Heritage and Matriheritage as Learning Environments: What Design Puts to the Test

Abstract

This preface presents heritage and matriheritage not as fixed legacies but as dynamic processes of transmission, reinterpretation, and collective participation. Drawing on the VIVA framework (Valorize, Imagine, Envision, Learn, and Innovate), it argues that design serves as a powerful means of revealing, mediating, and renewing cultural transmission. Heritage and matriheritage are thus approached as learning environments where memory, creativity, and collective action intersect. Through the contributions gathered in this issue, which draw on case studies from several continents, the volume explores questions of conservation, place reappropriation, recognition of often marginalized knowledge and practices, and the role of digital tools in the transmission of tangible and intangible heritage. The preface also highlights contemporary challenges related to the recognition of matriheritage, the preservation of fragile cultural traces, and the critical use of artificial intelligence. It concludes by proposing a sixth verb to complement the VIVA framework: to contribute, emphasizing collective engagement as a prerequisite for sustaining a living, shared, and continually evolving heritage.