Merchandising as a Strategic Tool to Enhance and Spread Intangible Values of Cultural Resources

Doriana Dal Palù, Beatrice Lerma, Marco Bozzola and Claudia De Giorgi
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Doriana Dal Palù: Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino, Viale Mattioli 39, 10125 Torino, Italy
Beatrice Lerma: Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino, Viale Mattioli 39, 10125 Torino, Italy
Marco Bozzola: Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino, Viale Mattioli 39, 10125 Torino, Italy
Claudia De Giorgi: Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino, Viale Mattioli 39, 10125 Torino, Italy

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-23

Abstract: The design of cultural and environmental goods can aim at valorising both material and immaterial cultural heritage at different scales. Specifically, the merchandising product, which is often the victim of production stereotypes, can instead collaborate with a disruptive force in the construction of the non-ephemeral “sense” of a visit. It is, in fact, able to spread complex contents in scientifically correct and comprehensible ways for different targets, condensing the immaterial patrimony into (small) new, low-cost and rich-in-meaning artefacts. This case study, proposed as evidence of such an approach, pertains to a research and teaching activity that was developed in 2017 with 230 university students of design, with the aim of setting up a collection of dedicated merchandising products for a regional talc mine Ecomuseum. The challenge involved narrating the material culture of the location through products that were philologically coherent with the context, but new from the language, functionality, productivity, user involvement and economic accessibility points of view. The resulting projects are, at present, being screened by the Ecomuseum in order to select the most significant for future production. In conclusion, the activity was shown to be potentially scalable and repeatable in other contexts, in which design can valorise an intangible heritage of immense value through products that, inserted into a more extensive strategy of valorisation of the cultural heritage, are within the reach of all.

Keywords: cultural heritage; design methodology; design scales and levels; ecomuseum; intangible heritage; material culture; museum merchandising; product design; talc mine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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