Today the discourse about cultural heritage and local patrimony is at the centre of a variety of public and private activities about design and fashion. While the organization of events such as “Le Journées Européene du Patrimoine” are including fashion houses and ateliers, the concept of ‘heritage’ has been recently employed in new and sometimes controversial manner by private and public institutions. In this sense, UNESCO is not only representing an institution setting values and criteria for a definition of tangible and intangible heritage, but it has began today to rethink the boundaries and responsibilities about what it has been defined as ‘heritage in progress’. This course explores this field looking at the intersections between the current discourse on heritage, patrimony and memory – with a particular attention on its relation with design and fashion. Starting from UNESCO’s definition and activities on cultural heritage, students will investigate the tensions between the idea of heritage and patrimony, hierarchies and power in the identification of heritage, and the use of national, regional and city identity in the construction of personal and collective memories. More specifically, the course will interrogate the idea of heritage of fashion, design and material culture in its multiple forms: from geographies and urban sites to everyday life objects and remains, from oral testimony to memorials and post-industrial landscapes. The course will consist of seminar based lectures, visits and lectures by experts in the field.