De Duno

A conceptual installation exploring the history of the lost country house De Duno in Gelderland. Combining a physical maquette, archival animation, and an augmented reality prototype, the project reimagined the historic hotel and made its presence visible once more.

I developed the concept, designed the maquette, produced the animations, and developed the AR prototype.

Situated in Gelderland, the Netherlands, the Duno estate overlooks the Nederrijn and its floodplains. Once the site of the grand country house De Duno, only traces of the building remain today—the outlines of its foundations and fragments of its entrance stones. In 2018, the contours of the house were marked out again, and the original terrace was rebuilt on its historic location.

Having grown up in nearby Heveadorp, I have always been fascinated by the history of this estate and curious about what it must have been like to experience the hotel in its prime. For a personal project during my master’s studies, I chose to reimagine De Duno and bring its story to life through a concept installation.

The design combined a physical maquette of the building’s contours with animations of old maps and photographs. To enhance interaction, I incorporated an augmented reality layer: visitors could scan a QR code and view a 3D model of the hotel, positioned directly on the maquette to align with the historic foundations. While not developed into a fully realized installation, this project served as a conceptual exploration of how digital and physical media can be combined to visualize lost heritage.