Experiencing Distant Cultural Heritage. The Dalai Lama Summer Residence Smart Museum Between (Im)possible Authenticity and Augmented Experience

The problem of getting in touch with distant, dangerous or inaccessible heritage intertwines with design research on engaging interaction to stage a proximity experience. This paper presents the first step towards the Smart Museum of the UNESCO site “Dalai Lama Summer Residence Complex” as a design challenge between architecture and design, distance and proximity, and interaction and body engagement. It starts re-considering the authenticity of the original matter as an essential heritage value and proximity as an essential condition for fruition, so turning the design centrality on Norbulingka memories “smart aesthetics” experience. Then, it defines the role of mixed reality media as the exhibition of hybrid digital materiality purpose, together with the visitor’s augmented experience, setting the latter along a sequence of interactive spaces. Instead of purposing a questionable replica of the existing one, this case study relies on a rêverie-linked concept. Multisensorial inputs, smart replicas, spatial simulacra, gesture-based interaction, and insight moments aim to define a multi-sensorial experience based on memories and values of the Norbulingka.