RE.B.U.S

RE.B.U.S aims to redefine the notion of the museum through responsive and behavioral design. The aim is to reconnect the space, the exhibits and the atmosphere of the museum with the visitors so that they become a part of this environment. The space and the exhibits narrate their story to the visitors through their interaction with them; which leads to immersion into the museum experience.

Our project is about an existing museum of folklore cultural heritage in Xanthi, Greece that is enriched with responsive and behavioral traits, so that the visitors perceive the space and the exhibits as an entity. Visitors’ choices play a decisive role in the experience they will have, as they are called upon to discover the stories that the space has to tell.

Overall, this thesis seeks for a framework on which we can rely to design experience and atmosphere and to create responsive and behavioral spaces, and how current designers are called upon to promote cultural heritage with the help of new digital technologies.

The Concept

Re.B.U.S. is a puzzle with images and letters But Re.B.U.S. is also a Responsive and Behavioral mUseum Space. We design a museum space where the relations between space, subject and object are redifined, while many different elements create an ensemble of atmospheres that effects our senses and create new experiences for the user.

[Responsive and Behavioral] mUseum Space

A space that thinks, acts and feels. That interacts with the user and his environment. A space that enhances our senses and creates situations and experiences. That interconnects harmonically with all the elements that surrounds it; the objects, the users, the environment. A living organism that seeks the interaction with the environment and, by extension, with us. The design of such space focuses more on intangible aspects like the atmosphere, the experience, the ambience and the behavior.

Responsive and Behavioral [mUseum Space]

A museum space tells stories. Also, it creates experiences. However, the exhibits of a museum are objects, they gain life from the subject’s glare. But how it would be if the objects of a museum would become things again? If the space around them becomes again their environment? And how it would be if this space was trying to communicate with the viewer as if he narrates the story of his life?

The Space

We choose to focus on an existing space, and even more, an existing museum, the Folklore Museum of Xanthi. It is located in the Old Town of Xanthi, on Antika str. 7. It used to function as two twin houses that belonged to Kougioumtzoglou, a tobacco merchant that lived in Xanthi on the 19th century.

Until today, the building is well preserved in its original condition, thus it has an atmosphere of a different era. Is a living organism that connects the past with the present.

We want to preserve this unique atmosphere of the building, and even so the exhibits of the museum that are mostly furnitures and objects of everyday life, to immerse in their initial environment again and become things.

One who enters the museum will feel that he is tranfered to a different era, that the space and the objects are creating a whole. In that way, the user is tranferred in a different period of time where he lets the space around him to guide him.

The Context

We divide our intervention into 4 levels:

4th level: Interaction The one of the interaction and the behavior of the space. The objects and the space respond to the user, and even more some objects become behavioral and give the impression of a living and sensing organism.

3rd level: Atmosphere This comes to unify the previous two levels with the house itself as a space. In order to create an extraordinary experience the user is being put as the agent; resembling principles of escape rooms or horror houses.

2nd level: Intangible Tradition During our research we realized that an important thing of a city’s culture that is missing from other folklore museums is the part of the intangible traditions, like music, morals and customs. So, we enhance our experience with sounds and music of 19th and 20th century.

1st level: Memory and History We studied the history of the city and the house as well as important moments of Greece and Thrace, and we signified the moments that are most linked with the rooms and the objects of the house.

The Technologies

We use monitors for sound, movement and touch. Smart Environment and IoT technologies. Projection screens and small drone cameras. Project Mapping, Augmented and Mixed Reality. Earthquake effects and changes of temperature. Behavioral materials such as heat and water sensitive paper. On parallel, we create an app for notifying, informing and locating the user through his visit. However, all together create the impression that the space is alive and is communicating with us.

The Experience

We created a series of videos showing in first person the experience that someone will have in the Re.B.U.S.

The Website

But experience cannot be described thus, we created a website that lets you discover and explore the space, which you can find here: RE.B.U.S | THE GAME [GR]