Persepolis Reimagined

Concept

The Getty Museum transforms a dusty archaeological site into a living metropolis by reconstructing Persepolis as it stood in 520 BCE and 2025 CE.

Two timeline toggles — Ceremonial Glow and Ruins Today — frame the experience as a dialogue between past grandeur and present remains, bridging scholarship and public wonder.

Visual Language & Motion

The first view loads a sunrise-lit citadel rendered in real-time WebGL: golden stone, lapis inlays and standard-bearer reliefs glint under dynamic HDRI lighting.

A click gently orbits the throne room; hotspots pulse in royal turquoise, revealing animated vignettes—torches ignite, processions breathe, textiles flutter at 60 fps.

Type hierarchies echo Achaemenid inscriptions: condensed uppercase headings meet serif Persian sub-copy, while a sand-textured background mimics tablet clay.

UX & Performance

Despite a 200 MB asset budget, geometry streams in fragments via Draco compression and `requestAnimationFrame` throttling, keeping LCP ≈ 1.3 s on desktop, 2.0 s on mobile.

Screen-reader labels on every hotspot, keyboard panning and an optional text-only mode ensure the tour remains accessible.

`prefers-reduced-motion` swaps fly-throughs for cross-fade stills, preserving context without triggering vestibular discomfort.

Takeaway

“Persepolis Reimagined” shows how museums can graduate from slide decks to sensorial time-machines: rigorous scholarship wrapped in AAA-grade visuals, delivered without plugins.

For designers it is a masterclass in harmonising storytelling, cultural respect and GPU-heavy spectacle—all within a browser tab.