Design for Cultural Heritage

The lecture is focused on the definition of Design for cultural heritage as a “new” important field of the design discipline. The design approach is oriented to processes and methods coherent with the complexity of the cultural heritage system; it includes works of art, demo-anthropological assets, architectural works, cities and landscapes and also intangible assets as knowledge, rituals and cultural identities. In this perspective we can recognize several inter-disciplinary lines in terms of the design theory (humanities, art, critics, semiotics...), design practices (exhibition design, communication design, lighting design, product-service design for culture...) and innovative systems to transmission, valorisation and reactivation of the cultural heritage through integrative and sustainable actions able to create new forms of cultural heritage value. Design for cultural heritage also deals with activities of documentation, digitalization and conception of new models of archives, museums and new paradigms of cultural experience. This presentation also aims to analyze the relationship among design, communication registers and narratives in the cultural experience for cities and museums. In this perspective it is important the multilevel meaning of cultural heritage (tangible and intangible) that acquires several dimensions: historical&artistic, economic&touristic, social&relational, aesthetic&symbolic. The lecture mentions some research and projects developed by the research team DeCH-Design for Cultural heritage of the department of Design at Politecnico di Milano. In collaboration with CNR Pisa (Dr. Roberto Scopigno)