Cognitive mapping and map-making: An alternative digital model for the interpretation and presentation of historic urban district

Conventional digital heritage models of historic urban districts often prioritize physical accuracy and official narratives, overlooking the everyday history and the memories of ordinary people. This study proposes an alternative digital model for interpreting and presenting urban heritage. Adopting a Research through Design (RtD) approach, it introduces a dual framework of cognitive mapping and map-making that redefines “authenticity” through local narratives and everyday experiences, presenting heritage as a dynamic interplay of temporal and spatial dimensions. Using the Dongsi Virtual Museum project in Beijing as a case, a Digital Cognitive Twin (DCT) of the historic neighborhood was constructed by integrating its spatial configuration with community memories from archival records and oral histories. Findings show that cognitive mapping inclusively captures the complex, distorted, and multi-layered temporal narratives that span different historical periods of the district, thereby expanding both the concept and representation of authenticity in digital heritage. Theoretically, this study establishes a digital heritage interpretation framework that reconfigures heritage narration, while accommodating memory-based spatial distortion as a traceable design mechanism. Practically, it formalizes a replicable process through design and post-use evaluation. Overall, this study presents a community-centered, narrative-rich model that advances innovative digital methods for heritage interpretation.