Designing perspectives for the territory among communities, cultural assets and strategies. Two projects regarding cultural policy for the Lombardy Region and the Italian-Swiss border.

The focus on the explorative and uncodified phase of the design process, the capability of innovation, the role of a mediator among external factors, research and new “products” are strong elements of the Advanced Design approach that can be recognised in two experiences of applied research: R.E.I.L. (Register of Intangible Heritage of Lombardy) and E.CH.I. (Ethnographies Italo-Swiss for the valorisation of the intangible heritage of the italian-swiss border). The cultural politics of the public authorites involved have been an opportunity to test the process of "territorial design" as a creative process directed at producing a series of actions oriented to increasing local development. Particular attention has been paid to the intangible cultural heritage as an expression of knowledge and values (symbolic-ritual) of the community that over time has implemented creative strategies for the enhancement of its identity.