Augmenting a historic house: Villa Ciani 3D

摘要

This paper summarizes the main results of a qualitative study of Villa Ciani 3D, an augmented reality project at the historic house Villa Ciani in Lugano, Switzerland. At the moment the building is an empty shell, with a few canvases but without its original furniture. The project, developed in collaboration with the local historic archive and the historic house, allowed visitors to admire images from the archive projected onto glass while being guided on a tour by an actor playing the role of one of the two Ciani brothers, the original owners of the house. Interviews with visitors were collected after the visit and analyzed using grounded theory as the main method of study. On the one hand, the paper highlights the positive impact of the augmented storytelling when visitors explore empty spaces while, on the other, it outlines the limits of using an interaction model that does not allow visitors to interact with each other. The paper includes a more general analysis of the use of augmented reality in historic houses.