for love rather than money: volunteer historical societies, small trusts, marae committees, and families who have held onto a building for generations. Very few of them have a budget for documentation.
For them, this work is offered voluntarily. We do not charge community heritage groups, historical societies, or iwi and hapū to record a place. Whether somewhere is documented should not come down to whether its custodians can afford it.
If you look after a heritage place and have no budget for this, that is not a barrier. Get in touch and we will talk about what is possible.
For owners, developers, and consultants
Where documentation is a commercial requirement, we take it on as commissioned work. That includes building owners and developers, and the architects, engineers and conservators who need precise, as-built 3D records for restoration, consent, insurance, or handover. These can be kept in a private viewer or made public, as you prefer.
Commissioned work directly funds the voluntary documentation above, so each project helps extend the free public record of Aotearoa's heritage. Scope and cost are worked out together, project by project.
A living teaching resource
Our work sits where heritage, design, and technology meet. The models themselves are rich, real-world material for study, and the craft of making them is a subject in its own right.
We work with schools, wānanga, polytechnics, and universities to support learning in architecture, surveying, heritage conservation, and digital documentation. That might mean guest teaching and workshops, real 3D heritage models for coursework and research, or hands-on sessions for students. If you teach or research in these fields, we would like to build something together.
Partners and supporters
Public heritage documentation is made possible by those who choose to support it. We welcome partnership with funders, trusts, sponsors, and community organisations who share the kaupapa, whether that means supporting one particular place or the wider mission.
If you fund heritage, cultural, or educational mahi, or would like to see a place in your community recorded and made permanent, we would value a conversation.
Start a conversation
We welcome conversations with custodians, iwi and community groups, councils, researchers, educators, funders, and anyone who believes heritage places deserve to be experienced, not just preserved.
