In this project, di8IT Collective Studio in collaboration with Malaysian IT Society (MITS) use Light Detecting and Ranging Technology (LiDAR) to document Zahir Mosque, and the digital replica of the mosque was created using point cloud data. Zahir Mosque is the state mosque of Kedah. Built in 1912, it is one of the oldest mosques in Malaysia. Therefore, preservation of the mosque in the form of digital replica is crucial – we owe it to the future generations to digitally preserve important historical buildings as a measure to protect our heritage from unexpected natural or human-made disasters. LiDAR data of Zahir Mosque is made accessible to the public.

Using LiDAR as a form of digital heritage buildings documentation and preservation is not widespread in Malaysia. A research group from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, has documented Porta de Santiago, A’Famosa using LiDAR (Wei et al., 2010). Meanwhile, researchers from International Islamic University Malaysia have used LiDAR to document parts of Alor Setar and Kota Bharu and some of the Malay historical buildings’ facades in the two cities (Abdullah et al., 2020). Although the findings from the two research are reported in academic papers, the LiDAR data of the historical buildings are not available to the public. Whilst academic papers are useful for researchers and academics, it is not a form of knowledge dissemination that can reach a wider public.