Renovating the British Museum for the Mixed Reality to Enhance Storytelling

Abstract

Throughout history, museums have evolved from private collections to public institutions for education and participation. Contemporarily, museums face critical shifts toward inclusivity, equality, and sustainability, while integrating digital innovations such as Mixed Reality (XR). Concurrently, XR continues to expand its influence across industries through advanced headsets, sensors, and machine learning, prompting architectural inquiry: How can physical spaces adapt to foster seamless integration with the digital realm? Specifically, for museums, how can spatial design enhance mixed-reality engagement and storytelling for immersive visitor experiences? How can architectural practices recontextualize spatial computing, bridging historical narratives and future applications? In 2024, the British Museum initiated a competition to renovate its Western Range, marking 200 years since its original construction. This iconic institution houses artifacts representing global civilizations, including Egyptian, Greek, and Roman legacies, yet these artifacts exist as fragments detached from their native contexts. Current museum spaces and settings often abstract these narratives, limiting the depth of visitor engagement. My design thesis reimagines the British Museum’s Western Range by using XR technology to blend the digital with the physical, reconnecting artifacts with their original cultural contexts. Employing spatial computing in design, the project revitalizes museum spaces for the digital age. The proposed design is a renovated museum prototype concerning materiality, spatial sequence, storytelling, and most importantly, mixed realities. It emphasizes inclusion through personalized immersive experiences, addresses environmental concerns via digital dematerialization, and contributes to the architectural discourse by demonstrating adaptive solutions for historical spaces in the era of spatial computing.